Economic anxiety drives officials to discredit local health warnings as hysteria.
Evidence
“For anyone with little or no authority to give the impression that there is a major health crisis within the confines of the city, without factual evidence to back up their statements, is totally irresponsible,” announced the mayor at a city council meeting. Reverend Young heard that the mayor, in private conversation, was furious about the “panic” and “hysteria” created by reports of high cancer rates. … “Businesses may decide not to expand, or even to move out of the area,” one speaker told the chamber. “Industrial land may not be sold because of the problem. Property values may be down.” The chamber’s vice-president foresaw “an exodus of business” and said, “We’ve got to try to head that off.” — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 165
Categorization
- XREF: Echoes the base-nation pattern where host-nation property and commerce interests defuse opposition to harms; also connects to moral-panic dynamics (who gets to name hysteria). — connects to: Officials’ dismissive responses convert residents’ fear into sustained oppositional anger.; Sowing deliberate public confusion is the core aim of economic denialism — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 941; States manufacture paranoia so the public welcomes the very power that created the anxiety (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Officials’ dismissive responses convert residents’ fear into sustained oppositional anger.
#complicates(0.95) - Sowing deliberate public confusion is the core aim of economic denialism
#corroborates(0.90) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 941 - States manufacture paranoia so the public welcomes the very power that created the anxiety
#complicates(0.85) - Moral panics are often rooted in political struggles over values.
#complicates(0.85) — Cohen, Stanley, Folk devils and moral panics, 131 - Anti-regulation rhetoric backfired by confirming public fears of industry regulatory capture
#complicates(0.85) — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 525 - Administrations can rhetorically frame economic malaise as existential threat
#corroborates(0.80) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 760