"Hopium"

[ontana]

Disclaimer: fully jabbed, masked wearing compliant person here, but also a teacher and a parent who has witnessed the devastating effects of lockdowns on young people in particular.

I have noticed the likes of Christina Pagel and Deepti Gurdasani on Twitter using the word "hopium" to describe anyone who is mildly optimistic that omicron might be a milder variant or that we are not in as bad a situation as we might otherwise be without vaccines or compared to last year, and I think the use of this word captures why I find them so awful.

Hope is a fundamental part of the human condition it seems to me, and to deride it as "hopium" just seems contemptuous and joyless. If they have read Emily Disckinson, or Barack Obama, or St Paul, surely they would understand the need for hope, even in the most dire of circumstances? But there seems to be a determination amongst some to deny any sense of hope that we may be seeing some light at the end of the tunnel and in stead they seem to delight in the misery and fear of it all.

Is it just me??

Just because they have created another idiotic buzzword doesn’t mean you have to apportion any more weight to their ideas than you normally would.

Some people love gloom and doom. They hope for and cling to negativity. So they have their own form of “hopium”. Just scroll past.

Yes I have noticed this word. It is could just as much be applied the other way too. Hopium that omincron is worse/ more problematic etc. I think quite a few on Twitter secretly wish it was!

I've had it said to me on here under another username. It is very belittling that to logically think a mild strain could be a way out makes me stupid and hopeful!

I saw one account on Twitter called zerocovidnow or similar praising the photo of the Chinese parading covid “deniers” in full hazmat etc and their photo on the front with guards in hazmat and a crowd watching. Very disturbing photo. They were suggesting it was great and we should follow suit. It wasn’t a parody account but may be a bot as it’s hard to believe anyone serious thinks that is a good policy to follow

Just call excess negativity 'nope-ium', roll your eyes, and scroll on by x

Don't scientists only operate with facts and evidence.

You haven't understood their posts if that's what you think.

Both have done a lot do work to redress the misperception that the modelling for Omicron did not take into account the potential that it could result in less cases of severe illness. All the models have done this.

The 'hopium' comes from the misinformed who have tried to discredit the scientific models and put forward their own projections based on zero evidence and absolutely no knowledge of the Surrey issues in the healthcare system.

You only have to look at the graph below and see that we are actually tracking slightly above the projected volumes of hospitalisation to see who is correct.

There's a few on MN who post similarly. Their inability, or maybe refusal, to see anything but pessimistic scenarios is quite wearing. They would probably describe themselves as realists though.

I'm with you OP, we have to have hope otherwise you get caught into a spiral of doom. I just don't bother to read their gloomy predictions now and just scroll by. I used to find the Coronavirus good news threads lovely but they don't seem to be active much any more.

Well the reason I quoted literature was that not everything in life can be reduced to data and evidence. And insufficient evidence has been gathered on the mental health impacts of the lockdowns the advocate. If hope helps some people get through this awful period, why deride it so contemptuously.

@Mamette

Just because they have created another idiotic buzzword doesn’t mean you have to apportion any more weight to their ideas than you normally would.

Some people love gloom and doom. They hope for and cling to negativity. So they have their own form of “hopium”. Just scroll past.

Great post!

@ChequerBoard

You haven't understood their posts if that's what you think.

Both have done a lot do work to redress the misperception that the modelling for Omicron did not take into account the potential that it could result in less cases of severe illness. All the models have done this.

The 'hopium' comes from the misinformed who have tried to discredit the scientific models and put forward their own projections based on zero evidence and absolutely no knowledge of the Surrey issues in the healthcare system.

You only have to look at the graph below and see that we are actually tracking slightly above the projected volumes of hospitalisation to see who is correct.

This

@Watercoloursky

Just call excess negativity 'nope-ium', roll your eyes, and scroll on by x

'Nope-ium'

They don’t use it describe views are “mildly optimistic”, that is a mischaracterisation IMO. Prof Pagel often posts things that I consider to be mildly optimistic. Rather, hopium refers to views that are so myopically positive that they deny reality and are consequently dangerous. There are many desperate people out there who latch on to false reassurance.

They see me and say "hopium." I look at them and say "mopium." So we're all square ;)

Absolutely agree with you OP. I can't bear anything written by Pagel or Gurdasani. It isn't what they say but how they say it, they seem to glory in their negativity. I find certain posters on this board even worse.

@IndigoC really?? I don't think I've ever seen her say anything positive at all!

I don't respect anything those people at Independent Sage say to be honest.

@Happypootler yes that is exactly it

@Waxonwaxoff0

I don't respect anything those people at Independent Sage say to be honest.

Why?

What are your relevant qualifications that mean we should listen to your research and opinions instead of a panel of recognised experts?

@ChequerBoard yawn. Nowhere did I say that anyone should listen to me. I just don't believe that because someone is an expert in their field I should automatically do whatever they say.

Pagel is unreal, utterly miserable and pessimistic, she does my head in tbh

[quote Waxonwaxoff0]@ChequerBoard yawn. Nowhere did I say that anyone should listen to me. I just don't believe that because someone is an expert in their field I should automatically do whatever they say.[/quote]

Yes you did - you put forward your view that Independent Sage shouldn't be listened to.

So are you saying you are basing that view on... nothing?

Great, very credible.

They are experts in terms of some aspects of healthcare. They aren't experts in terms of education, social isolation, child development, mental well-being, economics and the billion other aspects of life which are adversely affected by the lockdowns they are clamouring for.

I'm with @ChequerBoard .

You realise they are referencing 'opium' - as in Karl Marx's "the opium of the people", ie something used by those in power to give false hope and false happiness to the masses and thus stop them from rebelling and ousting the leaders from power?

Hopium does not at all mean simply 'hope'. It means how certain leaders have used the idea that covid is petering out and that therefore we don't need any more measures and can "get back to normal", and generate more profit for certain individuals.

I don't think the iSAGE people first coined the term either.

Lockdowns don't have as much of an effect on the economy as thousands of deaths and long covid.