Thread by @mikamckinnon

I made a plea for compassion for people who didn’t evacuate. It included the dreaded p-word.

My inbox has been ...interesting.

https://twitter.com/sciam/status/1040336599492517888

Camp 1: “THANK YOU! Me/my people can’t evac because xyz. Of course I don’t want to die or endanger rescuers; I did the best I can!”

Their stories are making me so fiercely proud of how determined they are to survive in the face of overwhelming odds against them.

Camp 2: “I live in a country where society has higher standards for providing basic healthcare. What do you mean America doesn’t ensure everyone can evacuate?! Surely not!”

Yeah, I KNOW. It’s unreal.

Camp 3: “Bullshit! I can evacuate just fine, therefore so can everyone else! You’re just indulging snowflakes who want the world handed to them. If they REALLY wanted to survive, they’d crawl out dragging themselves by the fingernails. Lazy losers.”

Sincerely, go sit on a cactus

No one is trying to die by hurricane. Every single person is making the best choices they can based on their context & understanding.

SciComm peeps: it’s on us to help with understanding.

Everyone else: it’s on us to help with capacity.

Camp 4 (Twitter only): ”I have no sympathy for hurricane parties & thrill-seekers.”

It frustrates me when people who can evac don’t (& I think it’s a scicomm failure where they don’t truly understand danger), but they’re not as prevalent as people on my Replies seem to think.

Today, Camp 5 (Twitter only) emerged: “I hadn’t thought of it that way before. ...I’m going to quietly rethink some things.”

Thank you for incorporating new ideas into your worldview. I adore you, and you make everything wirthwhike.