[serhei]

> But since Slashdot posters ran the term 'FUD' into the ground ten years ago, you can't use it anymore without being derided.

Quite important. These days 'FUD' tends to gets used more for 'anything which threatens to evict me from my self-imposed ignorance bubble'.

[thwarted]

Yeah, a decade ago, one used FUD as a tool, sowing it in those who would listen, used by people who actually did that on purpose despite having knowledge or experience to the contrary. These days, FUD is increasingly less often something you spread, and rather it's something you have, something that keeps you from making good business decisions, it is a myopic view borne from an all-in vested self-interest; it is a response to being backed into a corner, not being able to see, or even conceive of, the next move that should be made, yet seeing the writing on the wall that you are becoming increasingly obsolete and the realization that the only way to remain relevant is to attack the unstoppable competition. FUD used to be used to keep people from trying your competitors; now FUD is used to stop people from using your competitors. FUD used to be telling lies to others; now FUD is telling lies to yourself.

The rhetoric is the same though.