The last pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong has folded. What did it publish that was so terrible, so frightening to the powers that be? It told the truth. It seems lately that the scariest thing in the world is the truth and the ones most frightened of it are men, specifically, men in power. And to cover their own fear, they create fear, promote fear, establish a list of the specific things and folks people must fear.
You can see it all over the world, starting right here in the United States. Men who would be successful in their run for office if they are Republicans or conservatives these days must have an agenda of fearmongering that is as extensive as their constituents can handle. Those fear targets change periodically to meet their current needs. For example, a candidate may be afraid that people of color might out-number us,” so the fear de jure is immigrants which includes undocumented persons, refugees, asylum-seekers, anyone who didn’t come here “the right way” has their own ancestors did and does not have a skin as white as theirs. This is a particularly good fear to promote because it covers so many other potential fears that are the products of racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, and so much more. These candidates will claim that hoards are crossing the southern border. They are mostly criminals, disease-carrying “animals,” people who are after my job and don’t or can’t understand the American dream and so on.
This one as most fear these days is often tied to fear of inner-city or “urban” people (code word for Black) who are takers while, of course, the candidate’s supporters are the givers, always providing for those “good-for-nothing” lazy poor people in the cities. Mitt Romney actually called them “takers” during his 2012 presidential campaign, Conservative white candidates and their handlers may not specifically use the racial and class terms, but they convey their position very clearly referring to welfare queens, thugs, and the unwilling to work.
The candidates really do fear these people; they might actually rise up and demand their rights as American citizens. Or, refugees and asylum-seekers may demand their rights by international law. Can’t have that!
Once the fear and the target of the fear have been set, the scared male candidate then needs to claim that he will take care of the problem and he is the only one who can. How does he plan to protect the white victims of these immigrants and urban (Black) people -- law and order, stop crime by whatever means, keep or drive the unworthy out as fast as possible, cut regulations of all kinds, ramp up the drug war.
So many people here and around the world have been raised to think that if a person (male) says something loud enough and long enough it must be true. Why bother thinking about the words. Go with the feelings. Vote for the guy. Then cleave to him indefinitely because he (based on his own claims) is the only hope.
Sound familiar? Donald Trump practiced this fearmongering skillfully with the help of people who were even more willing to fearmonger than Trump himself. For power, Trump and those like him sacrifice their integrity, (if they ever had any) and often their constituents in the process, but neither notice.
I can’t help wondering if men are scared all the time, from the first time they encounter people who challenge their supremacy. That’s got to be exhausting and may explain the need that some men have to have complete control over everything they see. They need to infect everyone around them with the fear that will instill an urgency to protect this man. Give people around you just enough authority to pass the fear on and to inspire followers, often with some kind of religious implications. If done well, the man faces no accountability, and hopefully no one will discover the depths of his fear.
Whenever the community faces a challenge, scared men, jump in to push everyone else out of the way so they can rule with impunity at whatever level of society they can dominate from a household to a nation. Globally, there are scared men in power right now, in ?Russia, China, Turkey, Iran, Israel, Hungary, Ethiopia, Brazil, India, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Poland, North Korea, and more. To stay in power, these men have started wars, murdered people (sometimes many), , killed and imprisoned opponents, tortured people for minor infractions, stifled women’s education and other rights, and a lot more, because the people’s fear lets them.
We just dumped our own fearmonger though his fear and ignorance are causing him to claim he is still president. Trump’s fear would have led him to do even more harm to our democracy had he not been voted out. He still has an enormous following who have swallowed whole, his fear and the conspiracies that support it.
In every case, steadfast followers allow themselves to be led, even into destruction. Why? They get to bask in the light, community, and importance of the leader putting all their energy into maintaining their position in the leader’s project. That is often more recognition than they have ever had in their lives, even though they are actually invisible to the man in charge. The feeling of belonging and holding the secrets of the group are powerful, and controlling people they think are inferior is intoxicating.
There are real things we can fear like global warming, the rape culture in society and the military, voter suppression, poverty, deportation, COVID. Real fears don’t work well for scared leaders because it means the leader actually has to have ideas, to listen to people, to cooperate, to motivate, and to get something positive done. The manufactured fears are so much easier because they are unending. The leader needs to do very little except run his mouth and enlist others to help him promote and expand on the “causes” of his fear de jure and keep that fear spreading throughout the population.
We the People can fight this here at all levels by calling it out whenever we see it.
It’s difficult to address the fear in leaders in other countries, but sometimes it works to shine a light on it. A journalist at the meeting between Presidents Biden and Putin actually asked Putin about his incarceration of his opponents. Her final question, “what are you so afraid of?” Yes, Putin is scared. Donald Trump is pretty scared too. He is currently scared of a life with little or no power and a name spoken with scorn. These fears make both men and their adherents dangerous, even violent as with the January 6, 2021 insurgency at the U.S. Capitol.
The media can help by actively working to avoid false equivalencies in their coverage and can point out examples of fearmongering when they show up. Some already do but it needs to be expanded.
Fear is a powerful tool and when wielded against people and ideas for power over and political gain is a serious problem. Lets stop fearing our neighbors and potential neighbors and exercise our fear, (if we need to ) on homelessness, uninsured illness , rising sea levels, wildfires, animal extinction, loss of voting rights and other human rights. You get the idea.
Then, we need to stop following men (and now a few women who want to be like them) who stoke fear and distrust, and make outrageous promises of fixing things by blaming groups of people whose presence or actions they say are the cause of their resentments. These would-be tyrants are not worthy of our attention.
So, Hong Kong has surrendered to the Beijing fearmongers. The rulers are so scared of the people of Hong Kong, and throughout China that they have to eliminate rights, watch the people every moment, commit genocide, and disappear people they don’t like. Courage by one or two will change nothing. It will get folks stuck in labor or concentration camps and have all kinds of horrific things done to them. Things change when a whole people gets fed up with the insanity and stands against it.
I’d love to see that here in the good old USA. We got rid, at least temporarily, of our fearmongering president, so now let’s work on the fearmongering in Congress, the courts and all other offices. We need to expose some of the fearmongering ideas for what they are.
Here is a start. White people, you are not being suppressed by discussing race, gender, or sexuality. Learning about Black history will not destroy your kids and make them feel too guilty. Spreading fear of vaccines is destructive and can cause people to die. There is no Democratic pedophilia ring, and Q-anon conspiracies are truly lies.
Stop inoculating others with your own fear and hatred. Stop voting for people just because they fearmonger for your vote. They truly are not worth it. You and all of us deserve better so let’s demand better. Let’s grab our courage and stop permitting fear to be used as a weapon against ourselves and others. Let’s go for the truth.
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