The Politics of Fear

The headlines are enough to send you crawling back into your bed and pulling the covers over your head.

      Feds Have No Clue If 9500 People With Revoked Visas and Links to                                                       Terrorism Are in U.S.1

                          Virginia district cancels school over Islamic lesson anger2

       IMMIGRATION LOOPHOLES: Terror probe reveals marriage-for-visa scam3

     US lawmakers, analysts warn Canada's Syrian refugee plan puts America at risk4

                  "Tough talk on terror is playing very well right now, particularly in the Republican primaries. Every                            candidate is using dramatic language in vowing to destroy ISIS. In the wake of Paris and San                                        Bernardino, each contender wants to project an image of strength. Donald Trump says he will bomb the                   S out of ISIS. Ted Cruz says he will carpet-bomb until the sand glows in the dark. Chris Christie says                         he'll declare a no-fly zone in Syria and shoot down any Russian planes that violate it."5

Is it any surprise a certain part of the American population has freaked out? They are so fearful, that 30% of them would bomb the fictional city of Agrabah (from the Disney film Aladdin).6   What is it about news headlines that triggers something in the American psyche to accept being fearful? More to the point, why do we allow ourselves to be manipulated so easily?

In his book, Creating Fear: News and the Construction of Crisis,7 David Altheide contends that the perception of a bleak future has been promoted by mass media and popular culture. Media, especially visual ones like tv and movies, include a large amount of crime and violence. Magazine covers, newspaper headlines, reality tv, international tragedies...you name the medium and you can pretty much find masses of negative stories, murder, crimes and general mayhem. The author suggests that many news reports are developed with the intention of entertaining by promoting fear.

That means those of us exposed to these media (just about everyone) are the victims of this fear mongering. It's not new. For those who lived through the 1950's, a fear of nuclear annihilation was an ever-present evil (remember "duck and cover"). In the 1960's and 70's, it was the fear of Communism and how it would destroy our nation ("the domino theory"). In the 1930's it was a fear of Nazi's and fascists. The yellow journalism of the early 20th century used lies to convince Americans to start a war-- the Spanish American war. 

Why do we not realize that our emotions are being manipulated in order to sell a story, to gain viewership, even to sway us into accepting a certain political position? Is it a fear of the unknown? Or do we relish being a victim of media giants who's goal is to ensure we remain too scared to do anything except blindly follow along?

Sources:

1. http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2015/12/18/refugee-vetting-hearing-n2094802

2. http://townhall.com/news/us/2015/12/18/virginia-district-cancels-school-over-islamic-lesson-anger-n2095127

3. http://www.foxnews.com/

4. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/12/18/us-lawmakers-analysts-warn-canadas-syrian-refugee-plan-puts-america-at-risk.html

5. Howard Kurtz, http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/12/18/republicans-are-using-language-war-in-terror-fight-is-that-what-americans-want.html?intcmp=hplnws

6. http://www.nationofchange.org/news/2015/12/18/30-of-gop-voters-want-to-bomb-a-fictional-muslim-sounding-country/

7. Altheide, David, Creating Fear: News and the Construction of Crisis, 2002, pp. 42-43.

Expectations, Not Great

The 114th Congress is meeting and we can all be thankful that it is also the shortest one in history. No American works less than the US House of Representatives and, now that the Republicans are in control, we might want to celebrate this. The two sides just passed a non-binding federal budget (wasting more tax payer dollars for nothing), promising deep cuts in (guess what?) and increases in (guess where?). 

"The Republican-authored plan would eliminate deficits by 2024 through deep cuts to social programs while increasing military spending by nearly $40 billion next year."1

Nothing new here; Republicans love to take food from Grandma to give to the Pentagon, who has already agreed it needs reductions. Why do we spend 3-4 times as much as the nearest country? I can only conclude it's to feed the war machine (i.e., corporations selling to the Pentagon).

2

In the meantime, the Pentagon admitted it lost $500 million in US weaponry to Al-Queda. 3 If I worked at a company and lost $500 million, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't get more money to lose. I kind of think I'd be tossed out on my keester....I wonder if they're hiring at the Pentagon....

Sources
1. Reuters, April 30, 2015, http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/30/usa-budget-idUSL1N0XR40U20150430.  
2. Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures.
3. DailyKos, March 19, 2015, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/19/1371828/-The-Pentagon-Admits-It-May-Have-Lost-500-Million-in-U-S-Weaponry-To-Al-Qaeda.