This image posted on our Twitter account was meant to warn cyclists of an important danger that would not be apparent to them. Instead many radicalized cyclists took it as blaming cyclists for causing their injury and death.
Recently Gorski Consulting attempted to convey an important safety message to cyclists with a short Twitt. This was based on the results of real-life collisions that were reconstructed by Gorski Consulting. What resulted was an angry response from many who decided the message was blaming cyclists for the existence of the safety problem.
This is just another example, of many, where the internet has created new armies of radical and intolerant beings who can no longer assess matters calmly and objectively. It represents a new development of our time where persons become indoctrinated within their village of fellow believers, unwilling and incapable of understanding an alternative viewpoint. These are psychological matters that need the intervention of specialists in human behavior who can explain what is taking place. Yet the word of specialists on many important issues, whether from the medical, engineering or general scientific communities has been suppressed by the general noise of the internet. It is just as easy for some village shaman to use seductive messaging that pleases what the crowd wants to hear rather than the dry logic of science that is often too complex for the average person to understand. This is an evolving development and its resolution is uncertain. But mass hysteria is a dangerous thing.
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