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The "nobody visibly cared, then some people cared more loudly, then everyone cared" pattern exists in essentially everything. Climate change, opioid addiction,
by gifwithaj 5y ago
The "nobody visibly cared, then some people cared more loudly, then everyone cared" pattern exists in essentially everything.
Climate change, opioid addiction, police murders, genocide in China, microplastics, childhood obesity, #metoo, whatever other thing.
That's just how society works. There are a billion different things happening every day, at any given moment some are gaining attention and some are losing attention. Everybody will care about the most popular one for a while, some laws might get passed or someone might go to jail or get elected or give a speech, and then it'll fade from the mainstream news and daily conversation will move on to the next issue.
This isn't some coordinated conspiracy, this is the pattern of how literally every issue ebbs and flows in attention.
- roenxi 5y agoThe reason this pattern is so common is that most people take their cues for what to care about from the media, and the media take their cues from a presumably small and difficult-to-identify group of thought leaders (some combination of editors, PR firms and people with extremely respectable positions). It is basically a self organising system around a very small pool of original thoughts. It is pretty remarkable how stuff can completely slip the general discourse because it never catches on in the in-group.
- amitlzkpa 5y agoThat describes what I think about current public discourse exactly. I wonder if that's how it's always been with human societies?