Although human life has always been complex and often messy, thus challenging and anxiety-provoking, currently our technology has made it far easier to spread the flames of negativity, divisiveness, meanness and fear. The so-called culture war is based on insecurity and fear, which easily morphs into anger and rage. Then these hot potatoes get tossed around in finger-pointing projections.

Fear screams out with bullying voices over contrived hot potatoes like Critical Race Theory. Sadly anxious adults, acting like rageful hornets, sting their innocent children with toxic fear. Thus such fear gets put on endless recycling, as history keeps repeating itself.

Fear usually is born in the ignorance of not knowing and not understanding, which easily metastasizes into falsehood. Sadly, fanning such flames is the basic business model of Fox News, along with the Trump/Republican Party cult, plus the high-octane fuel of internet false narratives.

There lies upon a constant barrage of more lies, reflected in cherry-picking the truth, along with ongoing blame games, eroding the basic goodness of humanity. Planting seeds of doubt has created a weed-infested garden of insecurity and rageful fear.

Fortunately, fear is a learned behavior, so if enough fingers get tired of getting burned, hopefully people will become proactive by learning to respect diversity, then treating others with compassion while trying to meet very similar common human needs.

Mike Beebe

Lyndeborough

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