If you're watching the news or listening to most politicians,
it's a scary time to be alive.
Islamic terrorists
will launch an attack on U.S. soil soon.
A fully-formed fetus
on the table,
its heart beating.
You want to have a nuclear arms race on the Korean peninsula?
In many ways, and I say this,
in many ways, the world is changing.
But Obama's not a secret terrorist,
Planned Parenthood isn't selling baby parts
and the world isn't going to end in a piss-soaked blaze of fire.
While information gets blown out of proportion
for the sake of clicks, views and votes,
we're left adrift in a sea of vaguely scary news.
But what are we so afraid of?
Here's why Americans need to start thinking for themselves
and stop making some of their most important decisions
based on fear.
Around the age of 5, I saw an episode of The X-Files with my dad
about a monster that lived in the sewers of New Jersey.
For a week, I couldn't poop
because I was afraid the monster would pop out of the toilet
and eat me, ass-first.
The fear overtook me so intensely
that I pooped behind my grandmother's couch
at the age of five
instead of popping a squat on the monster-infested toilet.
We're suffering through something similar as a country.
When the specter of some imagined threat takes hold,
we let fear and misinformation drive our decisions.
Even when the facts tell us otherwise.
While some politicians would capitalize on these fears
to secure power,
I am more interested in getting this country back on the toilet.
So let's unclog our asses,
save a few couches
and arm ourselves with the knowledge
to shit with confidence.
OK, I'm going to dump this metaphor now.
We will stop our southern border
from being infiltrated by terrorists.
It's easy to generalize by calling immigrants criminals,
job stealers and terrorists,
but reliable research proves these are
isolationist scare tactics without a basis in fact.
There is no documented evidence
of a terror attack in the U.S. originating from
or being planned in Mexico.
You are 252 times more likely to be murdered by a person
born in the U.S. than a foreign-born attacker
and FBI data shows that immigrants are the community
least likely to commit crime in this country.
So why did Americans vote for a political party
pushing a wall that no one wants to pay for
or needs?
Oh, that's right,
because we let Republicans
and Democrats tap into our fears about terrorism,
setting the stage for someone like Trump
to leverage them into racist, xenophobic policies
under the guise of "national security."
It's just...
This little thing keeps nagging at me,
which is that there's no actual evidence
backing up the claim that Mexican immigrants
are plotting a terror attack
or that they're any more violent than any other population.
But somehow the federal government
keeps giving private prisons
billion-dollar contracts to lock them up.
Our own fear at an imagined threat abroad
is robbing us of our humanity.
And if you don't give a fuck about the lives of people
who don’t live in your country,
check out what happened to Alabama and Arizona's economies
when they tried to get rid of immigrant workers.
There's no graphic.
You can look it up yourself.
Look, the unemployment rate is not 5.8 or 5.3
or 6.7 or 7.9.
The real rate's probably 20%.
OK.
That’s a lie.
Unemployment was almost cut in half
during Obama's eight years in office.
Private sector jobs have increased
and even if you counted people who aren't looking for work,
the unemployment rate would only rise to 6%.
Despite fake stats thrown around by politicians,
the perception of a worsening economy
doesn't actually mean it's headed in the wrong direction.
But we are feeling a very real anxiety.
American capitalism thrives on competition,
but from for-profit colleges
taking advantage of vulnerable students
to gig-economy jobs leaving us without benefits,
sometimes Americans need a break from the game.
We need reform, regulation and transparency.
Because despite what some members of Congress might tell you,
throwing tax breaks at aging industries
won't help the average worker.
That's because talk about protecting jobs
is rarely about prioritizing workers.
It's about promoting profit...
as Republicans,
the supposed party of coal country, showed us
when they spent more than a year
stalling legislation that would guarantee coal miners
their pensions and health care.
What this creates, Megyn,
is a great loophole for all the sexual predators
and sex offenders.
No one's getting attacked by trans people in the bathroom.
Literally.
No one.
A survey of 15 law enforcement officials and government experts
from 12 different states showed
no incidents of trans people assaulting cisgender people
in the bathroom.
Even Fox's Chris Wallace cited Politifact's research into the issue,
which found zero incidents in the United States
of trans people perpetrating a bathroom attack.
Ever.
Look, I'm gay, which a few years ago
made me a deviant to fear in restrooms
but I can guarantee that when I’m looking for a place to pee,
I'm thinking more about how much I regretted wearing skinny jeans
and less about how fat the dick in the urinal next to mine is.
Spoiler alert:
Not so fat.
So North Carolina's HB2
or the transphobic bathroom bill
introduced by Dan Patrick in Texas
don't actually protect anyone.
But they do put trans folks in danger.
According to a 2013 Williams Institute report,
roughly 70% of trans people have reported being denied entrance,
assaulted or harassed while trying to use a restroom.
And some estimates put the risk
of being murdered as a trans person 10 times higher
than the general populations.
So despite people like Jeff Sessions
or Ben Carson
insisting that queer supremacists
are out here fighting for extra rights,
remember that trans and nonbinary people
often aren't even afforded the most basic human rights.
The only thing actually dividing us
are legislators
lying to their constituents.
So how do we combat misleading or fake news
that leaves Americans afraid,
divided and uninspired?
It's going to take everyone,
but it starts with doing the work yourself.
Find research from reliable sources,
scientific data or a goddamn history book...
as long as it wasn't published in Texas.
When Keith Herring wrote "IGNORANCE = FEAR,"
he was talking about HIV.
But it's a phrase we should remember
and apply to today's political climate.
While there are scary and violent realities out in this world,
choosing our leaders, crafting our laws
and creating community
shouldn't be decisions motivated by fear.
It takes bravery to seek out the truth.
So don't be scared stupid.