美国国家公共电台 NPR

（单词翻译）

A mental health bill in Georgia shows how conspiracy¹ theories are affecting politics

Transcript²

On its surface, there wasn't supposed to be anything controversial about Georgia's Mental Health Parity³ Act introduced earlier this year.

In a time where Democrats⁴ and Republicans don't agree on much, the issue of mental health reform was top of mind when Georgia lawmakers crafted a bill that had the backing of experts, advocates and both political parties. Both Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and his likely Democratic challenger in the fall, Stacey Abrams, backed the bill.

"Now I'm going to give Republicans credit," Abrams said at a campaign stop in March. "This is a conversation we've been trying to have in Georgia for more than a decade."

After years of ranking near the bottom in access to mental health care, Georgia's House Bill 1013 would require insurance companies to cover mental health the same way they do physical health. Only three lawmakers voted against the original bill in the state House, citing concerns over inclusion of language already used to define existing issues and provide care.

But before the bill could advance further, its opponents connected the legislation to hot-button cultural issues, especially around sexual identity, and nearly derailed it. The fact that Democrats also supported the bill raised suspicion among some Republicans.

Rep. Philip Singleton, a leader of the legislature's far-right state Freedom Caucus⁵, claimed the bill would "massively expand government in the style of ObamaCare," and enable "back door gun-grabbing."

Then he went even further in a speech before the Georgia state House. "Under this language, treatment for things such as gender⁶ dysphoria and pedophilia are automatically included and would therefore be required to be covered, the cost of which will be spread out amongst all Georgians," he said.

From there, opposition⁷ snowballed. A nonprofit called "Truth in Education" put out a flyer falsely alleging⁸ that Georgia was set to use the law to take guns away from citizens and that pedophilia would no longer be illegal, but rather a health diagnosis⁹. Dozens of mostly older citizens flooded committee hearings with signs attacking Abrams and decrying¹⁰ things that the bill didn't even do.

And at a recent Trump¹¹ rally, Patrick Witt, a fringe candidate for insurance commissioner¹², elicited¹³ boos when he made the false claim the government would take over mental health care, guided by the World Health Organization.

"It is the biggest government takeover of health care since Obamacare, and it's being pushed by your Republican insurance commissioner," he said. "It would mandate¹⁴ that insurance companies cover any mental health treatment as defined by the World Health Organization – which no surprise will include gender reassignment surgery, hormone¹⁵ blockers for kids and potentially even therapy for pedophiles."

The original language of the bill defined "mental health or substance use disorder¹⁶" as a condition included in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical¹⁷ Manual of Mental Disorders¹⁸ - also known as DSM-5, or the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases. Ultimately, lawmakers tweaked language to appease¹⁹ the critics without substantially altering the bill's purpose. But some lawmakers were still concerned the measure was straying from its stated goal. "I just wonder if this weakens the original intent of the parity section of the bill," Democratic state Sen. Michelle Au, an anesthesiologist, said during a hearing.

The episode in Georgia is another sign of how disinformation's grasp on American politics is becoming stronger. Right-wing figures have lately started to use the term "groomers," to apply to opponents of their agenda rolling back LGBTQ rights, such as Florida's new law limiting discussion on sexual orientation²⁰ and gender identity in classrooms.

"Groomer" is a term that implies child sexual abuse and has a history steeped in homophobia. There is no evidence that LGBTQ people abuse children at any greater rate than the rest of the population.

Increasingly, outspoken²¹ Republican members of Congress, like Georgia's Marjorie Taylor Greene, are also adopting these slurs²². "The Democrats are the party of pedophiles," Greene said in a recent interview on a fringe media outlet²³. "The Democrats are the party of princess predators²⁴ from Disney."

None of these things are true. But Jennifer Mercieca, an expert in political rhetoric²⁵ who teaches at Texas A&M University, said that's beside the point, because messaging like this evokes²⁶ feelings of fear instead of facts.

"There's a lot of research about fear appeals and why they work on the brain," she said. "And here you have a fear appeal, an outrage²⁷ appeal and a conspiracy theory all wrapped into one."

Name-calling in politics is nothing new - but using such harsh, absolutist language is meant to deliberately²⁸ whip voters into a frenzy²⁹. And in political debates, that leads to more extreme positions and less compromise.

That kind of language is "used to dehumanize people," Mercieca said. "They're no longer people, but they are instead 'pedophiles' or 'groomers.' They're not even human. You, of course, don't try to negotiate or find consensus³⁰ with an enemy who cheats. That's not the goal, the goal is only to destroy them."

Ultimately the tactics didn't work in Georgia – this time.

Gov. Brian Kemp signed the Mental Health Parity Act into law on April 4th flanked by Republicans and Democrats, advocates and activists³¹ with much fanfare³² – after the final bill passed with unanimous support.