Traumatic crises immediately spike public appetite for prophecy and prophecy-related searches

Evidence

Nostradamus was the query that gained most, followed by CNN, World Trade Center, Harry Potter, and anthrax. Nostradamus was also the male name most often sought out by users, followed by that of Osama bin Laden. Nostradamus inquiries rose steeply on the morning of September 11 and peaked at about noon. They remained above one hundred searches a minute throughout the rest of the day. — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy, 772

Categorization

• CANDY: Nostradamus outranking Harry Potter and CNN in 2001 Google searches is a striking, tweetable fact about public psychology under trauma.
• XREF: connects to: Pandemic-era instability drove people toward spectacular distractions and cosmic victimhood — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror…, 870; Impending disaster makes theoretical explanation humanity’s most urgent immediate interest — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2394

Broader Connections

• Pandemic-era instability drove people toward spectacular distractions and cosmic victimhood #exemplifies (0.80) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 870
• Impending disaster makes theoretical explanation humanity’s most urgent immediate interest #expands (0.78) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2394