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In the closing chapters Glassner adds metaphoric illnesses and plane crashes to the list of fictitious fears the media has proclaimed to be running rampant. He explains how "diseases" like Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) and Gulf War Syndrome (GWS) are made up to fit the needs of people suffering from things they may be too afraid to address, or in the case of breast implant disorders, just trying to "cash in" on. Some people take the obvious thieving side just to let it be known that they are either right wingests or on the other side of the pole. Planes, although one of if not, the safest way to travel are upheld by the media to be more dangerous than anything when the odds of being in a crash are extremely low. In the end Glassner points out the tricks in the trade of fear mongering: "the use of poignant anecdotes in place of scientific evidence, the christening of isolated incidents as trends, [and] depictions of entire categories of people as innately dangerous." He sums up nicely by saying that these fears Americans make up and hold on to are "oblique expressions of concern about problems that Americans know to be pernicious but have not taken action to quash."- Why do people tend to accept heartfelt stories over truth?
In the closing chapters Glassner adds metaphoric illnesses and plane crashes to the list of fictitious fears the media has proclaimed to be running rampant. He explains how "diseases" like Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) and Gulf War Syndrome (GWS) are made up to fit the needs of people suffering from things they may be too afraid to address, or in the case of breast implant disorders, just trying to "cash in" on. Some people take the obvious thieving side just to let it be known that they are either right wingests or on the other side of the pole. Planes, although one of if not, the safest way to travel are upheld by the media to be more dangerous than anything when the odds of being in a crash are extremely low. In the end Glassner points out the tricks in the trade of fear mongering: "the use of poignant anecdotes in place of scientific evidence, the christening of isolated incidents as trends, [and] depictions of entire categories of people as innately dangerous." He sums up nicely by saying that these fears Americans make up and hold on to are "oblique expressions of concern about problems that Americans know to be pernicious but have not taken action to quash."
