#1 Cause of DEATH in 2021........."Normality Bias"

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Sourdough

"Eleutheromaniac"
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In a cabin, on a mountain, in "Wilderness" Alaska.
My early 2021 "New Years" prediction.
 
Definition of Normalcy Bias = Stuck on stupid

2021 + gazillions of people stuck on stupid = looks like one of those bad movies where you throw popcorn at the TV while yelling at the stupid actors to get out of the frickin' way of the oncoming train, and you watch them all get splattered in slo mo...and it gets really messy.

But you can't change the channel, and some of the splattered bits splash onto you and yours. No matter how well-prepped we may be, many of us will eventually be affected by their normalcy bias, whether economically, physically, or otherwise.
 
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I am somewhat shocked at how afflicted the prepper community is to normalcy bias. I certainly assumed we were not immune to the issue, but the prevalence is greater than I imagined. The bias was certainly exposed with all that has happened in 2020. All we can do is point out the fallacy, and hope individuals recognize it and then do something about it. I don't want to say its too late to change, but at some point in the future this will be the reality. I certainly have had some of my assumptions challenged.
 
For those that aren't sure what "normalcy bias" is:

Normalcy bias, or normality bias, is a cognitive bias which leads people to disbelieve or minimize threat warnings. Consequently, individuals underestimate the likelihood of a disaster, when it might affect them, and its potential adverse effects.

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dademoss, I am glad you mentioned PDCA/PDSA. I am a huge disciple of this practice, and I make a conscious effort to employ this often. I learned this from studying under folks like Juran and Deming back in 80s. I know the state of the art has long since moved on from the TQM craze of the 90s, but PDCA/PDSA works if you apply it with some discipline. It certainly applies to our discussion, so thanks for pointing this out.
 
Every century or turn of the century has its choatic events that seem to stack up like the late 20s and early 30s with The Dust Bowl,Great Depression and the Bonas Army Attack of American vets by the same generasl they fought long side within WW1.

The writer below wrote in a couple of his books about the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, GrapesO f Wrath aand of Mice And Men
John Steinbeck - Wikipedia


https://www.scottsdalerealestatearizona.com/bonus-army/
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Its not really stupid. 'Normally' its a survival trait to but your faith in 'normal' things because it keeps you from reacting to false stimuli.....which most things are. 99% of the time something catches your attention, its nothing. If we jumped at every alarm we would never get anything done.

The problem is, that something a thing will catch your attention , you will look at it, gather information and see that its a huge deal, but normalcy bias will be so bad you will still treat it like nothing.

A really good book on this is "The Unthinkable" By Amanda Ripley. The first chapter is on 9/11 and its shocking.
 
Its not really stupid. 'Normally' its a survival trait to but your faith in 'normal' things because it keeps you from reacting to false stimuli.....which most things are. 99% of the time something catches your attention, its nothing. If we jumped at every alarm we would never get anything done.

The problem is, that something a thing will catch your attention , you will look at it, gather information and see that its a huge deal, but normalcy bias will be so bad you will still treat it like nothing.

A really good book on this is "The Unthinkable" By Amanda Ripley. The first chapter is on 9/11 and its shocking.

Rebecca Roth was a flight attendant who knew too many thing they were saying was not only not tru but also impossible and has proof 911 was a lie,haven't read the The Unsinkable though, I'll give it a look.

 
Its not really stupid. 'Normally' its a survival trait to but your faith in 'normal' things because it keeps you from reacting to false stimuli.....which most things are. 99% of the time something catches your attention, its nothing. If we jumped at every alarm we would never get anything done.

The problem is, that something a thing will catch your attention , you will look at it, gather information and see that its a huge deal, but normalcy bias will be so bad you will still treat it like nothing.

A really good book on this is "The Unthinkable" By Amanda Ripley. The first chapter is on 9/11 and its shocking.

I will put that book on my reading list. It sounds like it would dovetail nicely with The Survivor Personality, by Al Siebert, Ph.D. and The Survivor's Club: The Secrets and Science that Could Save Your Life, by Ben Sherwood (both are excellent reads).

In this sense, I agree with you about the beneficial aspect of normalcy bias, as you pointed out. But in the context of the OP's and in reference to the times at hand, so many people who stubbornly cling to the old normal while living in the new normal are...not smart (to put it more politely), or to put it bluntly: stuck on stupid.

Survival-minded people acknowledge that sometimes a person has to re-work, re-think, re-adjust plans to meet the current realities; those who are suffering from misplaced normalcy bias don't seem to be as flexible.
 
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The way I think of is that eccentrics, like survivalists and others are evolutions way of hedging its bets. Most people are good at living a normal life in normal times, which is logical because that is the usual state of things.

A few people may not be very good at being normal but who are the ones who will survive the abnormal times. It doesn't make us better than the normals, heck, most of the time we are failures in the normal world at the normal stuff that comes so easily to normies.

But when the going gets weird, the weird get going, and people like us end up being the bridge between islands of normality, even if we struggle with that normalcy itself.
 
https://universitywritting.wordpress.com/2013/09/27/summary-the-unthinkable-by-amanda-ripley/


SUMMARY “The Unthinkable”, by Amanda Ripley
SEPTEMBER 27, 2013 BY STUDENT


SUMMARY
The following it’s a summary of the book “The Unthinkable” by Amanda Ripley. Elia Zedeño moved, with her family, from Cuba to New Jersey when she was eleven years old on April of 1971. She was a worker for Port Authority in The World Trade Center since 1980. On 1993 she experienced the bombing attack on one of the two towers, when a truck bomb was detonated below the tower killing six peoples. She continued to work on The World Trade Center with fear for a future terrorist attack. On the morning of September 11, 2001 after she has arrived to work, an airplane hit the north tower creating panic on Elia and on the employees. After a few minutes Elia began to evacuate the building with some of her co-workers, and then a second airplane hit the second tower. One hour later she, after she had evacuated north tower, the south tower collapsed, everything around was covered with a dense gray matter. In the street she found a policeman injured, she took him to an ambulance and both of them went to a hospital. On the hospital Elia received oxygen and other clothes, that day she returned home at 7:00PM.
RESPONSE

Elia Zedeño is a brave woman. In both situations of danger and chaos she took the correct decisions in the right time. On the bombing attack she stayed calm in the elevator; even she helped others to be calm. She waited without despairing until help arrived. On the attacks on 9/11, Elia evacuated the building calmly and on time, she never got perturbed. On the street, she even helped an injured policeman, and took him to an ambulance. I think it wasn’t easy for Elia to remember her experience on that tragic day, but she lived to tell it.

Works Cited​

Ripley, Amanda. The Unthinkable. New York: Crown Publishers. 2008.



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The way I think of is that eccentrics, like survivalists and others are evolutions way of hedging its bets. Most people are good at living a normal life in normal times, which is logical because that is the usual state of things.

A few people may not be very good at being normal but who are the ones who will survive the abnormal times. It doesn't make us better than the normals, heck, most of the time we are failures in the normal world at the normal stuff that comes so easily to normies.

But when the going gets weird, the weird get going, and people like us end up being the bridge between islands of normality, even if we struggle with that normalcy itself.
I think this is as close as I think. I am pretty bad at normal most of the time. Weird things like knowing how much corn we eat in a year, I'm all over. By the way, corn consumption isn't a hot topic in most crowds but come SHTF scenario, it's good to know.
 
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