I mean I agree but at the same time as someone who kind of got into "Y2K culture" at the time there was a tremendous amount of irresponsible doomsaying, people saying the Y2K problem *could not* be fixed and would *inevitably* lead to the collapse of the global economy
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Not sure that "stupid people reacted stupidly to a crisis" is a helpful take. Stupid people always do so. How the smart people react is the only meaningful measure.
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It was HUGE in the fundie Christian community to tie Y2K in with millenarian prophecy in general and say it was the instrument of God's judgment of modern civilization Jerry Falwell, among others, made millions from it
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And that's a thing to be aware of and to try to nip in the bud with the next big crisis, even when the crisis itself is clearly real Since the doomsday mindset doesn't at all help prevent it and may actively hinder it, as people become invested in it happening
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I’d separate the y2k computer thing from the “new millennium” thing. And don’t forget there was the divide between people who thought 2000 began the new millennium and those who thought 2001 did. I bet they’re still fighting over it, actually.
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Yeah I'm talking specifically about Y2K computer stuff, which got co-opted by religious people because it conveniently provided a secular justification for "millennium fever"
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Yep, I bought a couple of Y2K survivalist magazines from the US that somehow ended up in a newsagent in East Kent.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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For the sake of properly understanding the problem, it is critical to distinguish between apocalyptic Y2K cult doomsaying (which was a real thing) and legitimate predictions of software failure (also a real thing). These fed into each other in unfortunate ways but were different
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It's true that Y2K cultists drew on software concerns to fuel their doomsday predictions in irresponsible ways. On the other hand, the dude who wrote this does not understand software failure and should never be allowed to write about tech.pic.twitter.com/XFIUoFoHpF
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