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{"id":10056,"date":"2017-06-27T09:55:43","date_gmt":"2017-06-27T13:55:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/?p=10056"},"modified":"2017-06-29T02:51:40","modified_gmt":"2017-06-29T06:51:40","slug":"remember-pope-francis-said-fear-mongering-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2017\/06\/remember-pope-francis-said-fear-mongering-bad.html","title":{"rendered":"Remember When Pope Francis Said Fear-Mongering Is Bad?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Yeah, so do I<\/a>. \u00a0I thought of that as, once again, the reaction to a political bill is that millions will die and the earth will explode.<\/p>\n

An old political trick of course. \u00a0That\u2019s not to say I support the bill. \u00a0To be honest? \u00a0I\u2019ve not read it. \u00a0 I only have those opposed to or supportive of to listen to. \u00a0And guess what? \u00a0Those opposed to it before it came out will say it\u2019s bad, those who pledged their support before it came out will say it is\u00a0good.<\/p>\n

Of course this whole \u2018millions will die\u2019 is something I\u2019ve heard for years. \u00a0As I say, I became interested in politics in 1981, when the punditry said Ronald Reagan would promptly nuke the world and destroy humanity. \u00a0And that was before social media and cable news! \u00a0How could our country elect such a man? \u00a0I can\u2019t say how happy I was that the hysterics turned out to be untrue. \u00a0That is, Reagan didn\u2019t nuke the world and destroy humanity.<\/p>\n

But through the years, I learned this type of rhetoric was par for the course. \u00a0The problem is, it was also BS. \u00a0It was just part of the game. \u00a0You accused your opponent of wanting to let criminals rape your daughters or throw your grandparents off a cliff, but then when it was all over you went out together for beer and pizza.<\/p>\n

Somewhere, however, I fear that folks have forgotten \u00a0that. \u00a0I think some are beginning to believe the political BS. \u00a0That might be why Pope Francis said this about journalism that runs with \u2018we\u2019re all going to die!\u2019 hysteria. \u00a0Fear mongering that\u00a0is. \u00a0After all, if you really believe that the other side is hellbent on slaughtering millions, for some there can only be one logical course of action<\/a>. \u00a0 And one logical reaction<\/a>. \u00a0Before we go there, we had best be sure that they not only will kill millions, but in the end, they want to.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"