I call it the "Ian Malcolm syndrome", in reference to the character (a mathematician) in Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park who tries to apply mathematical concep

I call it the "Ian Malcolm syndrome", in reference to the character (a mathematician) in Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park who tries to apply mathematical concepts to the dinosaur attraction to try to show why it is doomed to collapse. There are a lot of similar posts online about people trying to use chaos theory (or what they believe chaos theory is), "systems theory", and other obscure concepts to explain why, for example, climate change will be the end of us all, or the global economy will enter a depression, or any other extremely pessimistic macro scenario. I see three reasons why these people are doing it. (1) To draw attention to themselves as someone with a superior intellect (which they actually aren't) (2) To construct an analysis no one has constructed before, in a "all these professional economists are saying the same thing, but here's why they're all misleading themselves, thanks to my ace card of a theory" kind of way, and (3) A love for the hyperbole, for dramatic outcomes. A classic economic prediction like "Inflation pressures will potentially slow down growth in the short term, but the behavior of the economy over the next 12 months remains unpredictable" is not enough. It MUST be "A catastrophic economic collapse is inevitable", or "We are going back to the Middle Ages by the end of the decade", or "Hundreds of millions will die in the next few years".