Fear and goverment. (unemployment, interview, global warming, accuse)

[reed067]

All of us here on both sides of the political spectrum have been called fear mongers. Even those who don't have a party have been called the same thing. We've all been to be afraid of the left and the right be afraid of the middle, the tree huggers, etc, etc. Bush gave us the Patriot Act which expired in 2015 Bush more or less told us it's the ONLY way to stay safe. And people believed him just as some people believe Trump and other's believed Obama. Clinton, etc. The Vietnam War was said to stop the spread of communist way of life. More fear. There is always SOME war going on that our government says that they are fighting for us the U.S. Yet many here tend to vote out of fear/hate for the other party. It would seem that we've fallen into the trap we accuse others of. Most here vote for the lesser of two evils out of fear or hate. IMO, I believe that this is one reason why we are so divided.


Posted some papers on the topic I thought were interesting and helped to get my point across.


https://phys.org/news/2009-03-politicians.html




For example, manipulation is more likely when the public doesn't understand an issue or is unlikely to be able to overcome the fear created by politicians. By contrast, the easier it is for citizens to observe that the politician has made false statements, the less likely it is that politicians will attempt to use fear at all.
"A greater understanding of when fear can and cannot be used to scare citizens into supporting bad policies can help journalists and scholars more effectively interpret important historical events," the authors note. "It can help them think about whether, and to what extent, elite manipulation of citizen emotions contributed to initial public support for these kinds of government actions."

Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved.
—Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, 1513



The people who have the effrontery to rule us, who call themselves our government, understand this basic fact of human nature. They exploit it, and they cultivate it. Whether they compose a warfare state or a welfare state, they depend on it to secure popular submission, compliance with official dictates, and, on some occasions, affirmative cooperation with the state’s enterprises and adventures. Without popular fear, no government could endure more than twenty-four hours. David Hume taught that all government rests on public opinion, but that opinion, I maintain, is not the bedrock of government. Public opinion itself rests on something deeper: fear.




Fear: The Foundation of Every Government’s Power: Independent Institute




Fear is instilled in us at an early age and infects our perceptions throughout our lives. We are taught to be afraid of crime, afraid of losing our jobs, afraid of AIDS, afraid of immigrants, afraid of the Russians (or the Moslems), afraid of terrorism, afraid of chaos, afraid of failure, afraid of not being loved, afraid of going to hell. All these apprehensions are seized on and magnified by the media, the government, the corporations and the Church, whipping us into a frenzy of fear.
Those in power use fear to manipulate and control us. Fear makes us the instruments of Power. When we are afraid, we obey. When we are afraid, we will do anything to feel safer.


Afraid of crime? Hire more police and build more prisons.


Afraid of unemployment? Work harder.


Afraid of AIDS? Don't have sex.


Afraid of immigrants? Keep them out.


Afraid of foreigners? Bomb the hell out of them. Afraid of terrorism? Restrict civil liberties.


Afraid of chaos? Support the status quo.


Afraid of failure? Don't take chance.


Afraid of being alone? Conform.


Afraid of going to hell? Obey the Church.


Fear limits our freedom, keeps us from enjoying life to its fullest, prevents us from reaching our true human potential. Fear is why we do everything.


Power of Fear

[Clarallel]

Interesting, although I find that objective news sources tend to agree that the Republicans - and Trump in particular - are responsible for most of the fear mongering.

You might like this documentary from the era of the Bush administration:

The Power of Nightmares



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTg4qnyUGxg

[reed067]

Originally Posted by Clarallel

Interesting, although I find that objective news sources tend to agree that the Republicans - and Trump in particular - are responsible for most of the fear mongering.

You might like this documentary from the era of the Bush administration:

The Power of Nightmares



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTg4qnyUGxg

Maybe but BOTH parties use it to get elected and people as a whole use it to vote.

[thelogo]

Very good observations, I'll will like to add that most people won't accept they act out of fear. To be able to manipulate people to such a scale you need education to be controlled by the state. Many decades ago teachers still had some control on how to educate their students; which make sense because you cannot educate students like they were all the same. Now a teacher has to follow the incredible detailed curriculums to the word or get fired. The indoctrination must be continued when children become adults, so we are given propaganda on television. And the manipulation has involved into social media with facebook and all the rest.

The only way to break free is to recognized all the lies. I'll like to share the real fake news awards according to the corbett report.

The list:
National Geographic's Polar Bears. To scare us that we are going to die due to global warming.
CNN's Bana Alabed's fake interview. Using children to appeal to our emotions.
Fake UFO story. More lies to justify more billions of dollars for the pentagon.
Fake Pentagon Gif. This one shouldn't have made the list, it's really stupid.
Russian's Fake News. Another artificial division to justify the irrational military, intelligence agencies + contractors' operations.
Syria's White Helmets. War, regime change, terrorism, etc. to scare us some more.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_-GjlZu9-w

James shed some light in every one of those fake stories but the last one because he's going to make a podcast to respond. Here's some info about syria and the white helmets:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6utDs1b_TU