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Opinion
Justin Fox

Stop Telling Me How Dangerous My Bathtub Is

Comparing accidental deaths to terrorism is a mistake.
What lies beneath.

What lies beneath.

Photographer: Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images

Last week, Financial Times columnist Janan Ganesh opined on what he called the “bathtub fallacy,” a common and in his view counterproductive liberal response to fears of terrorism:

Sure enough, a couple of days later, there was Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times, making Ganesh’s point for him: