FEAR, THE “GIFT” THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

By Ruth A. Sheets

Fear is an amazing thing.  It may be the most powerful motivator of humanity.  Positively, it can move people to stand up to stop destructive actions against themselves and others and fight for change to improve living conditions against natural and manmade dangers.  Negatively, fear of the other is insidious because it takes so many forms and can be wielded with a minimum of effort. 

Many of our phobias are tied to fear:  fear of the dark or night since those others can harm us then; homophobia, transphobia, and xenophobia all pinpointing specific others to fear; fear of young people who are, of course, dangerous, right?

Racism and sexism are all about fear that the other might get some of the privilege the racists or misogynists can’t admit they have.  Ageists and ableists fear they are mortal and don’t want older or disabled people around to remind them.  And so it goes on and on.  Fearmongering is easy because humans evolved to be hyper aware of danger, real or manufactured and it is often hard to tell the difference. 

Parents use fear to keep their children from dangerous situations and sometimes to control their behavior, to keep them in line, perhaps so parents won’t be embarrassed by them.

Schools train students early to be sensitive to fear:  fear of failure, fear of bullies, fear of being left out (which may or may not be a “natural” fear but becomes well sculpted year by year and is related to fear of not fitting in), FEAR OF BEING AWKWARD, and probably more.  

Religious leaders can be strong fearmongers reminding their congregants that they must fear God, fear sinners, fear progress, fear eternal punishment/Hell, fear people not like them because those people will take them down the wrong path and so on, week after week.

However, some of the most proficient users and abusers of fear are political entities.  This goes far beyond candidates and those who serve in elected office.  It includes advertisers, people who operate and donate to Political Action Committees (PACs) and other election finance groups, non-profits with political ambitions, media moguls, and social media users and influencers. 

Wielding fear usually goes along with misinformation and/or selective information.  There are certainly things in life to worry about, but to bring those worries to a higher pitch, fearmongers toss in just enough misinformation, misdirection, even lies to get notice from their targets to promote worry. 

The “Willie Horton ad” used in George H.W., Bush’s 1988 presidential campaign  illustrates this well.  The news media had amplified the increase of violence and the drug war, so people were primed to expect to be victims at some point, and Black men would be the perpetrators.  Willie Horton was a Black criminal who  had been released early, then killed two people.  The ad informed the people of the United States that candidate Mike Dukakis would free all those Black criminals to attack them, the defenseless white people, the true Americans.  Crimes had been committed by White men released early too, while most Black and White early releases led to no crimes.  None of that mattered.  In this case there was insufficient information.  As one can imagine, it was pretty powerful in stirring up fear of African-American men to such a pitch that Bush won handily.  Republicans seemed offended when they were reminded their ad was racist.  It was. 

When the trial for 5 Black teens accused of attacking a woman in Central Park occurred shortly afterward, the young men were all convicted even though they hadn’t been near the site of the crime.  Donald Trump still insists the young men should all have been electrocuted.  I guess he thinks that those young men must have done something worth being executed for.  They were just so scary, you know.

The Republican party continues to be the party of fear.  It has embraced fear as its moral mission.  Racism and misogyny are both at their center, although they have been trotting out White women (in some Governors’ seats, the  House, and Senate) to claim they have the full rights of men.  Black men(in the Senate and Supreme Court) whine that this nation is not racist.  They think these tokens can make up for male fear of women that leads to many anti-abortion and anti-reproductive rights actions throughout the country.  It does not negate White fear of Black men and people of color that has caused the imbalance of Black people caught up in the criminal justice system.

Donald Trump is the poster boy for the fearmongering of Republicans.  We must be afraid of the hoards coming across the Southern border.  Be very afraid of Muslims, no matter where they are from and how much they have helped this country.  Tremble in your shoes at the thought of all those immigrants living in your neighborhood, wanting to take your job, worshipping in a way different from you.  Watch out for those LGBT (or whatever those letters are) people who will be hitting on or “turning” you or your kids. 

Then, there is soooo much voter fraud that we have to stop it.  Those people are going to steal your vote just like they stole the election in 2020 – no evidence for any of it, of course.  

The COVID-19 pandemic has invigorated the Republican fear machine’s.  Fear the vaccine because it will give you COVID.  Fear wearing masks because they will give you COVID.  Don’t be afraid of COVID because it isn’t so bad.  Most people survive it (implied, most White people survive it).  Fear and do harm to Asian-Americans because, well there must be a reason because Trump called COVID “China virus.”  Any pandemic is scary, but there are many who just love to use the uncertainty to move their questionable agenda forward.

In short, the current Republican Party is pleased to see their followers afraid of many things.  Fear makes its victims vulnerable to messages like “I’m the only one who can fix this for you.”  There is also a vulnerability to conspiracy theories that are beyond outrageous, to the point of stupidity.  The creators of those conspiracies, if not actually suffering from delusions, are weaponizing fear to keep followers following and to keep the “enemies” list current.  Electing several of the devotees to Congress insures the stupidity will continue because the media just must put their ravings and complete lies out there as though they have merit.  They don’t. 

The only conspiracies we as a nation should worry about, even fear, are those related to the current Republican Party sloshing around in its own manure, trying to spread its fear onto all of us.  Vigilance and calling the fearmongers out on their fearmongering are ways we who don’t want fear to rule any longer, can stop the insanity. 

We need to stand up and demand that media stop the false equivalencies and call lies and fearmongering what they truly are.  We must tell our legislators we are sick of the voter fraud claims when the only cases rare as they are, in decades have been Republican fraud.  We need to tell our nation we are tired of being told to be afraid of Black men when White men commit more crimes including most mass murders in this country.  We need to proclaim that we are tired of being afraid that the Supreme Court with its conservative allies will take away more of our rights.  Let’s get more people to understand the value of labor unions (except maybe for police) so we won’t fear our jobs or losing them.  We need health care for all so we don’t need to be fearmongered into taking drugs or using services that could harm us.  Get vaccinated so we don’t have to fear COVID as much.  

In short, let’s stand with each other against fear in all its forms so we won’t be victims of the fearmongers any longer.  Let’s put them out of business.