When distant friends and family members post meme after meme on Facebook about the horrors that Muslim refugees are supposedly committing in Europe—how they’re hell-bent on coming here and killing people (or perhaps just taking jobs and welfare), how we need to take care of our own first—there’s no real way to argue. People who share and promote ideas that demonize entire groups of people are not interested in sharing truth—they’re interested in peddling fear. And it works, wonderfully, for those who sell it. It wins them a semblance of control and certainty over their life, and it shores up
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