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>"In the very near future when climate change has destroyed out planet" Maybe people are killing themselves because they are addicted to the fear porn spread b

by nonbel 8y ago

>"In the very near future when climate change has destroyed out planet" Maybe people are killing themselves because they are addicted to the fear porn spread by mainstream/social media regarding "climate change". I don't mean this as a joke, I was addicted to financial/economic fear porn for a bit and it did have a negative effect on my outlook.

MichaelApproved 8y ago
While our media does abuse fear as a way of getting attention, the opioid epidemic has direct lines to pharmaceutical companies. People dying from their addiction aren't killing themselves, they are struggling to survive.
andrepd 8y ago
Climate change is on track to cause catastrophic damage in the next few decades AND there is no indication of anything being seriously done about this. In other words, a train is barrelling and, crucially, there are no signs of anyone intending to stop it. Yeah, I think it's justified to be scared.
- nonbel 8y ago
  There was just a recent discussion here about this and every time I asked for sources and then checked that is not what was found in the primary sources. The catastrophic outlook is created by a few people and amplified by the media as clickbait, not any sort of scientific consensus or track record of successful predictions. You can go through my recent post history to find it.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- ethbro 8y ago
  I believe the parent's point was not about the veracity of climate change, but rather the impact of constant exposure to fear. Herbert's quip that "Fear is the mind killer" is apt. Research (has hit the HN front page several times) bears out the fact that constant exposure to stress decreases IQ. Ergo, the first step to most effectively combating anything is to accept it, but NOT give in to fear and despair. Climate change is real. We are not doing enough to counteract it. But we can.
francisofascii 8y ago
Economic collapse and climate change are very different. Climate change news does not evoke the emotion of fear, but rather emotions of disappointment, lament, and anger.
- nonbel 8y ago
  If you think the economic system is scammy, but most people just won't listen, you will experience the exact same emotions you list. So I have to disagree.
soundwave106 8y ago
The main "fear porn" here that I think relates, and it's more of a tangent than any direct connection, is the propaganda associated with the War On Drugs, just as a comparison to the realities of the opioid epidemic. Some of the issues that were associated with various illegal drug epidemics were legitimate (particularly addictive substances that had the potential to destroy your health like heroin and cocaine), but the propaganda ended up being a moral panic implemented for sometimes questionable (possibly tribalism oriented) reasons, where a few substances (some of them, like cannabis, being relatively harmless) ended up getting demonized, a way-too-high amount of Americans got arrested for trifles as a result, and so forth. Ironically a large portion of the drugs in this epidemic were not in this much demonized category. Back on topic, the "messaging" here that directly relates, as far as the opioid epidemic goes, is the opposite: the lax regulation of the marketing for prescription drugs. Purdue Pharmaceutical was allowed to engage in a lot of aggressive marketing courting physicians with plenty of symposiums and swag. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2622774/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2622774/) The marketing hugely downplayed the addiction potential of Oxycontin, over-promoting the use cases and underplaying risk. (Along the way you get some IMHO absurd swag like an Oxycontin-sponsored 50s swing music compilation -- https://www.reddit.com/r/SwingDancing/comments/593xof/til_that_purdue_pharma_sponsoredgave_away_swing/ https://www.reddit.com/r/SwingDancing/comments/593xof/til_th... -- I mean, what?) This helped contribute to the opioid over-prescription problem. Sober, fact based analysis -- present in neither of the above scenarios -- unfortunately is in short supply these days. Personally, I haven't seen the sort of aggressive marketing you see in America for prescription drugs in any other country -- at least, I don't recall seeing the sort of direct-to-consumer prescription ads anywhere else, (I was able to find articles that said DTCA is quite restricted in Europe --https://www.pharmafield.co.uk/in_depth/pharmaceutical-direct-to-consumer-advertising-in-europe/ https://www.pharmafield.co.uk/in_depth/pharmaceutical-direct...). I think pharmacy-to-physician marketing is still allowed in most places, but the above shows that work needs to be done to ensure that this marketing also is sober and fact based. Even physicians can be persuaded by "marketing swag". (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5623540/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5623540/)
- nonbel 8y ago
  Not that I consider the "war on drugs" to be valid in any way, but I haven't seen anything involved with it that is in the same category as the genre of "news" I am talking about: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Fear%20Porn https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Fear%20Porn https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=doom+porn https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=doom+porn

by nonbel 8y ago

MichaelApproved 8y ago

While our media does abuse fear as a way of getting attention, the opioid epidemic has direct lines to pharmaceutical companies. People dying from their addiction aren't killing themselves, they are struggling to survive.

andrepd 8y ago

Climate change is on track to cause catastrophic damage in the next few decades AND there is no indication of anything being seriously done about this. In other words, a train is barrelling and, crucially, there are no signs of anyone intending to stop it. Yeah, I think it's justified to be scared.

nonbel 8y ago
There was just a recent discussion here about this and every time I asked for sources and then checked that is not what was found in the primary sources. The catastrophic outlook is created by a few people and amplified by the media as clickbait, not any sort of scientific consensus or track record of successful predictions. You can go through my recent post history to find it.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
ethbro 8y ago
I believe the parent's point was not about the veracity of climate change, but rather the impact of constant exposure to fear. Herbert's quip that "Fear is the mind killer" is apt. Research (has hit the HN front page several times) bears out the fact that constant exposure to stress decreases IQ. Ergo, the first step to most effectively combating anything is to accept it, but NOT give in to fear and despair. Climate change is real. We are not doing enough to counteract it. But we can.

francisofascii 8y ago

Economic collapse and climate change are very different. Climate change news does not evoke the emotion of fear, but rather emotions of disappointment, lament, and anger.

nonbel 8y ago
If you think the economic system is scammy, but most people just won't listen, you will experience the exact same emotions you list. So I have to disagree.

soundwave106 8y ago

The main "fear porn" here that I think relates, and it's more of a tangent than any direct connection, is the propaganda associated with the War On Drugs, just as a comparison to the realities of the opioid epidemic. Some of the issues that were associated with various illegal drug epidemics were legitimate (particularly addictive substances that had the potential to destroy your health like heroin and cocaine), but the propaganda ended up being a moral panic implemented for sometimes questionable (possibly tribalism oriented) reasons, where a few substances (some of them, like cannabis, being relatively harmless) ended up getting demonized, a way-too-high amount of Americans got arrested for trifles as a result, and so forth. Ironically a large portion of the drugs in this epidemic were not in this much demonized category. Back on topic, the "messaging" here that directly relates, as far as the opioid epidemic goes, is the opposite: the lax regulation of the marketing for prescription drugs. Purdue Pharmaceutical was allowed to engage in a lot of aggressive marketing courting physicians with plenty of symposiums and swag. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2622774/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2622774/) The marketing hugely downplayed the addiction potential of Oxycontin, over-promoting the use cases and underplaying risk. (Along the way you get some IMHO absurd swag like an Oxycontin-sponsored 50s swing music compilation -- https://www.reddit.com/r/SwingDancing/comments/593xof/til_that_purdue_pharma_sponsoredgave_away_swing/ https://www.reddit.com/r/SwingDancing/comments/593xof/til_th... -- I mean, what?) This helped contribute to the opioid over-prescription problem. Sober, fact based analysis -- present in neither of the above scenarios -- unfortunately is in short supply these days. Personally, I haven't seen the sort of aggressive marketing you see in America for prescription drugs in any other country -- at least, I don't recall seeing the sort of direct-to-consumer prescription ads anywhere else, (I was able to find articles that said DTCA is quite restricted in Europe --https://www.pharmafield.co.uk/in_depth/pharmaceutical-direct-to-consumer-advertising-in-europe/ https://www.pharmafield.co.uk/in_depth/pharmaceutical-direct...). I think pharmacy-to-physician marketing is still allowed in most places, but the above shows that work needs to be done to ensure that this marketing also is sober and fact based. Even physicians can be persuaded by "marketing swag". (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5623540/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5623540/)

nonbel 8y ago
Not that I consider the "war on drugs" to be valid in any way, but I haven't seen anything involved with it that is in the same category as the genre of "news" I am talking about: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Fear%20Porn https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Fear%20Porn https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=doom+porn https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=doom+porn