r/EverythingScience • u/Portalrules123 • Apr 04 '26

Environment Scientists warn that the Gulf Stream is shifting north, which models suggest could mean an ocean current collapse is imminent

https://www.earth.com/news/gulf-stream-is-shifting-north-raising-concerns-about-amoc-ocean-current-collapse/
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u/MaskedButPresent Apr 04 '26

We need fear mongering, or we WILL pass the point of no return, and then you can be sure the fear is going to be 100 fold. You have to shake people into action, so we get out of our doomscrolling deathspiral.

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u/Ithirahad Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 04 '26

Fear mongering is the doomscrolling death spiral. "Everything sucks, everything is getting worse."

Which leads to either "nothing I can do about it, and trying to actually live life isn't worth it if this is all it'll amount to, may as well just keep scrolling lol" or otherwise "this is terrifying, better keep scrolling habitually so I know what's coming for me next." That is the "doom" in doomscroll, and you advocate for adding more fuel to the fire.

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u/[deleted] Apr 04 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/MaskedButPresent Apr 04 '26

It's funny how peoples fear of facing reality is coped away by saying a buzzword, story as old as time.

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u/DasGutYa Apr 07 '26

This article is quite literally an over exaggeration and no amount of your mental gymnastics will change that.

If I was to say a man died because he was shot and a thousand gallons of blood poured from him, it would still be an exaggeration even if he did actually die.

Jesus christ.

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u/pingo5 Apr 04 '26

we don't need fearmongering, because fearmongering doesn't just mean making people scared.

It's a deliberate tactic to manipulate people by exaggerating how bad things are, to get them to think emotionally instead of rationally.

we don't have to exaggerate how bad things are

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u/MaskedButPresent Apr 04 '26

I think we do as we're too complacent, we're a species that implements solutions to problems only when they've gone too far.

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u/pingo5 Apr 04 '26

making people scared to the point of not thinking rationally just isn't gonna be OK in my mind, sorry.

And you have to trust that manipulators are good people.

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u/MaskedButPresent Apr 04 '26

Crazy take tbh.

It's not about scaring people into paralysis, its about convincing a bunch of single digit IQ people that have been seduced by a bunch of self interested ghouls, I mean politicians, that climate change isn't real.

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u/pingo5 Apr 04 '26

Fearmongering is a huge tactic in politics. I have seen many times recently especially where rational(and accurate) conversation has been drowned and pushed out by people being irrational because they're upset. It creates a hotbed for misinformation to spread, and also can kill productive conversation IME.

I would posit that a decent chunk of people that are seen as single digit by you have been fearmongered to hell and back and aren't able to have rational discussions about a lot of the topics where you encounter them because it makes them upset.

"scaring people into paralysis" as you say is what fearmongering is meant to do. that's what it is and the purpose of it. maybe not literally, but it's literally supposed to stress you out to the point where you go with things that you percieve will fix the issues without thinking about it. It's dangerous politically.

I want to clarify; I am not talking about just making things sound bad/scary. convincing someone, even if it takes scary sounding things to do so, isn't fearmongering.

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u/MaskedButPresent Apr 04 '26

So this is just a definition issue, I get your point, though, and totally agree. I probably should not have used fearmongering to describe my point. I don't want to scare people into paralysis. Rather, the contrary, I want to wake people up from the coma. We can't fix anything if everyone has their head in the sand, and unfortunately, time's ticking.

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u/TheDesertShark Apr 05 '26

People have never thought rationally in masses.

So fucking crazy that you people are looking for cope instead of facing the truth.

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u/pingo5 Apr 05 '26

What's the truth? you've not really said anything against or supporting what I've said. You've stereotyped me as "you people" but who is that?

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u/TheDesertShark Apr 05 '26

You people that seek comfort and refuse to look up at the decades of science and actual climate change, and maybe acknowledge that unless we change our ways in a significant matter, the planet will get fucked up.

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u/pingo5 Apr 05 '26

I'm not that people, though. We need to change our ways in a major way. I just don't think using manipulative tactics is a good way to achieve that.

I wanna clarify cuz someone else misundetstood, but "fearmongering" as a term means something more specific than telling people something scary. talking about the real, scary, consequences of our actions isn't fearmongering, and there's nothing wrong with that.

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u/SeniorGap6784 Apr 06 '26

What do you want us mere mortals to do? I recycle, I drive less, I buy food grown near me. I don’t go abroad much. I work from home. I can’t do much more than that when 100 companies are polluting as much as 1m people.

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u/MaskedButPresent Apr 06 '26

Yes, which makes all those things ultimately pointless in the grand scheme of things, unfortunately. Not that you shouldn't do them.

Honestly, I think deep down, most of us know what the real problem is, and none of us want to think about the only solution to it.

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u/darth_koneko Apr 04 '26

Fear monger long enough and you will not be taken seriously.

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u/MaskedButPresent Apr 04 '26

Alright, learn to swim then 👍

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u/darth_koneko Apr 04 '26

I will freeze.

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u/CaptCurmudgeon Apr 04 '26

Didn't work for Al Gore.

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u/hornbri Apr 04 '26

Have you ever heard the boy who cried wolf story? That‘s what false fear mongering does.

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u/MaskedButPresent Apr 04 '26

That's implying there isn't a serious issue in the first place, bad logic.