@szbalint The situation in Chernobyl was instrumentation which literally could not register the actual scale of the catastrophe. Radiation meters read to the maximum scale, a thousand times below actual levels

The case I'm reporting here is ... different. It's one of seeing or admitting only one element of a situation, but not the inevitable implications of the whole scene. It's an aspect of what I've been calling #manifestation --- seeing only at the shallowest topical levels, not looking deeper or drawing connections.

It's also related to #denial, and probably #grief, which seem to be general responses to #WorldviewInvalidation --- having one's core belief systems invalidated. (Look up the initial Stages of Grief #KublerRoss work, it relates. I've seen similar descriptions of #authoritarian responses.) Mind, "not great, not terrible" expresses this, though coming through a diffrent door. The end result is the same: denying reality.

See related, the North Dakota nurse reporting on patients whose dying words are denial that the thing killing them is in fact COVID-19. Or the Utah health commissioner, sending overflow patients to Washington state, insisting that they have some other condition.

Denial is a formidable force.