At what point did people become unable to seperate fact and fiction?

I'm not just talking about "The DaVinci Code," and the resultant boycott by the Catholic Church. (They were so successful when they boycotted Life of Brian, The Last Testament of Christ, and Dogma, after all.) Recently a woman in Georgia tried to get Harry Potter books out of schools because it glorifies witchcraft, and has violence too graphic for kids.

We lost Bugs Bunny because parents who used to watch him decided their kids weren't smart enough to know that dropping an anvil on someone can kill them in real life. When I was growing up, I watched Starsky and Hutch, Combat!, Baretta, The rat Patrol, the original Star Trek and all those other, too-violent TV shows. I watched Bug Bunny every day! I still haven't killed anyone.

Sure! When I was a kid, I thought Superman flew because of the cape. In order for me to fly, I thought, all I needed was a cape and I could soar across the sky! One leap from my bed with a towel around my neck convinced me that the cape wasn't the answer.

One of my second cousins was a big fan of Buzz Lightyear. When he was four, he dressed as Buzz for Halloween. His dad built him a pair of Buzz Lightyear wings to go with the costume. He was so excited when he got them on! He ran around the room making swooshing sounds. Suddenly he stopped, put his hands on his hips and looked at his dad and said, "The wings don't work. I can't fly." (At least he didn't try it from an elevated place.)

There are always going to be gullible people. There are the folks who voted for Bush, and there are the folks who think Democrats are saints. There are people who believe that actors are like the characters they portray. And, unfortunately, there are people who believe that no one is as smart as they are, and, therefore, they must be protected for their ignorance. And you and I, Democrat and Republican, gay and straight, need to oppose these people at every opportunity. Otherwise, they will be smarter than us, because we were stupid enough to let them have their way.