I’m starting to think that all of these apocalyptic (and largely fake) articles about drug-resistant bacteria, swine flu, killer bees, etc are a marketing device. People who think the end is near are more likely to make ill-considered purchases. If horror is inevitable, why not just go and buy XYZ while one still can enjoy it?
A constant low-grade anxiety is very conducive to unbridled shopping.
The bees here in Arizona aren’t faking it. They’re real killers:
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I always said nature sucks something fierce. Plus, it’s not air-conditioned.
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Killer bees are real, and even attacks that aren’t lethal can be very scary when they occurs.
Nearby residents were told to stay in their homes. John Chavarria, one such local, told ABC 15 that he witnessed the attack from his house.
‘I don’t know, it was just crazy how everyone was running everywhere,’ he said.
Miming swatting at bees around his head, he continued: ‘They were making some movements like that … some people would even fall in the grass over there and then they’d get up and start running.
‘I can’t believe they had the whole street blocked off for the bees.’
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Remember about 10 years ago when they were trying to convince us there would be a flu pandemic?
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Yes, exactly. And yesterday there were these scary articles about antibiotic apocalypse but it was all pure hype: http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/05/everybody-be-cool-a-nightmare-superbug-has-not-heralded-the-apocalypse-yet/
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Drug-resistant bacteria are fascinating, and for a lot of people they’re deadly or a real pain, but they’re not at apocalyptic scales yet. Mostly we don’t really have a clear plan to deal with them just yet, since they’re a fairly recent occurrence within the last twenty years or so.
As for swine flu–it was awful at the time. Nearly half the students at my high school contracted it at some point the year it hit, and almost a quarter of students were absent for about a week all at once. But I wouldn’t say it’s a huge deal now, at least in the US.
The scariest thing I’ve found is spider rain: http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2015/may/18/australia-where-the-rain-is-sometimes-made-of-spiders-video-report
Or something like this report: http://www.entsoc.org/PDF/2010/Orb-weaving-spiders.pdf
The pictures in that last link are horrifying. When the apocalypse comes, it will come in the form of giant man-eating spiders. (Joking–though I’d be freaked out if it rained spiders where I am. Probably wouldn’t leave the house for a week :p)
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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