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There Is a Big Difference Between “Doomers” and “Doomists”

I think they actually represent two very different attitudes toward the future

Steve Genco
9 min readJan 2, 2025
A screenshot from the animated movie, Ratatouille, showing the food critic who reviews the restaurant. He looks very judgmental and condescending. His stance and expression remind me of a Doomist criticizing some climate mitigation action or polity.
Doomists love to criticize, like the critic in the movie “Ratatouille”. Not a self-portrait. Source: IMDB

I asked one of my many new AI buddies, “what does ‘ist’ as a suffix mean?

To which he/she/it quickly and confidently replied:

The suffix “-ist” has multiple meanings, including:

A person who performs an action: For example, “motorist” or “typist”

A person who practices in a specific field: For example, “physicist” or “geologist”

A person who advocates a particular doctrine: For example, “socialist” or “Buddhist”

A person characterized by a specified trait: For example, “purist” or “sexist” …

Here are some examples of words that use the suffix “-ist”:

Apologist, Dramatist, Machinist, Realist, Socialist, and Thomist.

To which I would add: Doomist

To me, a “Doomer” is a very different kind of person than a “Doomist”. A Doomer is essentially a “prepper” or “survivalist”, that is, someone who is preparing to survive whatever Armageddon has in store for them (note we call them preppers, not preppists). A Doomer imagines they can make it through any coming apocalypse…

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Steve Genco
Steve Genco

Written by Steve Genco

Steve is author of Intuitive Marketing (2019) & Neuromarketing for Dummies (2013). He holds a PhD in Political Science from Stanford University.

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