The answer: 750,000 years.
Years.
How much hard fact and scientific evidence does it take to overcome fear? If you actually wanted your child to be abducted by a stranger, how long would you have to leave him or her outside, unattended?
“Seven hundred and fifty thousand years,” answers Lenore Skenazy, mother of two and founder of Free-Range Kids.
Here’s a short piece on Lenore from the New Yorker.
Think of the consequences of paying attention to facts and evidence: There would be no need for scamming predatory websites like Kids Live Safe or Homefacts. The for-profit prison industry might suffer a downturn in the bottom line.
Who does not want you to know facts like those quoted by Skenazy? Well, to name a few:
— the manufacturers of software that is sold to probation offices to monitor the online behavior of Registered Citizens;
— makers of ankle-bracelet monitors;
— producers of local TV news (just listen to the promotions about “keeping your family safe” and “storm teams” and such . . . they need you to be afraid).
The list could go on and on. Suffice it to say that we’re surrounded by some powerful interests who profit from our fears — and they do not want us to have ability to distinguish between legitimate and imagined fears.