Thread by @LucyofL

OK, Time for 2nd ever long thread. This one has been brewing for days. The topic is: "Fear-mongering"

This term appears to be the on-trend language to discredit someone you disagree with when you're too lazy to come up with a reasoned argument.

But let's unpick further: 1/19

What you're *really* saying that someone is 'fear-mongering', is that they're neurotic and paranoid - which is really quite a patronising and condescending assertion. My (admittedly unscientific) experience is that those accused of 'fear-mongering' are more typically women🤔2/19

My hunch is that it stems from a culture that prizes optimism and positivity, even when based on scant or unreliable evidence. We promote self-confident, over-optimistic people to the upper echelons of society - with little regard for substance 3/19

It's pervasive in many areas of the corporate world too - but I've also seen pockets of good risk management. In business at least, it's considered prudent to elaborate potential future scenarios, their impacts and likelihoods. 4/19

But if you're SAGE, producing a report on potential future scenarios for the pandemic, you're accused of "fear-mongering". FFS - This is about planning & resource allocation, making sure we have sensible contingency plans & DON'T fall short of PPE, ambulance drivers, oxygen 5/19

I've seen the term "fear-mongering" used in many contexts - probably having been popularised through 'Project Fear' in which it became an intellectually lazy means to bat away tricky questions. But more and more, I see it used in the context of 'living with Covid' 6/19

The basic idea seems to be that if you're not prepared to 'go get on with life' as if there wasn't a pandemic, then you're paranoid, as the risk post vaccination is minimal. 7/19

So on one level you're basically saying to the other person: "I understand risk better than you do".

Well if that's the case, why not share your evidence? Engage in open debate? Try to convince? 8/19

On another, the accuser is generally making a generalisation: E.g."Kids are at minimal risk of death from Covid" is correct . But it does NOT follow that ALL kids are at minimal risk from Covid. A lot of people know that their personal risk is much higher than the average. 9/19

Just as correct would be to say there are families up and down the countries with clinical vulnerabilities that believe they are at material risk of death or serious morbidity if their kid brings home Covid from school. Their risk is NOT average. 10/19

If, after getting to this point, 'fear-mongering' is still an issue, then then things get more sinister. The accuser is not simply claiming superior risk assessment skills, they're saying the other person's higher-than-average risk isn't important. 11/19

Let me say that again - They're essentially trivialising others' life-threatening situation! - That's basically the equivalent of telling a newly diagnosed cancer patient 'Stop overreacting FFS, Get on with it, loads of ppl get cancer'. It's utterly, utterly unacceptable 12/19

You'd think this kind of lazy thinking would be confined to tabloid press and their Twitter disciples (Google the word combined with some tabloid press titles to see it perfected as an art form), but it's not the case. 13/19

A tiny minority of academics employ this approach - both w/ laypeople & other academics - Essentially refusing to engage on the evidence, dismissing arguments out-of-hand as "unhelpful" and "fear-mongering" - in some cases even belittling the academic credentials of others 14/19

Let me repeat that. - "Professionals" trying to win an argument with their peers by essentially saying 'My credentials are better than yours, so ner!' - It really is playground stuff 15/19

And even if some people are promoting fear - what is so bad about that anyway? - Fear a basic evolutionary instinct to try to keep ourselves out of danger and preserve life. Denying that - is denying humanity itself. 16/19

There's also an under-current here that's saying that those who perceive ourselves invulnerable believe that preserving the life and health of the few does not merit minor inconvenience to the masses. It's individualism in the extreme. 17/19

The irony of course is that not all vulnerabilities are known. - LongCovid can randomly destroy the health of young & fit. Most ppl dismiss this risk; they can't get their heads around it. But some of those who talk of 'fear-mongering' are destined to eat their words. 18/19

Yet despite these abhorent implications, 'fear-mongering' has become a socially acceptable veneer for behaviour that would otherwise be completely unacceptable: patronizing, belittling, intellectual laziness & an apartheid in favour of those who win the genetic lottery 20/20