the.com/fearmongering
Selling certainty about doom to people too scared to check the math.
means The deliberate stirring up of exaggerated fear or alarm, usually to push an agenda, sell a product, or win a vote.
from A straightforward compound: 'fear' plus 'monger,' an old word for a dealer or trader (as in 'fishmonger' or 'warmonger'). 'Monger' traces back to Old English 'mangere,' meaning merchant, related to Latin 'mango,' a dealer who dresses up goods to look better than they are. So a fearmonger is literally someone peddling fear — dressing up alarm and selling it like stock.
- core trick
- amplify rare risks, bury the common ones
- business model
- attention pays better than accuracy
- antidote
- ask for base rates, not anecdotes
- irony
- the mongers rarely fear anything themselves