It's fascinating to watch, although I admit I want to smack every one of them in the mouth and tell them to snap out of it.
This is the power of the media. People on the TV, that they don't even know, have told them to be absolutely incensed and hysterical with grief, so they are. Intellectually they know that children don't go to jail with their parents. They also know that children of people sent to jail are taken in by fosters or put in a group home environment.
This is aside from the fact that they indeed know that many of those crying children are sobbing for their parent that's back in Mexico or Central America, not the smuggler who was detained for entering the US illegally. They have been told repeatedly that first time illegal entry is a misdemeanor and all that happens is that the person is sent back to their country; they have also been told repeatedly that subsequent offenses are a felony and punished by jail time.
Intellectually, they know all these things; and yet when the strangers on TV tell them to keen and wail and lose their mind, that's exactly what they do. When someone they actually know tries to tell them the facts (with proof), they reject it out of hand and run back to the strangers on TV for comfort.
It's scary how emotion-based and easily led a large portion of our populace is, to the point that they are tunnel-visioned and glassy eyed in their rage, and won't even entertain the notion that they may be consuming erroneous or incomplete information.
The power of the media to lead the sheeple. Amazing.
This is the power of the media. People on the TV, that they don't even know, have told them to be absolutely incensed and hysterical with grief, so they are. Intellectually they know that children don't go to jail with their parents. They also know that children of people sent to jail are taken in by fosters or put in a group home environment.
This is aside from the fact that they indeed know that many of those crying children are sobbing for their parent that's back in Mexico or Central America, not the smuggler who was detained for entering the US illegally. They have been told repeatedly that first time illegal entry is a misdemeanor and all that happens is that the person is sent back to their country; they have also been told repeatedly that subsequent offenses are a felony and punished by jail time.
Intellectually, they know all these things; and yet when the strangers on TV tell them to keen and wail and lose their mind, that's exactly what they do. When someone they actually know tries to tell them the facts (with proof), they reject it out of hand and run back to the strangers on TV for comfort.
It's scary how emotion-based and easily led a large portion of our populace is, to the point that they are tunnel-visioned and glassy eyed in their rage, and won't even entertain the notion that they may be consuming erroneous or incomplete information.
The power of the media to lead the sheeple. Amazing.
