The Fear Is The Point

[winetourdriver01]

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Joe McCarthy had the same MO in the Fifties,

only it was Communists who were going to attain those goals.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Add to this now "fear of drag queens". Never add fear of pastors grooming and abusing. . . . nt

[JT45242]

3. That group doesn't need bibles as they clearly haven't read the book

They preach hate, not love your God and love your neighbors.

They preach prosperity gospel rather than sell your possession and give to the poor or it is easier for a camel to pass through the narrowest (needle) path into the city than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

They preach blaming the poor, orphans, widows, and imprisoned rather than living Matthew 25.

It's really just a coaster at home and a weapon in public than a book that tells you how to live morally and ethically to that group.

[The Wizard]

5. Repubics constantly violate the Ninth Commandment

Why do they hate the Lord? Share this post on GQP Twitter feeds. I do it to Jim Jordan whenever he posts Russian / Pox News propaganda.

[The Wizard]

4. Appealing to

the worst fears and lowest instincts has been page one of the GQP playbook since LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964.

[2naSalit]

10. Yup.

[ancianita]

6. Fear is one of the tools of enforcing patriarchal hierarchies.

[SomedayKindaLove]

8. Better to be feared than loved

As a leader, to keep power, per Machiavelli.

Fear helps create the Other, which separates us. And a Nation divided, cannot stand, I once read.

Studies have shown when less empathetic people are given guided meditation that invites them to find a safe space, they test as more empathetic afterward.

Not feeling safe breeds hatred and division. Hatred breed anger, anger leads to action, which motivates Republicans to vote. That’s one bond Republican leaders seem to have with their voters.

[ancianita]

11. Fear doesn't create the Other. Narrative about the Other is intended to create fear.

Fear is the threat of violence/death that creates fight or flight cortisone flooding, which if it's chronic, creates the neurological damage of trauma. Trauma then is transmitted to the genome, and possibly inherited across generations. Which is why even healthy women are much more vigilant around dominators than they are other women of their own traumatized gender.

Not feeling safe and not being safe are two different things. When women know what actually being safe actually is, they can't be manipulated into feeling unsafe.

The constant predatory/threatening comments/messaging of Republicans -- however they convey it, from home to Congress -- is proof that they want people to feel unsafe. It's another tool they use to maintain their patriarchal hierarchy, as much with other races and other men as with women.

[SomedayKindaLove]

12. Right, the Other is used to create fear

And that fear creates separation from the Other.

Feeling safe and being safe might be two different things, too. But if you can get unempathetic people to feel safe, they start becoming more empathetic.

[ancianita]

13. I'm not saying that.

I'm saying that there is no Other. There is narrative that creates something -- Other -- that in fact doesn't exist, in order to create fear.

I'm saying that objectively there is no Other to fear. Like the OP says, the fear is the point. The narrative of the Other is invented to create that fear.

I can't agree that unempathic people can be made more empathic by feeling safe; they're no more actually safe than anyone who is empathic and knows they're not safe.

Empathy doesn't create safety. Empathy helps people understand people who threaten them out of lack of empathy or out of fear, but empathic people still know they're not safe.

[SomedayKindaLove]

16. But safety, or just the feeling of it, creates empathy

If the mind feels safe, empathy is more likely to follow. At least according to this Yale study:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2017/11/22/at-yale-we-conducted-an-experiment-to-turn-conservatives-into-liberals-the-results-say-a-lot-about-our-political-divisions/

[ancianita]

17. I see. Thanks for the link.

[2naSalit]

9. +++++++++++++!!!

[Mr. Ected]

7. For decades the fearmongers triggered the throngs via the airwaves

Nowadays they just elect them into Congress. But it's always the same: trigger, cause, anger, effect. The GOP voter is a dog, and the GOP plays the role of Pavlov.

[old as dirt]

14. The Music Man "Ya Got Trouble"

[live love laugh]

15. Fear is evil. I truly believe that.

It’s stifling and life altering. Their demagogue-induced fears affect the entire nation.

Is there a valid place for fear? Of course.

But as that old saying goes, most of the things we fear never materialize. One day they will understand that.

[ancianita]

18. Fear is one of the four genetic traits inherited for survival.

Agreed, there's a valid place for fear.

Fear itself isn't evil. It's the intentional actuating of fear through "perception management" -- known as 'fear talk' and fear mongering -- that is evil. As you say, actuating fear is the tool of demagogues.