Fear Mongering

Am I the only one who finds this reprehensible? It doesn’t matter if it’s about the evils of tobacco, illegal drugs, or refugees. False information used to scare people is still false information. There is plenty to be terrified of in this world, why do we make up things and pretend they are true?

If something is bad for you like cigarettes, it is enough to know it causes cancer, don’t lie and say it causes impotence.

If illegal drugs can be addictive, or damage your brain, forever altering who you are; isn’t that enough of a deterrent? There is no need to make up stories about what the drugs can do to a person far beyond what is true. Reality is bad enough.

By the same token, having a population of people hidden in our country, leaving them vulnerable to every slaver, criminal, and bad actor is terrifying. Making up stories about what they do and how they are cheating others is unnecessary. Obviously, if you are hiding for your life, you do not register for government aide. People who do are not in hiding. Lumping in people who are late with their paperwork with those who snuck into our country to avoid persecution and death is not fair to either group.

Is our fear of a changing demographic influencing our view of humanity? Are people so threatened to learn that not all people look like them, or speak like them; not even the majority of the humans on earth? Are we so terrified of other faiths that we make up ridiculous stories about others and show our lack of truthfulness and instill fear for no reason?

Since when was America a land of opportunity for the chosen and a land of persecution for others? When did it become acceptable to legislate against a group based on imagined infractions, based on rumor and innuendo?

I love this country, but we need to learn what is true and what is not.