Fear Mongering

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Everything old is new again. Whether it’s remakes of old horror movies like Friday the 13th and Scream, or rehashing old irrational panics.

According to polls by the non partisan Public Religion Research Institute, ~1/4 of Republicans believe Satan-worshipping pedophiles running a global sex-trafficking operation control the U.S. government, media and financial institutions. It’s not just a replay of the old 1980s “Satanic Panic,” it’s a core tenet of the QAnon conspiracy theory.

But not just that- we’re also getting an encore of the 80s fear mongering that some stranger will slip drugs into your kid’s Halloween candy! This time it’s fentanyl in brightly colored pills, called “rainbow pills” or skittles. While the rainbow fentanyl pills are real, we’ve yet to see drug dealers or users eager to give it all away at the front door. But that didn’t stop RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel from stoking those fears.

The Satanic Panic and Drugs in the Halloween Candy fears have come before and they weren’t true. But a lot of people were tricked into believing they were true.

There are things to watch out for in the world. But all told, the vast majority of people are good and America is a much safer place than it was 30 years ago (crime statistics support the trends).

Don’t give in to these fears. They’re no more threat to you than Jason or Ghostface. They’re all equally fictional.

School Year Fears

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Schools are starting back up and kids are trying to figure out what supplies they need or don’t need. Unfortunately some fears are more overwhelming than others.

More children have died from COVID in the past 2 1/2 years than school shootings in the past 50 years.

But shootings bring a visceral reaction and will get a lot more funding and attention, just likely not in the right ways.

Both are complex, scary, low likelihood, and high consequence issues. No easy answers. But we shouldn’t let unfounded fears dominate our actions. We need data and science and research to show us how best to address these issues and make our kids feel safe and secure in school.

And remind ourselves and our kids that for both issues, the overwhelming percentages say they’ll be ok.