Saturday, September 15, 2018

A Realistic Threat Assessment?

Think of the dangers that a hurricane poses- rising flood waters, high winds propelling objects-rendered-projectiles through the air, falling trees, downed power lines that can electrocute bystanders... then think of this danger that the godawful New York Post decided to highlight. Yeah, snakes... right, they are really something to worry about amid the general mayhem.





This raises the perennial question:





Why did it have to be snakes? Well, many people have an irrational fear of snakes, and the target audience of Rupert Murdoch's Post are fearful, ignorant people, the sort of people who regularly make poor threat assessments. In the interest of full disclosure, I am one of those individuals who loves snakes- I find them fascinating, elegant, beautiful creatures, creatures which are generally beneficially to humankind, even though venomous snakes can pose a danger to humans who frighten them.

Florence is an unfolding disaster, but somehow Murdoch 'journalism' can make things even worse.

3 comments:

  1. Spiders get a bad rap too. Seriously. I'm always admonishing my nephews and nieces not to kill spiders who are actually our friends taking out icky flies, bugs and the like.

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  2. Yeah, I let the spiders be, but I'd make an exception for a brown recluse. Seriously, kill those mofos with fire.

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  3. Not to mention the environmental disaster from overflowing lakes of pig feces and the coal-ash pits of Duke Energy. Yeah, I wouldn't sweat the snakes.

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