When government uses “anxiety” as an excuse to not deal with a problem, the term for this is Political Abuse of Psychiatry.

Some in the government used shaming “fear” of sickness and death to try to keep people engaged with the economy despite the threats of covid, and now the Trump administration is using “climate anxiety” to justify stopping research on climate, in order to attempt to hide the public health effects that would come from environmental damage. Again and again it’s been clear that there’s an agenda against public health that is the same opposition to climate mitigation, it’s been obvious since they use the same tactics and the funding comes from the same fossil fuel sources.

NY Project Hope Coping with COVID - 5. Look at uncertainty from a different perspective… It’s been said that uncertainty can be an “emotional amplifier,” meaning that uncertainty amplifies the emotions of whatever you’re thinking about. For example, it can be unpleasant to be uncertain about whether you’re going catch COVID-19, but it’s pleasant to be uncertain about how the new food you’re trying will taste. Looking at uncertainty in the lense of unexpected joy can take away some of the fear. Leaning into uncertainty as you do when you’re going to a new place, reading a new book, eating new food, learning a new language, and traveling abroad can help you to be more open to uncertainty, and more creative. We don’t know how these experiences will turn out, but we are still willing to engage in them.
NY Project Hope Coping with COVID – 5. Look at uncertainty from a different perspective… It’s been said that uncertainty can be an “emotional amplifier,” meaning that uncertainty amplifies the emotions of whatever you’re thinking about. For example, it can be unpleasant to be uncertain about whether you’re going catch COVID-19, but it’s pleasant to be uncertain about how the new food you’re trying will taste. Looking at uncertainty in the lense of unexpected joy can take away some of the fear. Leaning into uncertainty as you do when you’re going to a new place, reading a new book, eating new food, learning a new language, and traveling abroad can help you to be more open to uncertainty, and more creative. We don’t know how these experiences will turn out, but we are still willing to engage in them.

It’s normal for people to want to avoid getting sick for all sorts of reasons. It’s absolutely normal to want to postpone injury and death. Yet elite panic seems to lead people in power to focus on “calming down” the public about dangers, and normalizing harms and bad outcomes because of some kind of loyalty to a status quo that preserves their own position.

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anti-scienceanxietybamboozleclimateclimate anxietyclimate catastropheclimate changeclimate contrarianclimate denialclimate sciencedisinformationelite panicgovernmenthealthcareinfluencemental healthmisinformationnormalize harmspolitical abuse of psychiatryPRpropagandapublic healthTrump administration