Almost all people in the Developed World believe that really, really bad things only happen in fiction. katrina was not real to most americans. earthquakes aren't real. 9/11 was, somehow, barely, just barely real, for reasons anthropologists will tear into in the far future

— Gravis, fortunately (@gravislizard) December 11, 2019

Absolute truth. You see this in people’s non-reaction to climate change. It is naïveté and Pollyanna-ishness on a scale that is almost unbelievable. I wonder how much fiction affects this and by what method. Is it because there most disasters look like a fun adventure, with nearly always some happy ending?

Buncha people are going to learn about reality the hard way.