A Doomer Reading List

Top posts from the last year.

A Doomer Reading List
Grandfailure

Here's my top posts from the last year:

If You Suffer from Urgent Normal Syndrome, Ask for Help
A woman finds a mask in her coat pocket, leftover from the 2021 mandate. It triggers such a violent emotional reaction in her mind that she throws the mask across the room and starts sobbing, then tweets about the experience. This woman might be suffering from urgent normal syndrome. What’
You’re Not a Fearmonger. You Have Sentinel Intelligence.
You’ve probably heard about Helen of Troy. She’s blamed for starting the Trojan War. Not many people remember Cassandra. She predicted it. In Aeschylus’s tragedy Agamemnon, you get Cassandra’s full story. In some ways, the Trojan War is really about a bunch of dudes who don’
No, We Haven’t “Lived” with Diseases for Millions of Years
Before modern medicine and sanitation, we were at constant war with death.
Everyone Just Wants to Forget: The Power of Collective Amnesia
Most people are more than willing to forget the past, along with its important lessons.
Watching The World Burn on Our Phones
There’s this play by Eugene Ionesco called, “Rhinoceros.” You should read it sometime. It’s about an ordinary dude named Berenger, a Lebowski type who drinks too much and never shows up anywhere on time. Things get interesting when he meets up with a friend for coffee, but their conversation get…
Hope Won’t Save Us. It’s Going to Get Us All Killed.
Climate optimists keep talking about hope, but philosophers offer us a warning.
It Wasn’t Unprecedented. It Was a Dragon King.
A term from systems theory helps explain the collapse of our climate.
The Elite’s War on Remote Work Has Nothing to Do with Productivity
The elite are trying to whip everyone back to the office to avoid a commercial real estate crash.
We’re in a Behavioral Sink
Rat utopias in the 1950s give us a sneak peek at our future.
The Moral Injury of It All
Until recently, there was a feeling I couldn’t describe. It wasn’t trauma. It wasn’t fatigue. It wasn’t anger or sadness. It wasn’t depression. It was a feeling that I couldn’t trust anyone anymore. It was a feeling that I would spend the rest of my life making impossible choices that
It’s Not Cool to Overreact
Normalcy bias helps explain why the public continues to chill in the face of mounting existential threats.
The Doomsday Prepper’s Daughter
All he wanted was a bunker for the end of the world. He didn’t have money. He didn’t have connections. What he had was a particular set of skills. After getting kicked out of the army for assault, Shannon Gilday knew there was only one way. He’d have to take
Maybe You Don’t Need a Friend. Maybe You Need Something Else.
When my mom died, I didn’t want condolences. I didn’t want cards. I didn’t want phone calls. I didn’t want to stand around listening to everyone else talk about how much they missed their moms. I didn’t want to talk about it with anyone. I
Self-Help or Self-Harm? A Weird History.
It all started with a man named Phineas Quimby, a clockmaker who delved into alternative spirituality and mesmerism. During the 1840s, he started traveling around “curing” diseases. He practiced a form of hypnotism in front of large crowds, charging folks $5 or $10 to tell them there was nothing w…
The Ugly Truth About Sleep
Sleep has turned into a form of class privilege. It’s also a weapon in class warfare. I’m guessing you don’t need yet another life coach or wellness grifter selling you on the concept of sleep. You’ve probably spent a lot of time and money on it
“There’s No Cause for Alarm.”
The psychology of reactance.
It’s Time to “Cancel” Covid Minimizing Doctors
Public health pundits deserve to be called out for spreading misinformation.
You’re Not Going to Make It
I read about this one family... They were tired of society. They thought civilization was unraveling. They wanted to live off the grid. Authorities found their mummified remains a few months later. The family died from exposure and malnutrition. They didn’t make it. A while back, a prepper t…
A Covid FAQ with 300 Sources
Earlier this year, politicians and news outlets tried once again to convince the public that the pandemic was over and that Covid had turned into the flu. They were wrong. Over the coming weeks and months, we’re going to find out just how wrong they were. Highly mutated forms of
The Politics of Panic
Do you know who panics the most during disasters? It’s the rich. It’s the politicians. It’s the elite. It’s the riot police. They don’t panic about actual death and suffering. They panic about money. They panic about their investments. They panic over property. They panic over the possible los…
Play Undead: The Hidden Healing Power of Self-Triggering
For trauma survivors, triggering yourself might be good for you.
Sorry, You Matter Too Much to Make a Living Wage
One year, my boss gave me a chocolate bar for a raise. It came with a Christmas card. The card made a joke about how sweet I was. He appreciated all the extra, unpaid work I’d done. I was invaluable. That was my third year without a raise, despite “exceptional”
Covid Causes Much More than Brain Fog
A mountain of evidence tells us that even mild Covid is bad for your brain.
You Can’t Trick Someone into Hope. It Doesn’t Work Like That.
Philosophers know the difference between real hope and fool’s hope.
Good People Are The Worst: On Moral Licensing
It’s probably been a while since you thought about the Hunger Games. If you remember, Katniss gets a nasty little surprise at the end when the new leader, Coin, decides to keep everything just the same. She even wants to reboot the games. As it turns out, the district she
Everyone Daydreams About Collapse. Few Understand It.
The author of “Frankenstein” wrote an honest book about the end of the world.
The Billionaires Are Going Bunkers
In 1893, George Pullman was one of the richest men in the world during one of the worst financial depressions in history. Now he lies in a steel vault eight feet underground, in a coffin sealed with lead. He was buried at night, in secret, to keep his employees from
Smile Even Though It’s Breaking
Before the world descended into yet another wave of illness and death, western media was promoting a smiling course offered in Japan. It proved that everyone was getting back to “normal,” even countries with strong masking cultures. If you enrolled in the course, you spent all day practicing for a…
How to Prepare for What’s Coming without Being a Complete Asshole
About ten years ago, the National Geographic Channel aired this show about doomsday preppers. One woman was filling her entire house with food. She thought she was going to continue cooking gourmet meals while the world burned down around her. One guy tried to build a castle in the middle
The Lie That’s Destroying Children’s Lives
Research tells us that Covid itself continues to do more harm than lockdowns ever did.
Novavax? It’s Worth a Shot (A Little Bit of Good News)
There’s good news about Novavax, and vaccines in general. Of course, there’s always a reality check.
“That’s Never Going to Work.” How Futility Bias Keeps Us from Even Trying.
When someone tells you to give up, there’s a pathology behind it.
We’re Sick of Getting Sick All The Time. Clean The Air.
Join the revolution.
Got Germs? Coming to a Hospital Near You.
The CDC plans to weaken infection control guidelines. It’s not based on science.
One Book Destroyed Western Civilization. No, It’s Not The Bible.
One book synthesized and popularized the most toxic ideas in American history.
Nose Sprays: A Last Line of Defense in a World Hellbent on Giving You Covid
Here’s what we know.
One Theory Explains Why We Can’t Have Nice Things
Social psychologists understand why broken systems stay in place.
There’s No Lesser Evil, or Even a Slower Collapse
There’s an ulterior motive in Gaza, and it’s disturbing.

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