We have our collective chains jerked all the time over some random lunatic shooting a few people for some random lunatic reason if it happens to fit some political narrative.  My facebook feed gets absolutely flooded by this stuff on a regular basis.  Until people wake up and learn that they are just being thrown around emotionally like a dog being tempted with a snack, they are going to have an easy time influencing the public to do whatever they want.<p>For some reason, I am regularly downvoted when I make comments like this.  The key thing is that people don&#x27;t think about how something in the media affects them directly.  It&#x27;s like shark attacks.  The risks are negligible, yet they captivate the imagination.  The mental images and pictures that they are exposed to on a regular basis by the media, both news and fictional tv shows and movies, are specifically chosen to get a response out of them, like a bully getting a rise out of taunting his victim.  People don&#x27;t think they can be manipulated, because they don&#x27;t like to think they are that stupid, yet it ridiculously common.