mass hysteria

Rationality and the Taping of Moving Boxes

by Michael Fumento on March 9, 2011

in Odds & Ends

Post image for Rationality and the Taping of Moving Boxes

I have long been fascinated by both aberrational and irrational human behavior, at least since I documented a mass outbreak of hysteria regarding the so-called “heterosexual AIDS explosion” that wasn’t GOING to take place but allegedly already had.

More recently, I documented that the whole Toyota flap was mass sociogenic hysteria in the same category of the missing children and Satanic abuse in the day care centers hysteria. This notwithstanding that I’ve been unable to find a single publication that’s willing to print what I show is clearly obvious. Editors don’t think anybody is interested that this is America’s greatest mass hysteria in many years, and that such mass hysterias usually cause tremendous and lasting damage. And maybe they’re right.

Mind, “irrational” and “aberrational” are by no means synonymous. Often enough, irrationality rules the day and it’s rationality that is aberrational.

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Toyota “sudden acceleration deaths” suddenly accelerate

by Michael Fumento on February 16, 2010 · 2 comments

in Precaution & Risk

Predictably, in the wake of the media blitz about the alleged dangers of Toyotas suddenly accelerating, reports of fatalities linked (note: not “caused by”) such incidents has shot up.

In December the figure stood at 19, and then in January bumped up to 21. Since January 27th, when Toyota ordered a widespread recall, 13 more fatalities have been reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Somehow people’s memories have suddenly become a lot sharper, haven’t they?

Fortunately, the media seem wise to this. For example, today’s LA Times reports its own analysis “shows that all but one of the deaths reported to NHTSA by motorists in 2010 actually occurred in prior years – as far back as 1992 – suggesting that recent public attention to the issue spurred people to file complaints regarding past incidents. Most of the incidents occurred between 2003 and 2009.”

This is typical behavior in the light of something suddenly being seen as dangerous. If the media declare a drug is being investigated, suddenly people come out of the woodwork to make claims against the drug. I described that in an article about the alleged link between the acne medicine Accutane and suicide, in quoting an FDA spokeswoman saying, “When there’s public awareness or publicity about a drug for any reason, there may be an increase in reports because people may not have otherwise thought about associations.”

And it’s understandable human behavior that I think is usually innocent.

Usually.

But one can’t help but notice that when you google “Toyota deaths” the top link goes to one law firm soliciting Toyota accident clients while the sponsored link on the right takes you to another law firm. (The inset shows part of an advertisement from one of those firms.)

Come to think of it, people trying to get easy money is also understandable human behavior.

Pundits wiping “sneer” off Toyota’s face

by Michael Fumento on February 13, 2010

in Employment, Precaution & Risk, Sanctimony

Noteworthy is a tsk, tsk on page A1 of today’s Washington Post, “‘Toyota Way’ was lost on road to phenomenal worldwide growth.”

More noteworthy is a Financial Times column , “How Toyota Engineered its own Downfall.” Writer David Pilling sniggers, “Rather than admitting the problem early, Toyota tried to lay the blame on anything or anyone – floormats, suppliers, even drivers.”

[The inset is a Dr. Seuss characterization used during WWII to sell war bonds. The title: "Wipe that sneer off his face."]

Even drivers? It never occurred to Pilling that some of the alleged incidents of sudden acceleration might be driver error, when in fact driver error was behind the entire Audi 5000 hysteria in the mid-1980s?

As to floormats, in the single most horrific accident related to sudden Toyota acceleration, it appears a floormat was indeed to blame.

The bottom line appears to be that Toyota doesn’t know what the problem is because there are no patterns. As I note in a forthcoming article, a Consumer Reports analysis of sudden acceleration complaints regarding Toyota-built vehicles state “Drivers reported that sometimes their car lurched from a standstill, fighting the brakes. Other times it took off while cruising the highway, or while parking, or even while going in reverse.”

This lack of consistency does indeed indicate at least some incidence of driver error and certainly would befuddle anybody trying to fix “the problem.” Just what exactly is “the problem” anyway? All Toyota can do is to replace a lot of things.

But a better “fix” might be moving its worldwide headquarters to the U.S., notwithstanding that directly and indirectly it already employs about 200,000 Americans and Cars.com has rated the Camry, built in Kentucky and Indiana, the most “American” car sold.

Indeed, one auto analyst told Pilling that “The venom in the rhetoric [against Toyota] is quite stunning. I rather fancy the fact that they surpassed GM in 2008 and are seen to be hurting a proper American company is part of the issue.” This, he added, “is an opportunity to give Toyota a bit of a kicking.”

Presumably it could be worse. It could have happened to Mitsubishi. After all, they’re the ones who manufactured the famous (or infamous) “Zero” that proved so devastating at Pearl Harbor.

Postscript: As further evidence that satire is indeed dead, it turns out there is a bumper sticker that reads “Toyota: From the same folks who brought you Pearl Harbor.”

No “Weekly Flu Watch” this week

by Michael Fumento on October 11, 2009

in Health and Illness, Nanny State

See instead my article “Swine Flu: the Real Threat Is Panic,” from the New York Post

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Swinenewsflash! 21,000 college students missing!

by Michael Fumento on September 30, 2009 · 1 comment

in Odds & Ends, Precaution & Risk

“Twenty-one thousand college students are sick,” begins a Fox online news report titled: “H1N1 Picks Up Steam One Week Before Vaccine Becomes Available.” Wow! That’s a lot of sick kids! Tell us more!

But there is nothing more on those 21,000. Lots of talk about people swamping emergency rooms and school closings, yet not a single number regarding actual flu cases in a 765-word article.

What if it began “Flying saucers land on the White House lawn” and no flying saucers were mentioned again? And no, Fox fans, I’m not picking on your favorite network. Lots of people are tossing that number around; I just stumbled upon the Fox piece first.

Turns out the data are from the American College Health Association (ACHA) and are cumulative since August 22. So unless we assume that everybody who got the flu five weeks ago still has it, it’s hardly the snapshot implied by the present tense “are” and is worthless in determining whether the bug is “picking up steam” or “petering out.”

And the truly nifty thing about cumulative cases is they never go down. So next week they can use a higher figure and the week after a still higher one. Let’s play that with other diseases. “100 million Americans have cancer!” Or maybe, “10 million kids have polio!”

Cumulative figures are also useless for determining what’s happening right now – which is what this article and all the other scare stories are supposedly about. Nevertheless, the ACHA figures for the latest week at this writing show a 15% increase. Not exactly the end of the world, and in part it reflects that more institutions were reporting than the week before. Still, the increase for this week may prove much higher.

This is how you play the game, kids. But I’m guessing there are a lot of exhausted emergency room workers, along with truly ill patients being pushed aside by the worried well, who don’t really enjoy it.