Global Warming and when propaganda becomes brainwashing

So we were watching the season openers for college football last weekend.  Ohio State, eh.  We had to chuckle watching Michigan implode (it's a Buckeye thing).  But during the Michigan game, they had an interesting segment.  During the game, they showed several players being fawned over with drinks and moisture and cool downs.  The reason?  The reporter said there were fears of heat related problems, dehydration, and fear of overheating.

Now, the temperature by that point was in the 70s  It was an evening game for crying out loud.  And yet, according to the reporter on the field, there were reports of problems and everyone was treating it as a serious health threat.

Evening game.  Temperatures in the 70s (the high in South Bend earlier that day, where the game was played, was only 84 degrees).  Meanwhile here in central Ohio, schools are closing because the temperatures might - might mind you - make it into the low 90s.  I never once got out of school for heat - and we went to some pretty old, 1800s era schools without air conditioning.  I remember being miserable.  But then, that was when the US was still among the top nations in terms of education, so there you go.

Turns out, upon checking, some of those years when I was in the non-climate controlled schools, such as 1977, 1978, and around there, would have seen temps near, if not in, the high 80s or low 90s.  And guess what?  We lived.  In fact, we didn't think of it.  We just got on.  But then, back in those days, we were being warned of an impending global freeze, so overheating wasn't the latest scientific buzz. 

No wonder everyone hates the 1950s

Today, we have athletes in the greatest sports programs in the country fearing heat related problems in an evening game while the temps hover in the 70s.  Were we better than them?  Are they wimps?  Or is this the result of propaganda becoming brainwashing.  The power of suggestion.  Schools close even when the temps are in the 80s.  Heat waves are called 'deadly' even when the only fatality mentioned was a child sadly left in a vehicle.  It's amazing what mass propaganda repeated daily, both subtly and directly, can accomplish.

I wrote about this at Patheos: The subtle propaganda of accentuating anything heat-wise, while downplaying weather that doesn't fit 'the Global Warming mold.'  Of course I can prove nothing, as several readers pointed out.  That's the beauty of propaganda.  Much of it relies on merging truth with lies on behalf of ulterior motives.  But whatever, it seems to have convinced a growing number of people that humans just weren't meant to exert themselves in 70 degree temperatures once the sun goes down.  I wonder what else it will convince us of.