So what happens if the Gulf oil disaster doesn't turn out to be the end of the world some predicted?

[NNN0LHI]

Any ideas?

:shrug:

Don

[scheming daemons]

1. Lots of people are emotionally invested in it being part of the "2012 Mayan Prediction"

...that they won't accept the news, no matter what it says... unless it says "the end is near".



Same people can't accept that the economy is better than it was a year ago..... that Health Care Reform is a reality.... that the Iraq war is winding down.....

[zipplewrath]

8. New Normal

"Same people can't accept that the economy is better than it was a year ago.....

Yeah, I'll give ya that one. Couldn't have been much worse, but I'll give ya that. Kinda reminds me of driving along the road in Amalfi Italy. Steep cliffs with small guard rails. Can be quite a wild ride. Road gets "better" all the time, because it will weave away from the cliff. Of course couple miles down the road it goes back again.


"that Health Care Reform is a reality...."

Sorry, health INSURANCE reform is a reality, I'm still waiting for health CARE reform.

"that the Iraq war is winding down....."

Well our involvement, since some time in 2008. For the Iraqis, it's going to go on a long time.

As for the oil spill. As we have seen elsewhere, it is rarely ever "over", it's mostly just a new case of achieving a new normal. And for the guy that lost his family business, it was the "end of his world".

[Stinky The Clown]

19. Uh, sheming . . . . . ?

Per Obama's own words, that would be health INSURANCE reform.

You recall hearing that? It was oft repeated during the fake debate that led to it.

[scheming daemons]

32. Ok.. Health INSURANCE reform

I'll concede that.

It's still a good thing(tm).

[Arctic Dave]

2. I don't think it was going to be the end of the world.

It will probably be the end of a group of peoples way of living though. After the Exxon Valdez happened I'm sure you went on as usual, however, there were quite a few people who lost everything they worked their entire life for.

[old mark]

3. Well, I have been wrong before ( a few times, anyway) and this is

one time I would be verry happy to be wrong...but it ain't cleaned up yet, and may still take many years to get right again....look at the Valdez spill area, which is still not over...


I am very happy it is stopped.
rec
mark

[tom_paine]

31. But the advances in PR and marketing ensure that anything can be disappeared

simply by making sure a certain number of people fail to know something.

If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound? By the modern application of mass psychology and using the most saturated delivery systems in human history, the answer is a resounding NO, and you can forget about all the pesky physics, science and facts. Preception IS reality, except in rare cases where the damage is too great for a critical number of people to ignore.

Having said that, NOW the story is manageable. The relative trickle of cancer victims and poisonous seafood can now be disappeared.

As usual, the few that notice or care will be statistically small enough to not exist at all in terms of our joke of a National Dialog.

I am happy it has stopped. By the Corporate Oligarchy's immediate rush to the Big PR Lie is a stunning admission that they continue to think we are collectively ignorant, easily manipulated and lied to. They think we are more gullible than 1972 Soviet citizens, who at least had the sense to spot an odious and transparent lie, to figure out when all authority had passed the point of no return to complete untrustworthiness.

The sad truth is...they are right.

[Forkboy]

4. I predict lots of threads trying to downplay the damage already done to people's lives.

[scheming daemons]

16. Not from me.... they're devastated..... and hopefully the $20 billion will go to those that

deserve it and need it.


That would be the outrage, in my opinion.... if the people in the gulf don't get the restitution that they're entitled to.

[Individualist]

5. link to end of the world predictions?

[NNN0LHI]

21. Here is one

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=247x29382

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8446752#8446758

If you want just Google "oil spill+end of world+du" and you will find some more.

Don

[SidDithers]

24. To be fair, that's a post from DU's skeptics forum...

ridiculing other DU "end of the world" posts. :hi:

Sid

[NoNothing]

6. They'll pin their hopes on something else

Global warming, probably, or maybe overpopulation.

[villager]

11. Luckily, we don't have to worry about either global warming *or* overpopulation!

n/t

[ZombieHorde]

28. I am pinning mine on circumcision. nt

[nosmokes]

33. Har! Now that's funny! n/t

[DevonRex]

7. Well, now is when they start looking for 7 horsemen.

:shrug:

[SidDithers]

9. There were posts about the spill killing all ocean life...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=8326164

(posted link because member is no longer with us)

Damn there was some stupid end-of-the-world shit posted.

Sid

[Javaman]

23. Wow, I didn't know arcadian got granite fever.

he/she was around for a while. I wonder what finally did them in?

[SidDithers]

27. A multiple-time zombie I think...nt

Sid

[Evasporque]

10. we will live until the GOP takes over....nt

[Ozymanithrax]

12. Those who predicted the end of the world will latch onto the next big disaster

as the end. They will ignore the fact that the world didn't come to an end. Something will happen and there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. We will be told that this will destroy the world.

Magical thinking is hard to kick.

[KT2000]

13. The end of the world

has occurred to many people in the Gulf over this thing.
That it is "not the end of my world" is what makes us move on and forget - until the next disaster.
Besides the loss of businesses and work for people, the health effects will haunt the area for a long time to come. This is not over, except in the news cycle.

[jpak]

14. Rush agrees - so does BP - but the end of the world nonsense was not science based

and we will not know the true extent of the damage for a long time.

nope

any claims that this was not s disaster are bullshit

yup

[lob1]

15. BP has lied about everything from day 1. I'm not so

quick to believe them this time. That oil didn't magically disappear. They're still finding oil from the Valdez 20 years later. And the corexit is more poisonous than the oil. When they say the crisis is over, BP is really saying their responsibility is over.

[Stinky The Clown]

17. Some will get on with their lives

Just like the aftermath of any other disaster.

You were pissed about Kartina ...... weren't you?

You were pissed about 911 ...... weren't you?

You were pissed about Haiti ...... weren't you?

Your post is bullshit, Don.

[thelordofhell]

18. There's always December 21st, 2012

:shrug:

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. Next crisis next shinny

[Javaman]

22. So you think that the gulf spill was the only money shot, huh?

I guess you haven't been paying attention to the countless oil spills since the one in the gulf.

We are killing ourselves via "death by a thousand cuts".

[nightrain]

25. BP and others want it nearly over, there's an election coming up...

I guess it must have been the oil-eating gremlins or the magic oil monkeys who removed those millions of gallons of oil..

Oil doesn't "disappear" that quickly, ask the folks in Alaska, or anyone who does laundry for that matter...

The desire to bury this item is very strong.

[nosmokes]

26. I don't recall anyone(I take seriously) saying it was the end of the world but I do

know it is the end of the gulf as it once was, I don't give a damn how much smoke BP and their subsidiary the US gov't blows up my ass.

[NeedleCast]

29. They'll move on tot he next world-ending issue

2012 is right around the corner!

[earth mom]

30. Nothing to see here, move along-ain't that right? How about all those dead animals, eh?

Your OP makes me sick! :puke:

[valerief]

34. I know I'm looking forward to eating animals that have eaten oil with Corexit seafood.

Give it time.

[yawnmaster]

35. No worries. I'm sure there will be another crisis soon. eom

[Nye Bevan]

36. Didn't you see this horrifying picture posted by a DUer of what the spill did to the beach?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8859323&mesg_id=8859323

The fact that this was the apparently the worst "oil spill" picture out of 600 that the DUer took suggested to me that it might not be all that bad. The doom and gloom brigade should *not* look at the far left and right of the picture.

[Cetacea]

37. It may be for Gulf Sperm Whales

One of the two species, along with the dolphins, mostly referred to as "and marine mammals" in news reports from the gulf. (there are twenty eight species of dolphins and whales in the gulf, but out of thousands of reports, the words dolphins and whales only appear a few times- quite intentionally I am sure)

The gulf sperm whales are smaller than their relatives, but both are endangered. Earlier reports stated that a loss of just three of the gulf whales could mean the end for them.)

Sorry for the rant. Thanks for posting.

Interior Dept law suit:

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/may2010/2010-05-14-092.html

[retread]

38. Are you making a prediction?

"This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper. "

-T.S. Eliot

[TheKentuckian]

39. What if it is thirty or fifty years from now, rather than within your span of attention?