There is no possible way that among the Syrian refugees desperately needing our help, there could be a few dangerous terrorists.

It is only ridiculous, racist conservatives – the types of people who will vote for Donald Trump - who insult the Syrian people, and intelligent liberals everywhere, by saying that there could be.

We know this because we were instructed in that regard by earnest, progressive commentators who were out recently parading their caring tolerance in reaction to the son of the Republican candidate for president in the United States.

Except that they are wrong; and provably so.

Donald Trump, Jr. posted a message on twitter, “If I had a bowl of skittles and I told you that just three would kill you, would you take a handful? That’s our Syrian refugee problem.”

Naturally the permanently caring and tolerant crowd paraded their superiority by invoking images of devastated Syrian refugee children, making the claim that those children are who Trump is insulting.

There are several problems with that attitude.

First of all, Trump, Jr. did not suggest we as caring people don’t help refugees by taking them in. He said we have to be careful who we do let in.

To suggest that anyone who agrees with his point doesn’t know that there are devastated men, women and children in and from Syria is insulting and sophomoric.

But disturbingly, it also suggests that those people who came out so self-righteously to attack the message are media pundits who don’t follow the news.

On April 22, the Washington Post reported, “On a crisp morning last October, 198 migrants arrived on the Greek island of Leros, all of them seemingly desperate people seeking sanctuary in Europe. But hiding among them were four men with a very different agenda.

“The four were posing as war-weary Syrians — all carrying doctored passports with false identities. And they were on a deadly mission for the Islamic State.

“Two of the four would masquerade as migrants all the way to Paris. There, at 9:20 p.m. on Nov. 13, they would detonate suicide vests near the Stade de France sports complex, fulfilling their part in the worst attack on French soil since World War II.”

The other two were detained briefly, but let go to disappear into Europe.

Those who immediately took to basting the argument that terrorists might be among the refugees were quick to trot out fantastical odds against the possibility. They were able to find such numbers someone had cobbled together, but apparently not the report I am quoting here, even though it was a three second Google search away for anyone who tried.

The Post continued, “The vast majority of migrants were genuinely fleeing war and poverty. But over the past six months, more than three dozen suspected militants who impersonated migrants have been arrested or died while planning or carrying out acts of terrorism. They include at least seven directly tied to the bloody attacks in Paris and Brussels.”

It is good to be caring, tolerant and welcoming. Canada is all of that, and so is the United States.

It is not good, however, to get so caught up in self-aggrandizement that you shout down and insult the people who have read the paper, adopted some common sense, and want the country to be safe.