Culture America Culture, the Rise of DOOM, and the Yellowstone Variable, or How Living With A Timebomb Changed the American Psyche.

[Bacle]

People tend to focus on the...human flaws in today's society as the source of most tension and friction.

While social ills do exist in this nation (abortion on demand, for-profit prisons, academia that exists mostly to justify it's own tenure, identity politics, etc.) and the intractability of these issues can cause hopelessness and Doomsaying, I think there is another factor most probably haven't considered.

How much of the DOOM and hopelessness found in American Culture these days is partly due to the widespread knowledge that the Yellowstone Caldera, and it's power to destroy the US as an economic power, lingering in the minds of the populace?

Older generations grew up without this knowledge, without realizing there was a country crippling time bomb in northwestern WY. The younger generation a however find out about this fact fairly early these days, often in elementary school, or just by visiting the Nat'l Park and reading it's brochures.

So I want to pose the question: how much of an...unaccounted for impact has the knowledge of Yellowstone's true nature affected the American psyche since it was discovered and revealed to the world?

 

[Husky_Khan]

I would say the Yellowstone Caldera has had a <.01% effect on the overall American psyche in relation to whatever "Doom and hopelessness found in American Culture" might mean in this thread.

Like yes its 'widespread knowledge' but also stated that it's a factor that 'most probably haven't considered' tends to be somewhat contradictory.

Maybe if you revised your hypothesis to something more general in regards to events that Humans have little control over but increasing awareness of somehow adding to "American Cultural Hopelessness" since there's a lot of natural disasters that could befall the world in general in various Doomy ways.

WELCOME TO EXIT MUNDI: A COLLECTION OF END-OF-WORLD SCENARIOS

Like I know the inevitable La Palma Island Eruption and resulting Tsunami will devastate Western Europe and the East Coast, but no one is talking about how Ohau Island can splinter and flush away large amounts of Pacific Coastline real estate!

Though when it comes to volcanic eruptions, I do like the knock on effects which will be a cool ass ICE AGE or SuperWinter. And you don't even need a Volcanic Eruption to trigger it! Planetary orbital or Axis wobbling, space clouds, collapse of the Gulf Streams, thinning of the atmosphere! So many options for a Frozen sequel!

But everyone knows asteroids, comets and meteors are our true nemesis!

In conclusion though, yes I don't think the Yellowstone Supervolcano features all that much in the American psyche, certainly not much more prominently then any other sort of mega disaster you'd see featured on the History Channel.

 

[Shipmaster Sane]

People tend to focus on the...human flaws in today's society as the source of most tension and friction.

While social ills do exist in this nation (abortion on demand, for-profit prisons, academia that exists mostly to justify it's own tenure, identity politics, etc.) and the intractability of these issues can cause hopelessness and Doomsaying, I think there is another factor most probably haven't considered.

How much of the DOOM and hopelessness found in American Culture these days is partly due to the widespread knowledge that the Yellowstone Caldera, and it's power to destroy the US as an economic power, lingering in the minds of the populace?

Older generations grew up without this knowledge, without realizing there was a country crippling time bomb in northwestern WY. The younger generation a however find out about this fact fairly early these days, often in elementary school, or just by visiting the Nat'l Park and reading it's brochures.

So I want to pose the question: how much of an...unaccounted for impact has the knowledge of Yellowstone's true nature affected the American psyche since it was discovered and revealed to the world?

I cant believe there is a person alive who is so out of touch they dont know this, but let me let you in on a little secret.

Most people, the vast VAST majority, dont know about or dont believe in the Yellowstone eruption.

 

[Abhishekm]

Its not so much as people don't know it even though there probably are a lot that don't. Its more that it probably gets shoved under the so far above me it becomes somebody else's problem folder. Like Asteroids and before this year a global pandemic.

 

[Bear Ribs]

I don't think Yellowstone is the issue. Worry about Yellowstone erupting is a micro-fraction of the amount of Doomsday worry the US had compared to the constant spectre of nuclear war between the US and USSR during the cold war. That was something we thought and worried about, and got told about a lot in class, and even did drills for how to find cover and survive when the town exploded.

 

[LifeisTiresome]

Leftism seeks to achieve a utopia here on Earth based on their values. I don't see how Yellowstone has anything to do with that. Climate change? Yes, I can see that.

 

[StormEagle]

Worrying about Yellowstone cooking off is like worrying about a large asteroid impact or a massive solar flare taking out the power grid.

I’m fucked either way, can’t do anything to change the outcome of said events, so why bother stressing about it?

No, the political struggle in this nation is what raises my blood pressure and causes me occasional despair.

 

[Duke Nukem]

Well if Yellowstone erupts America is pretty much fucked, but the odds of that happening is unlikely at the moment so im not too worried about it.




I hope i didn't just jinx it.

 

[Laskar]

I think @Bear Ribs has it. We've lived with general feelings of impending doom for a long time. The worry about Yellowstone or asteroid impacts is cosmic background radiation compared to the worry about climate change, which is not even one tenth of the anxiety generated by the threat of a nuclear apocalypse in our father's generation.

 

[Laskar]

Like I know the inevitable La Palma Island Eruption and resulting Tsunami will devastate Western Europe and the East Coast, but no one is talking about how Ohau Island can splinter and flush away large amounts of Pacific Coastline real estate!

Though when it comes to volcanic eruptions, I do like the knock on effects which will be a cool ass ICE AGE or SuperWinter. And you don't even need a Volcanic Eruption to trigger it! Planetary orbital or Axis wobbling, space clouds, collapse of the Gulf Streams, thinning of the atmosphere! So many options for a Frozen sequel!

Also, Yellowstone can repeat what it did about sixteen million years ago and trigger hundreds of cataclysmic lava flows in Montana and Saskatchewan.

"Wait, isn't the Yellowstone hot spot under Wyoming, not Montana?"

Well, yes, but back when the Yellowstone Caldera was under the Blue Mountains in Oregon, it triggered a wave of cataclysmic lava flows in Washington. I don't know how likely it is to happen again, but I'm happy that there is a mountain range between here and there, and the jet stream is blowing thataway.

 

[Bacle]

Also, Yellowstone can repeat what it did about sixteen million years ago and trigger hundreds of cataclysmic lava flows in Montana and Saskatchewan.

"Wait, isn't the Yellowstone hot spot under Wyoming, not Montana?"

Well, yes, but back when the Yellowstone Caldera was under the Blue Mountains in Oregon, it triggered a wave of cataclysmic lava flows in Washington. I don't know how likely it is to happen again, but I'm happy that there is a mountain range between here and there, and the jet stream is blowing thataway.

I PRAY Yellowstone is not capable of flood basalts any longer.

A caldera forming super-eruption would be far less damaging humanity than flood basalt events' those a fuck load longer.

 

[Arch Dornan]

What's this yellowstone?

 

[Bear Ribs]

What's this yellowstone?

One of the most beautiful, wonderland-like places on earth.

Spoiler: pictures

It has fantastic pools of boiling water on the surface with eerie colors.

Geysers of water shoot from the ground at regular intervals.

Humorous names. This one is Clown Butt Springs.

It also has rivers, waterfalls, buffalo herds, you name it.

The problem is all that magic comes from a supervolcano right under the surface with an ungodly amount of magma practically under our feet. If it every decides to cook off instead of just producing hot springs and geysers, it will take out most of the US and could reach extinction-event levels. We're talking "The ash is so thick in the atmosphere summer doesn't come for a few years due to sunlight not reaching the ground" levels.

 

[Arch Dornan]

One of the most beautiful, wonderland-like places on earth.

Spoiler: pictures

It has fantastic pools of boiling water on the surface with eerie colors.

Geysers of water shoot from the ground at regular intervals.

Humorous names. This one is Clown Butt Springs.

It also has rivers, waterfalls, buffalo herds, you name it.

The problem is all that magic comes from a supervolcano right under the surface with an ungodly amount of magma practically under our feet. If it every decides to cook off instead of just producing hot springs and geysers, it will take out most of the US and could reach extinction-event levels. We're talking "The ash is so thick in the atmosphere summer doesn't come for a few years due to sunlight not reaching the ground" levels.

Holy fucking shit. That's going to be like Mt. Vesuvius if it does happen.

 

[Bear Ribs]

Holy fucking shit. That's going to be like Mt. Vesuvius if it does happen.

Vesuvius was small potatoes. When Tambora cooked off, it produced The Year Without a Summer, also called Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death or the Poverty Year.

Yellowstone is significantly bigger than Tambora.

 

[Arch Dornan]

Vesuvius was small potatoes. When Tambora cooked off, it produced The Year Without a Summer, also called Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death or the Poverty Year.

Yellowstone is significantly bigger than Tambora.

Shit that happened in 1816 after the Napoleonic war? The globalists and world economies will be megafucked if there's a new Tambora.

 

[Husky_Khan]

What's this yellowstone?

It's like the New Madrid faultline but with volcanic (basalt lava flow) diarrhea.

 

[Scottty]

Shit that happened in 1816 after the Napoleonic war? The globalists and world economies will be megafucked if there's a new Tambora.

Them and everyone else, dude.

 

[Arch Dornan]

Them and everyone else, dude.

Not unless there's enclaves that are very self reliant but I don't give them much hope if they can't get sunlight for their own needs.

 

[Deleted member]

Even if the Oahu and Las Palmas slides happened simultaneously and Yellowstone erupted, the trans-Appalachian and inland east coast would collectively retain enough population and industry to be one of the ten most powerful countries on the planet. We’d even have enough shipbuilding industry to build 50,000 ton light carriers on the Gulf Coast.