It’s recently been brought to my attention by my fellow Stater editors that creepy clowns are coming back into the mainstream. No, not the creepy clown in the Steph Curry jersey at the bar who keeps buying your hot friend drinks while trying to brag his way into her pants. Those creepy clowns will never become mainstream.

I’m talking about the creepy clowns popping up all over the country. Police stations around the country have had their hands full recently with reports of creepy looking clowns terrorizing the areas they patrol. The phenomenon has spread like wildfire across social media, prompting school officials to more strictly patrol students’ accounts for clown-like threats.

With Halloween approaching, this time of year is always good for spooky stories and creepy costumes. Aside from April Fool’s day, Halloween seems to be the only socially acceptable time to obnoxiously get a rise out of people. Combine that with modern internet trolling, and the end result is the creepy clown fad we have on our hands.

“If you already know it’s all a hoax, how can you be scared?” someone may ask. Hey, some people are scared of clowns, just like people are scared of the dark, or scared of roller coasters. Natural human fear sometimes takes over, and that’s understandable.

But is #clownsighting really something worthy of mass public fear? Are we as a society just feeding the trolls? Creepy clowns aren’t the only people who carry weapons on them. Walk into a biker bar on the side of a state highway and I can promise you a few knives and other assortment of weapons will be possessed by a few patrons. Everyday-looking folks conceal guns and weapons every day, but how often are the masses scared of the masses?

The real question is which bugaboo over at Fox News will be the first to have the balls to trollingly stick up for these goofballs in red wigs. It’s only a matter of time before Bill O’Reilly gives us a #clownlivesmatter hashtag, because after all, isn’t our unfounded fear and quick judgement of clowns similar to the unfounded fear and quick judgements young black men and the police give each other?

And ironically, the creepy clown coverage is only taking the spotlight away from the fact that two clowns are currently battling for the right to control the free world.
Isn’t 2016 great?

Mason Schweizer for The Wayne Stater