Why Some People Want the World to Burn

The Psychology Behind Apocalyptic Thinking and Why It’s Dangerous

In this episode of PsyberSpace, host Leslie Poston digs into the growing phenomenon of apocalyptic thinking, exploring its psychological, sociological, and cultural roots. The episode examines why some people are drawn to the idea of societal collapse and how this mindset is manifesting in modern times through various ideologies and policies. Leslie discusses historical and contemporary examples, the role of trauma, and the disturbing impact of repeated COVID-19 infections on cognitive functions. The episode also highlights the commodification and monetization of despair online and argues for collective action, mutual aid, and hope as antidotes to the lure of apocalyptic thinking. Leslie concludes by emphasizing that positive change does not require collapse, but rather, requires human connection and collective effort.

00:00 Introduction to Apocalyptic Thinking
01:31 Historical Fascination with Endings
02:44 The Psychology Behind Apocalyptic Beliefs
03:34 Accelerationism: Pushing for Collapse
05:59 Christian Nationalism and Apocalyptic Theology
08:55 The Impact of Continuous Conflict
12:16 Neurological Effects of COVID-19
14:01 The Role of Social Media in Amplifying Despair
16:01 Climate Nihilism and the Elite's Response
18:04 The Profitability of Collapse
19:20 A Counter-Narrative: Post-Traumatic Growth
21:28 Conclusion: Choosing Hope Over Despair

Research

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American Psychological Association. (2020). Mental health and our changing climate: Impacts, implications, and guidance. https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2020/02/climate-mental-health

Araújo, N., Silva, I., Campos, P. et al. Cognitive impairment 2 years after mild to severe SARS-CoV-2 infection in a population-based study with matched-comparison groups. Sci Rep 15, 24335 (2025). 

Bandura, A. (2000). Exercise of human agency through collective efficacy. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9(3), 75–78.

Lewis, R. (2018). Alternative influence: Broadcasting the reactionary right on YouTube. Data & Society.

Clayton, S. (2020). Climate anxiety: Psychological responses to climate change. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 74, 102263.

Li, Z., Zhang, Z., Zhang, Z., Wang, Z., & Li, H. (2023). Cognitive impairment after long COVID: current evidence and perspectives. Frontiers in Neurology, 14.

Freud, S. (1920). Beyond the pleasure principle (J. Strachey, Trans.). International Psycho-Analytical Press.

Ganesh R, Blitshteyn S, Verduzco-Gutierrez M, Abene S, Ciccone I. A deep dive: understanding the neurological toll of long COVID. Contagion. 2024. https://www.contagionlive.com/roundtables/a-deep-dive-understanding-the-neurological-toll-of-long-covid

Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (1986). The causes and consequences of a need for self-esteem: A terror management theory. In R. F. Baumeister (Ed.), Public self and private self (pp. 189–212). Springer.

Haidt, J. (2012). The righteous mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion. Pantheon Books.

Jost, J. T., Banaji, M. R., & Nosek, B. A. (2004). A decade of system justification theory: Accumulated evidence of conscious and unconscious bolstering of the status quo. Political Psychology, 25(6), 881–919.

Klein, N. (2007). The shock doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism. Metropolitan Books.

Seligman, M. E. P. (1975). Helplessness: On depression, development, and death. W.H. Freeman.

Solnit, R. (2009). A paradise built in hell: The extraordinary communities that arise in disaster. Viking.

Sontag, S. (1978). Illness as metaphor. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Tedeschi, R. G., & Calhoun, L. G. (2004). Posttraumatic growth: Conceptual foundations and empirical evidence. Psychological Inquiry, 15(1), 1–18.

Tufekci, Z. (2018). YouTube, the great radicalizer. The New York Times.

Turner, V. (1969). The ritual process: Structure and anti-structure. Aldine.

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Episode Transcript

Leslie Poston (00:13):
Welcome back to PsyberSpace. I'm your host,
Leslie Poston. And today, we'restepping into the fire. Some
people live in fear of the endof the world, and others seem to
crave it. Whether it's religiousprophecy, societal collapse, or
full blown climate doom,apocalyptic thinking has gone

(00:34):
mainstream.
You're starting to see iteverywhere in the headlines, in
TikTok videos about prepping, inbillionaire bunkers, in crypto
libertarian manifestos, even inour government policy. But
here's what's fascinating. Thisurge to watch it all burn isn't
just a cultural quirk or anInternet meme. It's rooted in

(00:57):
real, measurable psychology andsociology. And here's the
kicker.
Apocalyptic thinking oftenthrives not just in despair, but
in power. The people pushinghardest for collapse often
expect to survive it. That'swhat we're unpacking today. Why
some people want the world toburn, what that desire tells us

(01:18):
about trauma, power, belief, andbrain function, and why
understanding this psychologymight be the key to stepping
back from the brink. Let's getinto it.
Apocalyptic thinking isn't new.The desire to see the world
wiped clean and start over hashaunted human consciousness for

(01:39):
millennia. From the mythicalNoah's flood to Ragnarok, from
the book of revelation to modernzombie movies, we've always been
fascinated by the stories ofendings. Religious movements
like millenarianism havepromised violent resets for
centuries. The wicked punishedthe faithful rewarded.

(02:00):
The Taiping Rebellion innineteenth century China killed
20,000,000 people when it wasdriven by a man who believed he
was the brother of Jesus Christ.During the Cold War, nuclear
annihilation felt inevitable.Gen Xers certainly remember
hiding under our desk doingnuclear drills. Some people

(02:20):
found that strangely comforting,the certainty of it. In 1999, it
was y two k.
In 2012, we were freaking outabout the Mayan calendar. These
moments come with a strange mixof fear and anticipation, both
terror and excitement, becauseendings promise clarity in a way

(02:41):
that messy, ongoing life nevercan. Sociologist Emile Durkheim
called this anomie, thepsychological disorientation
that emerges when societal normsbreak down, when people lose
their sense of meaning, purpose,and connection. Anthropologist
Victor Turner described theseperiods as liminal spaces, times

(03:03):
when society is between stories,vulnerable to new myths. That's
when apocalyptic belief surges,when people feel they've lost
the script.
But here's what's important tounderstand. Apocalyptic
movements aren't just aboutfear. They're about control.
They promise that chaos hasmeaning, that suffering has

(03:24):
purpose, that the faithful willbe vindicated. In a world that
often feels random and unfair,that can be intoxicating.
Apocalyptic belief can bepassive, waiting for the
rapture, stocking up on cannedgoods, or watching for signs,
but it can also be active, whichis where accelerationism comes

(03:46):
in. Accelerationism is thebelief that society should be
pushed to collapse, to forceradical change. It's a
philosophy of things have to getworse before they get better or
sometimes just let it all fallapart and see what emerges from
the ashes. On the far right,this manifests in violent

(04:07):
ideologies like those of theboogaloo boys who wanted to
trigger a second civil war orwhite nationalist eco fascists
who believe in environmentalcollapse as necessary to rebuild
a racially pure society. Theydon't fear chaos.
They weaponize it. On the technolibertarian side, you see it in

(04:29):
e slash ACC, effectiveaccelerationism, where Silicon
Valley types want AI, crypto,and deregulated technology to
outpace governments and socialinstitutions. We're living
through that one in real time.For them, collapse isn't a bug.
It's a feature.
Creative destruction. Move fastand break things even if those

(04:50):
things are democracy, economicstability, social cohesion, or
the health of your fellow man.There's even left
accelerationism, the idea thatcapitalism should be pushed to
its logical extreme to hastenits collapse and enable true
socialism, though this tends tobe more theoretical than
tactical. What unites all theseflavors is a shared belief that

(05:15):
gradual change is impossible,that reform is futile, and that
only catastrophic disruption cancreate the conditions for their
preferred future.Accelerationism is seductive
because it makes chaos feel likecontrol.
It transforms helplessness intoagency. You're not a victim of

(05:36):
circumstance. You're an agent ofdestiny. Burning it all down
becomes a form of meaningmaking. But here's the dark
irony.
Accelerationists rarely plan tosuffer through the collapse
they're trying to create. Theyfully expect to be the
architects of the new world, notone of its casualties. One of

(05:59):
the most dangerous accelerantsin American politics is
Christian nationalism,especially its relationship with
apocalyptic theology. Thismovement believes America is
divinely ordained and thatfulfilling biblical prophecy,
including the end times, is apolitical mission. That's where

(06:20):
it intersects with ChristianZionism, a belief system held by
millions of Americanevangelicals who support the
Israeli state not out ofsolidarity with Jewish people,
but because they think Israel'sexistence is necessary to
trigger Armageddon and thesecond coming of their Christ.
Let me be very clear aboutsomething here because this gets

(06:43):
weaponized constantly. Judaismand Zionism are not the same
thing. Judaism is a religion, anethnicity, and a culture.
Zionism is a political ideology.You can be Jewish and anti
Zionist like Jewish Voices forPeace.

(07:04):
You can be non Jewish andZionist. And anti Semitism, real
harmful prejudice against Jewishpeople, is wrong and must be
condemned wherever it appears.But here's what's disturbing.
There are more ChristianZionists in America than Jewish
ones. Pollings suggest that 25to 30% of American Christians

(07:29):
believe Israel must control allof the biblical holy land to
fulfill prophecy compared tomuch lower levels of support for
territorial maximalism amongAmerican Jews.
This is not theology in serviceof justice. It's ideology using
sacred belief as a politicaltool, and it's currently pushing

(07:50):
us toward a global conflict.This conflict benefits those who
think destruction bringssalvation. Research by Jonathan
Haidt shows how sacralizingpolitics leads to extreme moral
disengagement where harm toothers is justified in service
of a higher cause. When yourpolitical goals become religious

(08:11):
obligations, compromise becomesheresy.
And when you believe your godwants certain people to suffer,
their suffering becomes holy anddifficult to stop. This
psychology doesn't just driveforeign policy. It's shaping
domestic politics as well.Christian nationalist movements
often embrace authoritarianleaders because they believe

(08:33):
democracy itself is an obstacleto divine will. If the majority
doesn't choose theirrighteousness, then the
righteous must choose for them.
It's accelerationism wrapped inscripture, and it is incredibly
dangerous. Of course, you don'tneed theology to fall in love

(08:54):
with collabs. Sometimes it'sjust exhaustion. In The United
States, endless war hasnormalized destruction. From
Iraq and Afghanistan to Syria,Yemen, Somalia, from covert
drone strikes to proxyconflicts, Americans have been
conditioned to see violence aspermanent background noise.

(09:16):
We've been at war somewhereconstantly for well over two
decades. This creates what wecall collapse fatigue, a numbing
effect where people stopbelieving in peaceful solutions
because peace seems soimpossible. Violence becomes the
default. Destruction becomesexpected. This echoes Freud's

(09:38):
concept of the death drive,Thanatos, a subconscious pull
toward destruction when lifebecomes too unbearable or
unresolvable.
When the tension of existenceexceeds our capacity to process
it, we sometimes prefer thefinality of ending to the
uncertainty of continuing. SusanSontag wrote brilliantly about

(10:00):
how metaphors of illness reflectsocietal rot. She warned that
when disease becomes moralizedor romanticized, when we talk
about cancer in terms of battlesto be won rather than a
condition to be managed, itactually prevents actual
healing. We see the same thingin how war becomes, quote,

(10:21):
freedom or bombing becomes,quote, liberation, how
surveillance becomes safety, andhow inequality becomes
opportunity. This languageobscures the reality, making
violence seem noble and collapseseem necessary.
Authoritarian leaders, bothabroad and at home, exploit this

(10:43):
psychology ruthlessly. Whencollapse feels inevitable,
control seems like the onlyalternative. When the world is
ending anyway, why not let astrong leader decide how? This
is how democracies die. Not indarkness, but in the glare of a
promised false salvation.
What makes people vulnerable toapocalyptic thinking? Well,

(11:07):
trauma for one, but morespecifically unprocessed
collective trauma that getsmistaken for wisdom. There's a
body of research called terrormanagement theory that shows how
humans respond to mortalitysalience, the awareness that
death is inevitable. When we'rereminded of death, we cling

(11:29):
harder to belief systems thatmake us feel safe, meaningful,
or immortal through legacy, evenif those systems are
destructive. Add to that learnedhelplessness Seligman's research
showing that repeated exposureto uncontrollable pain or
failure causes people to stoptrying even when escape is
possible.

(11:49):
And you get a perfect recipe forfatalism. And then there's
system justification theory,which we've talked about before.
Developed by Jost andcolleagues, it shows how people
will defend unjust systems ifthey perceive no alternative.
It's psychologically easier torationalize the status quo even

(12:10):
when it's harming you than it isto face the cognitive dissonance
of admitting it needs to change.But now we have a biological
layer that's a little bitchilling.
New neurological studies haveshown that repeat COVID-nineteen
infections, whether they aresymptomatic or asymptomatic,

(12:31):
mild or severe, erode cognitivefunction, damage risk
assessment, and blunt empathyresponses. We're talking about
research from around the globeshowing measurable changes in
brain structure and brainfunction after COVID nineteen

(12:51):
infections. The more infectionsyou allow yourself and your
children to get, the worse yourbrain function declines. Think
about the implications of that.A virus that's been spreading
through the global populationfor four plus years isn't just
harming our lungs.
It's rewiring how we feel,think, and respond to complex

(13:14):
situations. Making us worse atjudging risk, worse at imagining
other people's pain, worse atadapting to nuance and
uncertainty. In other words,it's making us perfect targets
for apocalyptic messaging. Thisisn't just mass burnout or a
trauma response. It's massneurological erosion happening

(13:38):
in real time, and nobody'stalking about it because
acknowledging it would requireadmitting that our public health
failures have created cognitivevulnerabilities that make
democracy itself more fragile.
When your brain can't properlyassess risk or feel empathy,
authoritarian certainty becomesmore appealing than democratic

(13:59):
complexity. Let's talk about howthis psychology gets amplified
and monetized online. On TikTok,YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, you'll
find entire subculturesaestheticizing collapse. It's
called the black pill, anihilistic worldview that

(14:20):
teaches nothing matters. No onecan change anything, and the
only rational response isdetached cynicism or accelerated
destruction.
The aesthetics are slick.Glitchy visuals, synth wave
music, neon lighting,apocalyptic imagery. The vibe is
Blade Runner meets Doomer.Twitter meets Incel forums. It's

(14:42):
designed to make despair lookcool.
Prepping culture has evolvedfrom survivalist subcultures
into mainstream identityperformance. You're not just
buying freeze dried foodanymore. You're curating an
aesthetic of preparedness thatsignals both your awareness of
coming collapse and yoursuperiority to the unprepared
masses. Social media algorithmslove this content because

(15:06):
extremes get engagement.Researchers like Tufecchi and
Lewis have documented howplatforms feed people
increasingly radical content,not necessarily because of
deliberate intent, but becauseof perverse design incentives.
Anger, fear, and outrage keeppeople scrolling. Hope and
nuance are so boring online.Collapse becomes clickable

(15:29):
content. Now here's what'sreally insidious. These
platforms don't just reflect ourpsychology.
They shape it. When your dailyinformation diet consists of
crisis, conflict, andcatastrophe, your brain starts
to adapt. You start expectingdisasters, planning for them,
maybe even hoping for thembecause at least then the
waiting would be over. Thealgorithm doesn't care about

(15:51):
your mental health. It caresabout your attention.
And nothing captures attentionlike the promise that everything
is about to end. Let's behonest. The climate crisis is
terrifying. We've talked aboutthat in a previous episode. The
science is clear.
The timeline is urgent, and thepolitical response has been

(16:12):
criminally inadequate. Climateanxiety is real, rational, and
increasing. But some people havegone past fear into climate
nihilism. A belief that it's toolate for anything to matter, so
why bother trying? Studies haveshown that climate anxiety is
surging, especially among Gen Zand millennials.

(16:32):
Young people are postponinghaving children, questioning the
point of long term planning, andexperiencing genuine grief over
the future they thought they'dinherit. Here's where it gets
toxic. Despair is beingcommodified and weaponized.
We're told to recycle ourbottles while oil companies pump
out climate disinformation.We're encouraged to offset our

(16:55):
carbon footprints whilebillionaires take private jets
to climate conferences.
We're lectured about personalresponsibility while fossil fuel
companies spend millions todelay systemic change. This
creates a perfect condition fornihilistic detachment. If
individual action is meaninglessand systemic change feels

(17:15):
impossible, why not just embracethe collapse? Meanwhile, the
richest among us aren't fightingclimate change. They're planning
to survive it.
Underground bunkers in NewZealand, private compounds in
Montana, seasteadingcommunities, space colonization
fantasies. They don't fearcollapse. They expect it. And
they plan to watch it unfoldfrom a safe distance while the

(17:38):
rest of society burns. That'snot climate denial.
That's climate acceptance with atwist of social Darwinism. Let
the weak perish. Let theunworthy suffer, and the worthy
will endure. Eco fascism with atech bro aesthetic. And it's
gaining traction among peoplewho've given up on the
possibility of collectiveaction.

(18:00):
Here's the thing about the endof the world. It's not free.
Someone's always sellingtickets. From military
contractors who profit fromconflict, to media companies
that monetize our outrage, totech giants who benefit from
digital dependence and disastercapitalists who buy up
distressed assets, Collapse isprofitable for people positioned

(18:22):
to exploit it. Naomi Kleincalled this disaster capitalism,
the systematic exploitation ofcrises to push through policies
or extract wealth that peoplewouldn't otherwise accept.
Hurricane hits, time toprivatize public services.
Pandemic strikes, time totransfer wealth upward.
Democracies weakening, time toconsolidate power. Authoritarian

(18:46):
leaders love collapse narrativestoo because they justify powers.
Normal democracy is just tooslow, messy, and constrained by
rights and procedures.
Crisis demands decisive action,strong leadership. Temporary
suspensions of civil libertiesthat somehow always become
permanent. Here's what'simportant to understand. The

(19:10):
people pushing hardest forcollapse rarely plan to suffer
through it as we talked about.They still expect to be the
architects of the new world, notthe casualties.
Sociologist Rebecca Solnitoffered a powerful counter
narrative based on decades ofdisaster research. In most
actual disasters, people don'tpanic. They don't turn savage.

(19:32):
They cooperate and shareresources. They help strangers.
Ordinary people displayextraordinary solidarity. But
the elite among us expectviolence and chaos from the
public because they'reprojecting, and projection is
real. They assume others willbehave as selfishly as they

(19:53):
would. It's why they hoardwealth, which we'll be talking
about next week, build bunkers,and isolate themselves from the
communities they claim to serve.Their fear isn't of collapse
itself.
It's of accountability andhaving to face the people
they've harmed when the systemsthat protect them fall away. So

(20:16):
where does that leave us? Are wejust doomed to burn while the
wealthy watch from theirbunkers? No. But we have to stop
pretending that collapse isdestiny or that accelerating it
will somehow lead to justice.
Richard Tadeshi and LawrenceCalhoun introduced the concept
of post traumatic growth. Theidea that trauma, while harmful,

(20:37):
can also lead to transformation,deeper connection, and moral
clarity. Not because sufferingis good, but because humans are
remarkably resilient andadaptive when they have
community support. Bandura'sresearch on collective efficacy
shows us that when peoplebelieve in their shared ability
to affect change, they actuallydo change things. The belief

(20:57):
becomes self fulfilling, notthrough magical thinking, but
through coordinated action.
But the path away fromapocalypse is slow, messy, and
hard. It requires mutual aidinstead of individual prepping,
civic engagement instead ofwithdrawal, listening instead of
shouting, accountability insteadof scapegoating and compassion

(21:19):
instead of contempt. And itrequires resisting the dopamine
hit of despair, that seductivesimplicity of just giving up.
Hope is not naive. It's achoice.
We've talked about that beforeas well. It's deciding that the
future is worth fighting foreven when you can't guarantee
the outcome. It's choosing toplant trees whose shade you may

(21:40):
never enjoy. And hope isunderstanding that apocalyptic
thinking offers emotionalescape, not real solutions, and
collapse doesn't bring clarity.It only brings suffering,
especially for our mostvulnerable.
It's tempting to let go, todecide it's all too much or to
root for the asteroid, toembrace the aesthetic of decline

(22:02):
and just tell yourself you'rebeing realistic. But collapse
doesn't bring the catharticresolution that apocalyptic
thinking promises. It bringshunger, displacement, violence,
and death disproportionately forpeople who did the least to
cause it. The psychology ofapocalypse is seductive because
it offers false simplicity.You're right.

(22:23):
They're wrong. The end is nigh.No more uncertainty. But we
don't have to surrender to thoseimpulses. Stay in the mess.
Stay in the complexity. Stay inthe hard daily work of building
the world we want to live ininstead of waiting for the world
we hate to end. We canacknowledge that the problems
are real, climate change,inequality, authoritarianism,

(22:47):
technological disruption withoutconcluding that destruction is
the only solution. We can chooseconnection over isolation,
cooperation over competition,and repair over replacement.
Hope is not naive.
In this world that wants us togive up, choosing to care is
radical. Choosing to stayengaged is revolutionary, and

(23:10):
choosing to believe that we cando better is the bravest thing
we can do. Because here's thetruth the accelerationists don't
want you to know. We don't needcollapse to create change. We
just need each other.
Thanks again for listening toPsyberSpace. This is your host,
Leslie Poston, signing off.Remember to stay curious and
stay connected. And don't forgetto subscribe so you don't miss a

(23:34):
week. And if you like this, sendit to a friend you think might
like it too.