IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Fear Itself (special asteroid edition)

An article in Foreign Policy detailing what potential threats keep our leaders up at night launched quite the discussion about your own fears and anxieties

An article in Foreign Policy detailing what potential threats keep our leaders up at night launched quite the discussion about your own fears and anxieties.

Your responses were inspired (more on that in a sec.)

I neglected to share my own personal nightmare, which is that an aircraft-carrier-sized asteroid will smash into the earth like Gallagher's hammer into a watermelon.

A 1,300-foot-wide space bullet called 2005 YU55 is making a pass by the Earth today so close it's actually inside the moon's orbit. Too close! Too close! Says the L.A. Times:

"If an asteroid the size of 2005 YU55 did slam into Earth, the impact would be powerful enough to wipe out a major city like Los Angeles or Chicago with a direct hit, leveling everything within a 60-mile radius. If it splashed into the sea, it could create a 200-foot-high wave 60 miles away, said geophysicist Jay Melosh of Purdue University in Indiana, an expert on impact cratering."

GAH! It's our generation's Tunguska Event! (And you don't want to go full Tunguska, trust me.) So while I'm freaking out, scientists are assuring everyone that 2005 YU55 poses no danger.

Yeah, whatever. I'll be a whole lot happier when the giant heartless space cannonball is well the hell out of my neighborhood.

Now back to your fears. Based on your comments (on both MaddowBlog and Facebook), many of you are gut-churning about ignorance, greed, hate and Republicans. The silver lining? Your anxiety fueled frequent eloquence, like:


CDC72:

Spiders. I'm afraid of people who continue to vote against their own best interests because they somehow think they are either one of the 1% or that they will somehow get there. I'm afraid our economy will never truly recover in any meaningful fashion and the majority of folks will be cobbling together a living from multiple jobs for the foreseeable future. Rick Perry in the White House. Wait, I take back the spider comment - they really don't bother me that much.

Simply Agrestic:

I'm afraid of Americans. I'm afraid of the world. (Genius Bowie reference!)

Chris Randall:

I'm afraid of "Winner take all" economies.

Ben Laggart:

Daylight "Savings" time!

Tim Spratt:

The new Dr Pepper!

Rufus Dogg:

You forgot Snooki. That kind of non-thinking, non-reading, something-for-nothing culture scares the hell out of me.

Roy Fouts:

The loss of the concept of compromise.

Stacy Warren:

Malomars.

Bill Smee:

Snake-oil hawkers in spendy suits.

Longhorn Dem:

The rising tide of rogue planets allying themselves with the separatists. If our good chancellor and the Jedi Knights don't do something about this in a hurry, we'll have to do something drastic. Maybe even reconstruct ourselves into a galactic empire. Also, telling the difference between fiction and reality.

And finally. . . Sukumar Ismyfullnameyouidiots:

BEARS!

Got more fears you want to get off your chest? The comments are all yours.