Opinion | Aren’t you tired of being fooled

It was supposed to be a crisis – the migrant Haitian workers allegedly flooding into Sylacauga and overrunning city services and schools. 

We’ve all watched the breathless videos from city council meetings, listened to the phony hand wringing from rightwing politicians willing to vilify other humans for having the nerve to exist in their towns. 

Sylacauga was in crisis, dammit!

The same was true in Athens and Albertville. Haitians were running wild. It was “an invasion.” The crime rates were out of control. The HIV rates were spiking. 

Chaos! Danger! 

Hide your wives! Hide your kids! Hide your pets!

The situation was so dire, so troubling that Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall went to meet with Talladega County law enforcement officials to get the inside story and find out how bad things really were. Did the county and city need more law enforcement resources to deal with this out-of-control immigration travesty? What else could be done to protect the good (white) people of Sylacauga? 

Turns out, absolutely nothing. 

After a meeting with those law enforcement officials, Marshall, who has never in his political life met a rightwing fear-mongering story that he wasn’t happy to grab and run with, delivered some rather bad news to the GOP masses: 

“Law enforcement is fully aware of what’s going on in the community and otherwise there was no confirmation of any criminal activity that they were aware of (related to Haitian migrants),’’ Marshall told reporters. 

But wait. What about those gangs? You know, the cannibals and folks eating pets? And the crazed criminals terrorizing the streets? What about the gangs, man? 

“There was nothing that indicated Sylacauga was seeing that,’’ Marshall said.

 LOL. 

Do you know how much of a nothing-burger this has to be for even Steve Marshall to yawn at your silly attempts to scare the white folks? 

And make no mistake, it is nothing. There are 60 Haitian migrant workers in Sylacauga. Sixty. 

That’s what all of the upheaval and teeth gnashing has been about – 60 folks just going to work. Nary a problem. Here legally. Following the laws. Just minding their own business, like everyone should. 

The only reason we even know they’re there is because a certain orange guy and his unpopular running mate have used the Haitian migrants as scapegoats to mask the fact that they have no policy ideas or coherent thoughts about pretty much anything that don’t immediately alienate 90 percent of the population. 

But they’ve managed to turn this wrongful vilification of decent people accepting jobs they were offered into a the-house-is-on-fire crisis for many people on the right. With Trump pushing it and other Republican politicians perfectly willing to play along, there are people in this country – and a bunch of them in this state – who today are convinced that Haitians are overrunning the country. That Haitian cannibal gangs are a real threat. That their communities and schools and children are in danger because of this massive influx of disease-riddled, unlawful migrants brought to our shores by the Biden administration. 

Except, almost all of the bad stuff is untrue. Bigly untrue. 

In addition to Sylacauga, officials in Albertville have also debunked the hateful and vile rhetoric about Haitian immigrants in that community. 

“Looking at year (by) year data, to include arrest reports, the nature of incoming emergency calls, and demographic information, there is no evidence to suggest, one, that crime in Albertville has increased, or, two, that it has increased as a result of Haitian immigration,” a city spokesman told al.com. 

Earlier this month, the City of Athens issued a press release that also debunked many rumors about Haitian migrants working and living in that city and the surrounding area. 

Which brings up a serious question: Don’t y’all ever get tired of being conned by these people? 

Seriously, from ebola to men hiding in women’s restrooms to dangerous books to migrant caravans to any of the other phony, rightwing scare events that never, ever result in any of the awful, terrible things that the right promises, haven’t you ever stopped, taken stock of the totality of the lies and foolishness and felt gullible for buying it all? Have you ever felt bad for wrongly vilifying decent people? Ever thought how your life might be better and different had you not repeatedly fallen for this utter BS and instead forced these dopey politicians to actually come up with policy ideas? 

But mostly, don’t you ever get tired of being fooled?