[C8]

Thinking of a "rush to exits" type thing by people yelling "fire". Ex: people get scared of crisis, put selves before common plan to save things, cheat, steal to survive the coming perceived collapse and sabotage the efforts of those trying to create solutions.

or...

The "haves, " fearing collapse, leave their nations and the "have nots" thus weakening countries irreparably by withdrawing needed resources and expertise. Panic leads to massive tear down, riots, stripping, and the broken infrastructure lacks resources for repair.

I am not advocating any speech controls, or trying to blame doomers- I think both of these ideas are absurd. Our problems are long in developing. But I am curious as to what folks here think and and curious about the question from a purely academic standpoint: could doomers cause doom (that is, spark it)?

[SeaGypsy]

By the time anyone is listening, doom wi already be well underway. The fuel is drowned in retardant.

[Outcast_Searcher]

Fast crash doomers can't even predict rapid doom to ANY meaningful level of accuracy (i.e. actionable), being wrong decade after decade. They only way they can cause doom is in their own lives and minds. Wasting their lives wagging their tongues and worrying constantly about doom is the closest to doom they come -- dooming their own productivity.

Long term doomers: talking about things like a finite planet and resource limits causing long term "doom" isn't going to cause it. If anything, maybe more people will wake up and make changes in their lives and vote to help prevent it. (I'm not optimistic given human nature, but that seems more likely than "causing" it by talking about it.)

[Newfie]

C8,

There a variety of ways we can come by doom. ONE of them would be through a collapse of the global financial market. If you run back to 2008, end of GEORGE I and start it Obama, that crisis was a crisis of confidence. The President said we were hours away from a complete lock up of the global banking system which is why he ordered extraordinary measures.

So if you believe Obama then your answer is “yes” and it almost happened. I see no reason why it could not happen again. I’ve absolutely no way of predicting when it will happen or what the actual, physical effects would be. Remember that the global economy lost “trillions” in value, but as far as I know no one died because of it. May be different next time, don’t know, no one does.

Just recall the fevered bailouts of troubled banks and the generous role of Uncle Sam in making sure the 2008 crisis did not roll over into another Great Depression. We came very close to Armageddon in those days of tribulation. The failing investment bank Merrill Lynch, which once introduced Wall Street to Main Street America, had to be absorbed by Bank of America, which itself needed emergency financing from the Treasury. Bank of America did double duty by also taking over the troubled mortgage banking firm Countrywide Credit, whose real estate portfolio was in deep trouble

In fact, we came very close to Armageddon that mid-September day of 2008 just after Merrill Lynch was saved by Bank of America and insurance giant AIG was saved from insolvency by a federal bailout loan of $185 billion. There was still General Electric, then very much in the troubled financial business that warned the government it might not be able to roll over or refinance its mighty pile of short-term debt the next morning. Fears abounded of a run on the banking system if the short-term securities called commercial paper froze. The only emergency respite was to that evening plaster a government guarantee of the $600 billion commercial paper market that kept industry oiled and operating. That’s how close to a possibly chaotic condition we came.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes ... -bust/amp/

As to the reassurances it can’t happen again, they are the same guys who let it happen the last time, they could not predict it then, they can’t predict it now.

[asg70]

Yes. As much as I decry denialism, if everyone were doomers in the sense that they knew the planet was screwed by some combination of limits to growth and we had a matter of single-digit years to brace for impact, there would be a panic situation that would resemble Children of Men or the song Five Years. Since denialism runs so strong and doom is still rolling over us slowly enough, BAU is extended and we just muddle through.