Maybe some historic examples could be something where readers can look back and all agree that it was a cause where focusing on it made the world worse? Some random ideas:
witch hunts
appeasing vengeful gods with human sacrifice (ofc you might want to tread carefully around religious topics)
the Shoa is a very horrific example of an anti-semitic ‚cause‘ (maybe still too emotional and politically charged, but maybe another genocidal movement could be used as a thing depressingly many people got behind)
homosexual conversion movements (maybe also hits too close to home for some readers)
„female sexual purity“ as a cause that led to norms of female genital mutilation and honor killings?
some sects that predicted the apocalypse and did a lot of harm to their members with their preparations?
My initial reaction was “plastic straws/bags” as well, but the approach from ‘meerpirat’ now seems like the obvious way to go. I don’t know anything on the topic, but there must be some clearly successful religious crusades that would be widely accepted as harmful now?
I’m trying to think of a more modern example that readers are more likely to find intuitively relatable, but run into the problem like you say in comment above “perhaps all the main causes which people focus on are at least somewhat good.” I think the best bet if you are to stick with more relatable causes is to highlight a cause that you can convince readers is clearly not as good . For example, poverty/health concerns of developed nations vs developing nations). You might hit a snag with many readers who have strong “charity begins at home” intuitions but it would be food for thought at least, and persuasive on readers you are likely targeting.
edit: I prefer ’alexrjl’s plastic straws example, as has reasons for why it is likely actually bad.
These are great ideas and exactly along the right lines of what I was looking for. I agree the religious aspect is tricky to navigate, but perhaps being somewhat close to home is useful for readers (i.e. I expect many readers will believe in the apocalypse, but very few would endorse sects who predict specific dates.
Someone on Facebook has also suggested China’s One Child Policy, which is a nice contemporary example, not least because it was reversed this year!
Maybe some historic examples could be something where readers can look back and all agree that it was a cause where focusing on it made the world worse? Some random ideas:
witch hunts
appeasing vengeful gods with human sacrifice (ofc you might want to tread carefully around religious topics)
the Shoa is a very horrific example of an anti-semitic ‚cause‘ (maybe still too emotional and politically charged, but maybe another genocidal movement could be used as a thing depressingly many people got behind)
homosexual conversion movements (maybe also hits too close to home for some readers)
„female sexual purity“ as a cause that led to norms of female genital mutilation and honor killings?
some sects that predicted the apocalypse and did a lot of harm to their members with their preparations?
My initial reaction was “plastic straws/bags” as well, but the approach from ‘meerpirat’ now seems like the obvious way to go. I don’t know anything on the topic, but there must be some clearly successful religious crusades that would be widely accepted as harmful now?
I’m trying to think of a more modern example that readers are more likely to find intuitively relatable, but run into the problem like you say in comment above “perhaps all the main causes which people focus on are at least somewhat good.” I think the best bet if you are to stick with more relatable causes is to highlight a cause that you can convince readers is clearly not as good . For example, poverty/health concerns of developed nations vs developing nations). You might hit a snag with many readers who have strong “charity begins at home” intuitions but it would be food for thought at least, and persuasive on readers you are likely targeting.
edit: I prefer ’alexrjl’s plastic straws example, as has reasons for why it is likely actually bad.
These are great ideas and exactly along the right lines of what I was looking for. I agree the religious aspect is tricky to navigate, but perhaps being somewhat close to home is useful for readers (i.e. I expect many readers will believe in the apocalypse, but very few would endorse sects who predict specific dates.
Someone on Facebook has also suggested China’s One Child Policy, which is a nice contemporary example, not least because it was reversed this year!