Reflecting upon an interaction with TeamLockdown/ModellerBedlam yesterday.

The doubling down looks permanent. They couldn’t have been more wrong about, well, everything. The only rebuttals they have are claims to authority coupled with ad hominem attacks, mob style. 1/7

Based on audience comments afterwards, this approach does them no good, and the message is sinking in regarding the harm that they’ve done. As that dawns on them the derangement becomes palpable. 2/7

The authoritarian culture they come from and that got them into this trouble in the first place is one where neither revision nor apology is acceptable and they impute that culture onto everyone else. This psychology traps them on a slide into the abyss. 3/7

Overweening concern with reputation is also a factor.

This would be of little consequence for the rest of us if they didn’t still have influence. The collateral damage of that fact is measured in lives. 4/7

To escape lockdown depression, there needs to be widespread acknowledgement that there has been a terrible overreaction, and a genuine attempt to remove fear from the mind of Joe public, so that life can resume before the damage accumulates further. 5/7

It’s a tricky problem. Swift resolution of the situation is a moral necessity. Co-operative engagement is consistently declined, so nothing can be negotiated. A war in the domain of public opinion, which nobody wants, seems destined to escalate and intensify. 6/7

I ponder a more harmonious trajectory, but such eludes me. 7/7