“When someone repeats an obviously false statement often enough, people start believing it despite proof to the contrary. The statement takes on a life of its own, and soon people start questioning their own observations. It may even become popular to repeat the false trope, and eventually the misinformation gains momentum and credibility.
It’s called “gaslighting,” and it has infected public discourse over many topics of public concern. Add to those topics the Bureau of Land Management’s wild horse program. The BLM hopes that by repeating the “wild horse overpopulation” myth often enough, Congress, the administration and the American public will accept the obvious cruelty of helicopter roundups under the mistaken belief that it’s necessary to protect the rangelands and save horses from starving.
But what we can all see with our own eyes is that the BLM is engaged in the very acts of cruelty and persecution the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 was written to stop. And now environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, Western Watersheds Project and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, bolster our observations with their own evidence that the BLM omits essential — and damning — data about livestock grazing in its communications to the public about wild horses.”
