There’s an evolutionary reason we care about sensational catastrophes SO much more than is justified. THREAD:

Humans are fascinated by events in which a large group of people is killed at once... terrorist attacks, mass shootings, explosions, plane crashes, shipwrecks, etc....

This is because the WORST thing that could ever happen in primitive times was your entire tribe suddenly being killed.

All those who share your genes, gone.

As a result, we are wired to worry WAY more about things that kill lots of people at once

We’re NOT wired to care much about things that kill individuals one at a time, even if WAY more people end up dying.

This is because a few people getting picked off once in a while was much less of a threat to one’s bloodline than the possibility of tribal extermination

Nowadays, things are very different. Almost everybody is killed by chronic disease, and almost nobody lives in a tribe.

Objectively, people are most likely to die of heart failure.

But no child has ever cowered in fear of heart failure, even though it is most likely to kill them.

We never evolved fear of the things that actually kill people these days.

And so the things that are really kill us are totally ignored by our culture, as we obsess over whatever would have been the biggest threat to a tribe of cavemen.

It’s time to evolve.
We need to Run The Numbers and focus on the problems that are actually killing millions of people.

Namely:
1. Heart disease
2. Cancer
3. Car accidents
4. Respiratory disease
5. Suicide
6. Alcoholism

Predictably, nobody will care about this thread. Which only proves my point all the more lol