the cat ever

god people really love to bring up the "jaws effect" when it comes to asserting fiction manifests into reality 1:1 huh. there is just no possibility in their mind that people might already have seen sharks as scary mindless killers who will just fuck you up to death for no reason other than ancient malice. i mean let me be clear, sensationalism doesn't help dispel popular myths about sharks for sure, and indeed after Jaws, there was a decline in the shark population because people became convinced they needed to do something about the Shark Menace (i wonder if this sounds familiar to other things that people make the fuck up!) but like. jesus fucking christ. the crux is that this kind of thing can only really strengthen things people ALREADY believe, or at the very least are primed to believe, like all the media making spiders out to be way scarier and more dangerous than they really are. (it's natural to be wary or afraid of spiders, but an ounce of genuine information does heaps for quelling that fear. watch The Spiders in Your House now.) a slasher movie about a wanton rabid dog is not gonna suddenly make people think dogs in general are vicious bloodthirsty murderers. several dozen movies of that kind couldn't do that. get a grip