I'm having a busy week at work, so I was only casually aware of the big terrorism scare in Massachusetts. I managed to follow the headlines (tangent: I'm disturbed at how easy it is to follow a story merely by reading headlines) and was, naturally, relieved when it all turned out to be a misunderstanding.
Putting aside for the moment the wisdom (or lack thereof) of creating a terror fake-out to promote a cartoon, I've been thinking we're going to see this kind of thing happening more often. It's the natural consequence of ramping up fear of terror among Americans, and not only is it a shitty thing to do, it's stupid as well.
I'm all for an aware, alert, vigilant populace. Paranoia, not so much. People with an irrational fear of terrorism won't be able to accurately and sensibly watch out for signs of terrorism. False alarms, overreactions, panic - they're the harvest from the seeds of fear the Federal government has sown since September 11.