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Humans Worry Wrong: Compare Death Tolls & Take the Poll [1]

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Date: 2023-10-25  

Americans worry a lot, often about the wrong things.

According to Pew Research, the top 10 worries among Republicans are:

Inflation 77%

Budget deficit 72%

Illegal immigration 70%

The state of moral values 69%

Violent crime/ drug addiction (tie) 64%

Dem/Rep ability to cooperate 63%

Healthcare affordability 54%

School quality 51%

Gun violence 38%

And the top 10 worries among Democrats are:

Gun violence 81%

Affordability of healthcare 73%

Climate change 64%

Dem/Rep ability to cooperate 62%

Drug addiction 56%

Racism 55%

Inflation/ violent crime (tie) 52%

School quality 43%

Domestic terrorism 41%

One rational way to judge the validity of worries objectively is to consider how often they are fatal.

Economic concerns, which are top for Republicans, are not fatal for most people, but they are often fatal among the millions of ‘food insecure’ Americans. Estimates vary, but around 20,000 Americans die annually due to malnutrition, mostly poor, elderly people who do not eat enough healthy fresh food.

This real economic concern is directly addressed through the federal program behind SNAP & nutrition assistance. Democrats support this program, but Republicans often do not. Worrying about economic concerns that are merely comfort issues for you, but not worrying about economic concerns that are fatal for others is unethical.

Hundreds (and maybe over 1000) migrants die crossing the border from Mexico annually, but I doubt this is what concerns most Republicans. Despite racist views, undocumented immigrants from south of the border commit crimes at a lower rate than native born Americans. Worrying about a negligible risk of suffering from crime at the hands of ‘illegal’ immigrants, while not worrying about parents with children dying along our border is unethical.

Worrying about ‘the state of moral values’ while holding these unethical views and preparing to vote for a dangerous criminal, is hypocritical.

But climate change is the concern with the largest partisan gap: between only 14% of Republicans and 64% of Democrats calling it ‘a very big problem’. The wildfire in Maui was the deadliest in the US in a century, and wildfires are growing worse every year. Storm surge risks from hurricanes like Katrina—which killed 1,833—are also rising. Rising temperatures threaten crops, livestock and food security, globally. Diseases, including viral and fungal, are also becoming more widespread as the globe warms. Wars and refugees are also worsened by the climate crisis.

Not worrying about this existential threat to life on earth is insane.

Worrying primarily about science fictional problems like AI, asteroids, cyberattacks, digital surveillance, electronic collapse, and other similar problems with extremely low likelihood of causing deaths in the near future, is arguably stupid, given the far greater, real, imminent risk of all the various impacts due to the climate crisis.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/10/25/2201321/-Humans-Worry-Wrong-Compare-Death-Tolls-Take-the-Poll

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