Perhaps you’ve heard the story going around social media. Perhaps you’re lucky and haven’t. But the story goes that schools are installing cat litter boxes in some bathrooms to accommodate kids who identify as cats.

Sounds ridiculous, right? Because it is. Yet it’s been shared widely across social media. Worse, several political candidates (almost entirely Republican) have repeated it in the press, on social media, at rallies and meetings. Joe Rogan - essentially an Internet troll with a big platform - repeated it on his show.

And it’s not true. A team of investigative journalists looked into each named accounting of the story. No truth to it.

How an urban myth about litter boxes in schools became a GOP talking point

Instead it spreads as part of the fear mongering over the gender identity debates and LGBTQ+ issues. It’s a way to ridicule and stoke fears of “the others” and legitimize laws to restrict rights of minority groups.

The saddest part is that the only kernel of truth in the cat litter story is some schools (from the same district as Columbine) that stock cat litter do it for “go buckets;” buckets of materials for kids locked in a classroom by an active shooter.

Way to go, America: do nothing about the real, horrible thing that happens repeatedly in our country and instead focus on some fake, imagined fear.

Please don’t spread this stupid cat litter nonsense. People who do should take a break from social media.

The Big Lie about the election. 5G receivers in vaccines. Obama’s birth certificate. And now questions over a one-source viral story about a 10-year old rape victim seeking an abortion.

What these stories all have in common is a lot of people who believe them simply because they’ve heard it over and over again.

Years ago, Stephen Colbert coined the term “truthiness” - things that sound true even if they aren’t.

In the age of social media, truthiness wins out over the truth, simply because it’s so easy to get things repeated. Whether they are not true or simply not corroborated doesn’t stop folks from hitting that share button.

So don’t think about whether this is true or not. Hit that Share button on this cartoon! Repost! Retweet!