You can't just write-off people's fears on the premise that what they're scared of is "harmless". Humans are scared of plenty of other things that are fundamentally harmless.
I'm terrified of spiders, and the ones we get here in England aren't deadly in any shape or form... but I just hate them.
Very true. Homophobic people are terrified of gay men.
eww they are the most disgusting ever. there are 7 billion humans living on Earth. among land-based vertebrates, humanity's closest rivals in terms of sheer numbers are the brown rat. rats are among nature's most prolific mammalian breeders and they are adaptive, intelligent, successful and physically capable. they can devastate crops, food stores, wreck havoc on buildings and spread diseases. they can show up in a place where you'd least expect them to see. sounds scary?
