The modern doomsday ethos is often used by individuals to signal virtue while abdicating local, practical responsibilities.

“if you take on the apocalyptic burden and you're virtuous only in consequence of your compassionate concern it gives you a perfect excuse to dispense with local responsibility and if you dispense with local responsibility then you're no longer able to engage in the concrete problem solving activitie”

Secular movements, such as environmentalism, often mirror religious millenarian traditions by predicting an impending apocalypse, which distracts from solving more manageable, medium-sized disasters.

“environmentalists are the latest heirs to the millenarian tradition they love to say that the world is about to end it's in 12 years it must be now eight years and counting that's part of a long tradition where secular movements Embrace often unwittingly religious ideas about the impending uh apocal”