Fear and ignorance

Op-EdHealthcare workers beaten as they fight Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Albino children kidnapped and dissected in Madagascar. And Donald Trump reelected in the United States.These horrors are sparked by fear and ignorance. Ours are doing the most damage.In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a member of the ruling party was beaten to death last Sunday after speaking on a radio program about the Ebola outbreak in that country. His murderers then burned and looted his house.Marie-Celestin Karondwa was acting president of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress. “Karondwa’s death comes after a series of attacks on healthcare workers and treatment centers that experts say are fueled by rumors and misinformation about the disease and distrust of health responders,” The Guardian reported.Ebola has infected more than 8,000 people in seven of the country’s 26 provinces this year, and killed 4,000. There is no known cure; all healthcare workers can do is advise people on how to try to prevent it, which is what Karondwa did.The DRC’s Health Ministry fears the Ebola outbreak could kill more people than the 11,000 the disease claimed in west Africa in 2014-16. The DRC’s response to the current outbreak is hampered not only by the fear and ignorance that caused Karondwa’s death, but by medical funding cuts from the United States.President Trump ordered funding cuts to the Agency for International Development in an executive order in January 2025, because, he said: “The United States foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values. They serve to destabilize world peace …”I give up on how saving thousands of people from a lethal epidemic could be antithetical to American values or destabilize world peace, but let’s move on to Madagascar.There, at least 13 albino people have been kidnapped and beheadedthis year, 10 of them children. Some ignorant people there believe that body parts, particularly the eyes, of an albino person can be mixed into potions that will bring luck and power to the murderers or the murderers’ clients.Albinism is a genetic disorder that severely decreases the melanin in a person’s body, causing their skin to be extremely pale, and also can cause vision problems. It occurs in roughly one in 17,000 to 20,000 people in the United States, but is more prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, where it occurs in as many as one in 4,000 people.“Most perpetrators are acting with the intent of selling body parts or exploiting a person with albinism for financial means,” an independent U.N. expert on albinism, Muluka-Anne Mitti-Drummond told The Guardian. “Life-altering sums of money are paid to those willing to kill a child with albinism and procure their eyes,” The Guardian reported.The kidnappings and beheadings often increase before elections, which indicates to some observers that politicians may be behind the atrocities.Horrifying as these stories are, fear and ignorance in the United States do far more damage to the world, and much of the damage we have done and continue to do spring from fear and ignorance.Take racism. Surely Southern slaveholders feared the prospect of a slave rebellion, and surely virtually all of them, with rare exceptions such as Thomas Jefferson, knew much about slaves’ talents and potentials.Take antisemitism. I have no idea what antisemites have been afraid of for 2,000 years, but surely few hardcore antisemites have actually known any Jews.Take Donald Trump. Does he actually fear that communists may take over the United States?Do he and his acolytes actually believe that Muslims, who make up 1.5% of the U.S. population, are a real threat to us?Does he actually believe that wind power causes cancer?Does he really believe that gay or trans people threaten … anything?I don’t think so. I think he understands that the easiest way to manipulate people is through fear and ignorance. So he and his underlings spread fear, through ignorance.Many of my own countrymen and -women may disagree with me on this but, to paraphrase the NRA, fear and ignorance don’t kill people, fearful and ignorant people do.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads