11. Representations that thinking about global risks is pessimistic

This is related to earlier points about overconfidence and memetic selection effects. Considering doom (or being pessimistic at all) is associated with low status, so people don't want to be associated with it or approve of it. Contrast this with the experimental result that pessimistic people tend to make more accurate probability estimates, called “depressive realism”. The 21^st century is a minefield; if we're going to traverse it, we should do so cautiously. Dancing on it blindly is not optimism, but stupidity.