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i live very rurally, and my response is of course very different than if i lived in a city (which i did for half my life). around here, anarchist affinities will always be limited, but rural folks - especially poor ones - tend to know how to survive in their environment. mutual aid is, by and large, a simple fact of life when you live out in the boonies. sure, interpersonal bullshit happens everywhere. but i'd most definitely rather be here during a real collapse, than in any city.

for most people, i would think, political affinities (and all group identities - which most ideological affinities become over time) will fade to the background when forced to directly deal with their own survival (and that of their loved ones) rather than the typical mental masturbation of how to create some perfect (anarchist) "society" where the continuation of mass society, consent and using the right words are the paramount concerns.

if this virus does in fact expand to become the kind of threat that many of us have been hoping for for decades, then i guess we'll see how folks behave when the chips are down. i think it makes sense to have loose networks of individual affinities where that is possible. if someone's political persuasion is a serious factor in how one chooses those affinities in hardcore survival situations, then good luck with that. i personally couldn't give a shit if someone 3 miles down the road voted for trump. my only concern would be: how much will they be willing to help me out, and vice versa, when the shit goes down. should we both survive, and they attempt to recreate a political body or situation, they will at that point be my enemy. that would be the case for a bernie voter just as well as any self-proclaimed anarchist.

here's to a more fundamental collapse than a few thousand stock market points!!!!