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# Herald Columnist Needs to Harden Up
- URL: https://goodoil.news/herald-columnist-needs-to-harden-up/
- Published: 2021-08-29T20:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2024-07-17T16:58:17.000Z
- Author: Cam Slater
- Tags: COVID-19, Featured, Media, NZ, NZ Politics, Politics, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-17 01:54

With a title like “[4 ways to deal with anxiety over Covid Delta variant](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/mind-matters-with-kyle-macdonald-covid-19-delta-threat-is-real-and-anxiety-is-spiralling/OT5HVCLEM4UXJE6ZU5S463AGSI/?ref=goodoil.news)“, I was expecting to see:

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/31/f4/31f4e20a-0315-499e-83ff-139e8eab53bf/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/screen-shot-2021-08-29-at-12.45.46-pm.png)

NZ Herald Headline

1. Don’t be such a pussy
2. Take a cup of cold concrete and harden up
3. Stop listening to Jacinda Ardern
4. Avoid the mainstream media.

But no, we get someone who immediately stokes up readers’ anxiety with: *“the Delta strain is worse, and as a result, we’re taking it more seriously”* and: *“And this is the problem with Covid and anxiety – the threat is real”.* Yep, she’s really trying hard to increase the fear levels in the gullible and anxious. She tries a little of her own ‘scientificness’ with a statement showing that she really doesn’t get medical language at all:

> It also helps define what anxiety is – specifically fear in the absence of fearful stimuli that grow to cause a problem by causing us to avoid or become preoccupied with the feared outcome. I reckon we’re all a bit preoccupied right now. And this is the problem with Covid and anxiety – the threat is real, but the intensity of how we’re feeling is a problem. So rather than focussing on dealing with, solving or getting rid of the anxiety (arguably not possible or even a good idea in situations where the threat is real) instead, we focus on reducing – or regulating – the fear response.

Well no ‘Ms’ MacDonald, that’s a jumbled definition of anxiety that I think you just chopped up and re-worded yourself. Maybe try something like this:

> Anxiety is a feeling of uneasiness and [worry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worry?ref=goodoil.news), usually generalized and unfocused as an **[overreaction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overreaction?ref=goodoil.news)** to a situation that is **only subjectively seen as menacing**.[\[3\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anxiety?ref=goodoil.news#cite%5Fnote-3) It is often accompanied by muscular tension,[\[4\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anxiety?ref=goodoil.news#cite%5Fnote-DSM-5%5F189-4) restlessness, [fatigue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatigue%5F%28medical%29?ref=goodoil.news), inability to catch one’s breath, tightness in the abdominal region, and problems in concentration. Anxiety is closely related to [fear](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear?ref=goodoil.news), which is a response to a real or perceived immediate [threat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threat?ref=goodoil.news); anxiety involves the expectation of future threat including dread.

So the key difference between anxiety and fear is that fear is of a real, imminent threat, whereas anxiety is an overreaction to a perceived but not real threat. And that is the key here to what ‘she’ **should** be talking about.

The people are indeed anxious because our government has deliberately created and encouraged anxiety and **overreaction** in the population to serve its own political ends. You were so close ‘Ms’ MacDonald, but you were blinded by the anxiety-inducing propaganda of your left-wing comrades.

And, yes, I know **Kyle McDonald** is a bloke, but an article like this just reinforces the view that there are some pathetic, dribbling wet, girly men amongst us.

He writes like a Kylie, so I’m still calling him “Ms” anyway as it’s probably his chosen pronoun.

**Please share this article so others can discover *The BFD.***