Come to New York to see the extent to which a fearful people will go to prevent the danger from falling bricks. [1] /s I'm joking here, but the joke underscore

Come to New York to see the extent to which a fearful people will go to prevent the danger from falling bricks. [1] /s I'm joking here, but the joke underscores a painful truth: an irrationally fearful, small group of people seem to be able to utterly paralyze democratic society, and this pathology seems to be worse in societies that self-identify as focused on collective good. People who define themselves by their own idealism are easily sidetracked by hypothetical risks. As for New York, it isn't entirely unrelated that they're shutting down their one remaining nuclear plant (and as a result, dramatically increasing NYCs dependency on fossil fuels) [2]. [1] https://www.6sqft.com/the-number-of-sidewalk-sheds-in-nyc-has-tripled-over-past-two-decades/ https://www.6sqft.com/the-number-of-sidewalk-sheds-in-nyc-ha... [2] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/12/nyregion/indian-point-power-plant-closing.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/12/nyregion/indian-point-pow...