Pew research made an interesting discovery – albeit not really surprising.

People fear what they are told to – not the things that actually threaten them the most.  Hungarians, for instance, are killed by the thousands by their own, failing healthcare system. Chronically underfinanced, doctors and nurses are leaving in flocks – and not just for better wages abroad. Even those who want to stay in Hungary to save lives are pushed to leave because 1) they cannot save lives in hospitals without the necessary equipment (the country’s cardiology center doesn’t have a CT or MR machine and they have to ferry children with open hearts and patients awaiting transplants to another hospital), and 2) they may also want to escape the corruption hopelessly built into the system.

You would think Hungarians would be mortally afraid of their own hospitals – and they are. But they see Muslims as a more pressing issue. Exactly because they don’t see them.

As Pew research found out, Islamophobia is inversely correlated with the presence of Muslims. The height of the hysteria is in Poland and Hungary – the two countries with the least amount of migrants. Populists rejoice!

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