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Fear causes people to make mistakes. If JFK had listened to his advisors, we'd all be dead.
Fear is just more of a factor in the conservative mind than it is in the liberal mind. Liberals often choose to live in violent urban environments among people of different races and religions who speak different languages. They know how to handle the unknown and the unfamiliar. They know how to live with and manage fear.
But it's more than that. The Republican Party has lived off fear since at least the 1930's. Fear of communism. Fear of crime. Fear that someone might be getting something for nothing. Fear that people are having the wrong kind of sex. Fear of the Ayatollah or Gaddafi or Noriega or Saddam or al-Qaeda. Fear of death panels. Fear of ACORN. Fear that there's a War on Christmas.
You know, some of these fears are or were rational. No one wants Soviet nuclear missiles parked 90 miles off our shore. But you have to be able to manage your fear. Fear causes people to make mistakes. If JFK had listened to his advisors, we'd all be dead. Or, if you are like me, you would have never been born. But JFK knew how to manage his fear and find another way.
There will always be scaredy-cats. Some people are just wired that way. But we don't have to have a political party that lives and thrives on stoking those fears. What is Fox News, anyway, if it not just a magnified Two Minutes Hate?
Here is what you have to fear. Here are your enemies. Here's who is undermining your religion. Here's who is stealing your elections. Here's who is disrespecting you. Here's who is trying to kill you. All day long, seven days a week, 365 days a year, the oilless Wurlitzer grinds on, stoking the fear. It doesn't merely take advantage of people's stupidity; it weaponizes their stupidity. It turns their gullibility into fear. It takes their fears and converts them into terrors. It makes them worse people. It makes them more miserable people. It makes them want to strike back and out at their enemies, who are mostly imaginary. This is what the conservative movement does in order to get political power. It drives us all toward conflict and war.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/4/14/125011/603
But it's more than that. The Republican Party has lived off fear since at least the 1930's. Fear of communism. Fear of crime. Fear that someone might be getting something for nothing. Fear that people are having the wrong kind of sex. Fear of the Ayatollah or Gaddafi or Noriega or Saddam or al-Qaeda. Fear of death panels. Fear of ACORN. Fear that there's a War on Christmas.
You know, some of these fears are or were rational. No one wants Soviet nuclear missiles parked 90 miles off our shore. But you have to be able to manage your fear. Fear causes people to make mistakes. If JFK had listened to his advisors, we'd all be dead. Or, if you are like me, you would have never been born. But JFK knew how to manage his fear and find another way.
There will always be scaredy-cats. Some people are just wired that way. But we don't have to have a political party that lives and thrives on stoking those fears. What is Fox News, anyway, if it not just a magnified Two Minutes Hate?
Here is what you have to fear. Here are your enemies. Here's who is undermining your religion. Here's who is stealing your elections. Here's who is disrespecting you. Here's who is trying to kill you. All day long, seven days a week, 365 days a year, the oilless Wurlitzer grinds on, stoking the fear. It doesn't merely take advantage of people's stupidity; it weaponizes their stupidity. It turns their gullibility into fear. It takes their fears and converts them into terrors. It makes them worse people. It makes them more miserable people. It makes them want to strike back and out at their enemies, who are mostly imaginary. This is what the conservative movement does in order to get political power. It drives us all toward conflict and war.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/4/14/125011/603
