Hey gang. Quick reminder from recent history:
There was a train derailment incident that was so bad it got US national attention. Spilled a bunch of chemicals into a sensitive area where people live and it polluted a nearby river system.
For months after that story, the media ran more and more derailment stories. Because public outrage about the issue was popular enough that they could keep highlighting ongoing derailments and keep getting clicks and views. Everyone thought it was some new problem we weren't addressing or that someone caused.
The reality wasn't that derailments were suddenly some big new problem we needed to fix. Nothing new was happening to cause them. America's train systems have had this problem for ages. The news just never thought to report on them with as much significance before because the public didn't seem to care. Only when it affected an area where people live.
I know some of what the Trump administration has done is particularly egregious. I'm not defending them one bit. Nearly every recall we've had with meat and produce has some tie to recent food safety deregulation. Now, however, we have to be careful not to fall into recency bias. We have food recalls all the damn time.
This tofu contamination recall is incredibly small. There are seemingly no ties to administration changes in food and drug safety. What the media, and social media, are doing by highlighting more of these events is making the problem seem bigger and more dastardly than it is. They want the eyeballs on them for calling it out, no matter how well or poorly it fits into the narrative. And some of them want you to be scared to buy food.
Take the issue seriously, but also have some discernment.