What are your thoughts on end-of-the-world preachers like at /r/collapse?

24 comments

1. They’re bored, easily agitated LARPers.

2. Same as my thoughts on people who believe in a flat Earth – I pay it no mind.

3. I’ve been hearing about how the world is going to end for 50 years and yet here we are.

4. Certain people dissatisfied with their lives fantasize about a world that resets and reforms in such a way that their skills are valued and they’re held in higher esteem. If the collapse comes and you predicted it, that means you’re smarter than the sheep – and it follows that you’re better prepared and will come out on top in the end.

   Of course, if it doesn’t come you’re just an unhinged loser.

5. They’re free to think that way and I’m free to ignore them until it collapses from something no one predicted. Or maybe just a few people. Remember the month when murder hornets were a thing? Maybe they’re just tucked away down in Canada and biding their time until we’re distracted by UFOs

6. Two more weeks.

7. Not a perfect match, but https://xkcd.com/1601/ has the sentiment.

   Some people just like to complain. Always have, always will.

8. Immanentize the eschaton.

   We are *always* ten years away from the end times.

9. I ignore the idiots as much as possible. Giving them attention gives them power and I don’t want that

10. DonDraper.Gif

11. One thing all end-of-the-world preachers have in common.

    They’re all wrong.

12. I didn’t know the subreddit exists.

    Anyhow, trying to predict the end of the world is pointless and leads to problems. I think it’s better to be prepared for any scenario, but continue living life.

13. Naive. Usually either not very bright or are young enough to buy the propaganda. I don’t usually give their opinions much thought.

    Edit: Out of curiosity, I went to r/ collapse and saw the megathread on the Ohio derailment. A lot of comments about complete media blackout, some even saying local news and papers weren’t covering it at all. Oh boy… KDKA ran several pieces about it and constant updates for days following the derailment, as did WTAE and WPXI *(though I’m not sure to what degree as I don’t watch them too often as the former)*. I also work for my local paper, which is printed less than 15 miles from the crash site, and they **definitely** covered the story for at least a week and a half now. There’ll likely be another story about it tonight.

    I do think there should have been more coverage because a major chemical spill in the vicinity of waterways that go to the Ohio is more relevant to the common American than Chinese balloons, but with the horrific earthquakes in Turkey/Syria in the same timeframe, that does understandably take some billing away. However, I do still recall seeing coverage on CNN and FOX for several days. Those comments seem more like willful or accidental ignorance being construed as malice by a cabal of media and corporate individuals to erase this event from memory.

14. Doomsday cults have existed in every era since as long as humanity has existed.

15. Are these the “it’s the end times, the rapture is coming!” types? Yeah, I’m in my mid-40s and have been hearing this nonsense my entire life.

16. I don’t give doom porn or folks who participate in that type of doom and gloom much consideration.

    I think a lot of those folks have an inflated sense of their own preparedness for a collapse. Makes for good tv. But TV isn’t real life.

17. it’s a self-reinforcing echo chamber. There are a lot of subs on this website and on other places in the internet that I generally agree with — /r/collapse, /r/fuckcars, I could go on — but I feel like people just kind of go on there and get into a competition of who can be the most reductionist, toxic, and doomerist.

18. I didn’t know they existed beforehand and I’m probably going to forget about their existence in no time at all going forward.

19. It’s almost always a scam.

20. Loons.

    EOTW predictions have been around as long as there have been people dumb enough to listen to them.

21. People who, by and large, don’t know the doctrines of the faiths they claim to believe in.

    “No one knows the day, nor the hour.” Yet they keep claiming to. The history of end-of-the-world preaching shows that it’s drawing on something universal and timeless, because it keeps popping up.

    Ironically the world might actually be ending, at least the world as we know it. (More than the sense in which that is always ending, of course.) But their claims have nothing to do with what’s actually happening.

22. I wonder if it’s exhausting to worry about stuff like this. We’re not here for a long time, so I’m trying to have a good time.

23. All preachers if they believe, are end of the world preachers. They can’t deny the book of revelations.

24. Good for a laugh if you watch from a distance. Damaging for your sanity if you try to engage.