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PeakOil is You

The 'Fear the Doomer' thread

How to save energy through both societal and individual actions.

The 'Fear the Doomer' thread

Unread postby GHung » Sat 29 Aug 2015, 11:39:49

As someone who has spent the last couple of decades seeking and adopting strategies to decouple from complex systems and industrial-age ways of doing things, for many reasons, I grew used to 'normal' people belittling my efforts as being idiotic, anti-social, fruitless, narcissistic, etc. I've been accused of not being a "team player" and a non-contributor to the greater good by seeking my own path; stuff like that. This hasn't been a frequent thing since some folks still applaud individualism, and most others don't care.

Those of us on peakoil.com who insist that society is in a downward spiral (decline, contraction, collapse) are often labeled as "doomers" and attacked for our (generally well supported) views. This seems to be spiking lately, and I'm curious as to why.

It's become clear to me that many folks fear the doomers; their messages, and their tendency to opt out of mainstream ways of thinking and of doing things. It has even been asserted recently that high-profile "doomers" are responsible for causing suicides of folks who may read some of these blogs. Fact is, some are threatened by messages of "doom", the same way religious fundamentalists are threatened by those who ignore or reject their own particular brand of 'truth'. Of course, the "anti-doomers" could simply ignore us. My wife doesn't like scary movies, so she doesn't watch scary movies. She certainly doesn't hang out at scary movie blogs and tell folks what idiots they are for watching scary movies, or demand that scary movies be banned. She just changes the channel, in the same way that the anti-doomers could easily move to another thread or blog.

Of course, there are those who have skin in the BAU game and want to stifle any suggestions that we should, and can, seek alternatives. They especially want to invalidate those alternatives as being viable, on any scale, even as a transition. Some are obviously being paid to "seek out and destroy" any way of thinking that opposes or doesn't support their own agenda; disseminating misinformation, personal attacks on individuals, trying to invalidate sources, or simply repeating the same lies until they stick in the minds of the masses.

Others are clearly scared shitless by the idea that their lives are going to change in unknown and unpleasant/challenging ways (cognitive dissonance, and all that). The slate must be wiped clean of any suggestion that everything they've invested their lives in has helped create the mess humanity finds itself in, or that a mess even exists at all; "All's well, so STF up!"

Question to the "anti-doomers": Why even bother? If we [broad range of folks being labeled "doomers", "preppers", etc.] are so wrong about our conclusions, why do you consider us a threat? Why is it important enough to take the time to explain why our strategies won't work? I'm sure some of you have good reasons....

... and keeping a sense of humour here; a video shared by Nony some time back is one of my favorites:

https://youtu.be/tepjAIlRT2k

Note: I considered including certain examples of comments (on both sides) but wanted to avoid pointing fingers and singling out individuals (on both sides of the issue) .
Blessed are the Meek, for they shall inherit nothing but their Souls. - Anonymous Ghung Person
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GHung
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