Sean Kavanagh: Facts, not dangerous hyperbole should be cornerstone of letters section

To The Daily Sun,

Every so often I peruse the letters to the editor, and find myself in the truth-free zone. A zone where regular contributors from the right wing scoff at science, facts and history. Usually I shrug and move on, but the cumulative buildup of this nonsense is not only an assault on rational thought, it’s dangerous. Dangerous because it’s part of the larger chorus that encouraged Jan. 6, undermines and threatens teachers, second guesses doctors and puts many of our public servants, including law enforcement and the military, at risk.

They would have you believe that racism is a fiction, vaccines don’t work, that thousands of scientists who study the climate are stupid and that Donald Trump is a virtuous gentleman being bullied by leftists.

Rep. John Sellers' diatribe against “evil” Democrats went well beyond opinion. According to Sellers, Democrats want to murder babies, mutilate them when they’re young and if we let them get to school, we don’t teach them to read. This extreme rhetoric gets people hurt and has no place in a newspaper that claims to “seek the truth.”

Most of the time these armchair pundits don’t cite facts. But if they do, it is Russian propaganda recycled through Fox News, apparently an unfairly maligned paragon of journalistic virtue. I wouldn’t be a member of the snowflake, baby-murdering cabal if I didn’t at least present some evidence. Let’s take education.

“Woke teachers are ruining our schools and don’t teach our kids to read,” they cry. Of course, the facts (I know, tiresome) don’t bear this out. New Hampshire rates in the top 10 states nationally for education. Performance has improved since 2009 even though teachers pay has been stagnant or worse.

We can get better, but not by spouting demonstrable falsehoods. Do your homework, people.

Sean Kavanagh

Center Harbor