Cat scratch fever, dunh dunh, dunnnh...
The Drudge Report is, plainly and simply, the Internet's panic button.
I found this story there today. It links, as a great many of Drudge's headlines do, to his pillow buddy Breit Bart's site.
US scientists discover new, potentially deadly bacteria
It's related to trench fever and cat scratch disease. THe article stresses that it is especially dangerous to people with weak or suppressed immune systems. Like there's something that isn't.
I highly suspect that mutations of bacteria are found quite often. This is a case of one woman who fell ill to such a new bacteria after visiting Peru. She LIVED, for gods' sake. She's FINE. Her traveling companion didn't even get sick.
And then Drudge posts this story at the same time, with this headline, which is NOT the headline of the actual story:
Cats Invading Shelters 'Due to Global Warming'...
And since I read the other story before I saw this headline, the first picture that came to my mind was a stadium full of hurricane victims screaming in terror as cats poured through the doors with death-encrusted claws.
It only lasted for a moment before my higher brain moved it to the silly bin. But look at the trigger words. "Global warming". "Invading". "Shelters". EVERYBODY PANIC!
The story is actually talking about animal shelters being overrun because, it seems, warmer temperatures make cats hornier and they're breeding more kittens.
Oh, the horror.
The article's headline is "Adoption Group: Cat Invasion Due to Global Warming"; it includes the word "adoption", a happier meme that brings to mind actors and pop starsinvading traveling to foreign countries to bring back adorable brown children. And the picture -- aww, baby kittycats!
Warm fluffiness, however, is not Drudge's métier.
The headlines, the screen crawls, the news-at-eleven blurbs plant these triggers in our minds and repeat them again and again, and we make connections. It only takes a split second for a meme to stamp your mind, and even if your first impression is disproven or discarded, that stamp remains there to be reinforced over and over.
Ground Zero articles of interest:
I found this story there today. It links, as a great many of Drudge's headlines do, to his pillow buddy Breit Bart's site.
US scientists discover new, potentially deadly bacteria
It's related to trench fever and cat scratch disease. THe article stresses that it is especially dangerous to people with weak or suppressed immune systems. Like there's something that isn't.
I highly suspect that mutations of bacteria are found quite often. This is a case of one woman who fell ill to such a new bacteria after visiting Peru. She LIVED, for gods' sake. She's FINE. Her traveling companion didn't even get sick.
And then Drudge posts this story at the same time, with this headline, which is NOT the headline of the actual story:
Cats Invading Shelters 'Due to Global Warming'...
And since I read the other story before I saw this headline, the first picture that came to my mind was a stadium full of hurricane victims screaming in terror as cats poured through the doors with death-encrusted claws.
It only lasted for a moment before my higher brain moved it to the silly bin. But look at the trigger words. "Global warming". "Invading". "Shelters". EVERYBODY PANIC!
The story is actually talking about animal shelters being overrun because, it seems, warmer temperatures make cats hornier and they're breeding more kittens.
Oh, the horror.
The article's headline is "Adoption Group: Cat Invasion Due to Global Warming"; it includes the word "adoption", a happier meme that brings to mind actors and pop stars
Warm fluffiness, however, is not Drudge's métier.
The headlines, the screen crawls, the news-at-eleven blurbs plant these triggers in our minds and repeat them again and again, and we make connections. It only takes a split second for a meme to stamp your mind, and even if your first impression is disproven or discarded, that stamp remains there to be reinforced over and over.
Ground Zero articles of interest:
Labels: disease, four horsemen, global warming, media, panic button, pestilence
posted by Delirium at
1:02 PM
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