Yves here. Synchronicity strikes! Lambert and I were discussing some of the extreme views expressed in comments yesterday. He attributed it to hysteria in the zeitgeist finally getting to the site. And now we have a theory as to why! It’s a neoliberal infestation.
By Marc Schuilenburg, assistant professor at VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Originally published at openDemocracy
In 1980, hysteria died. That was the year it was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) handbookand ceased to be considered a medical condition. But we need only look around us to see that hysteria has never been more alive – just consider the run on toilet paper at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Or the consumer hysteria every Black Friday, or the overheated discussions taking place on Facebook and Twitter every day.