Fear Is The Weapon

The elites, those with influence, power, and wealth, have exploited the struggles of hard-working Americans by creating division and hatred so that we’re too distracted to see the real source of our problems.

Rapidly changing demographics made their exploitation all the more effective and gave them the ability to blame “others”, people who are not exactly like you.

It is why we have Trump as president, continually attacking our democratic foundations. It is why we have a secret police force rounding up people based on the color of their skin, not their criminal acts. And, it is why we have an erosion of women’s rights and assaults on civil liberties.

Fear has been the driving force behind it all.

They talk about “Making America Great Again” and claim that the 1940s and 50s were the pinnacle of America's greatness. But what did the 1950s look like?

• America was 90% white. Today, it is 59%. And around 20 years from now, the white population is expected to fall below 50%.

• Over 90% of Americans identified as Christian. Today, only 62% do, and again, that number is expected to fall below 50% within around 20 years.

• Only 6% of Americans had college degrees. Today, that number is closer to 40%. In the 1980s, women began to take the lead in obtaining degrees, a trend that has continued to widen since then.

• Men had a labor participation rate as high as 97%, compared to 67% today. Women have risen to 57% and have a lower unemployment rate.

• 40% of Americans lived in rural areas. Today, approximately 80% of the population resides in urban areas, while the remaining 20% live in rural areas. 75% of the rural population is white, and only around 21% of the rural population aged 25 or older holds a college degree.

It isn’t hard to see why rural conservatives living in declining communities and struggling to make ends meet embrace politicians' and media personalities’ fearmongering about cities, universities, immigrants, DEI, and the LGBT community.

They’ve been told America was overrun with criminal migrants out to rape and murder their wives and children. That isn’t true, of course. Legal immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than American citizens by birth, and undocumented immigrants commit crimes at the lowest rate of all three.

This fear opened the window for aggressive mass deportations that are not targeting dangerous criminals or even just undocumented immigrants. The Trump administration is stripping legal immigration status from people who have followed every law and attended every check-in and hearing, simply because of their beliefs or the country they came from. Even American citizens are being detained by ICE because the only excuse needed to stick a gun in someone’s face, throw them to the ground, and lock them away is that they aren’t white.

Republican politicians have long demonized cities because living in a densely populated and diverse area tends to make people more progressive and democratic. GOP members of Congress routinely talk about the “out of control” crime in cities at a time when cities across the country are seeing their lowest crime rates in 30-50 years.

Crime isn’t out of control; it is dropping by large amounts year after year nationwide. But when Fox News shows footage every night of criminals on city streets who are not white, it feeds directly into the conservative fear of people and places that are different from what they know.

It hasn’t been enough to rip away reproductive rights and form nationwide manhunts for women who left oppressive states to get an abortion. There are conservatives openly talking about taking away women’s right to vote and saying it should be left to their husbands. Ten years ago, a public figure making such a statement would have been run out of office. Today, the Secretary of Defense retweets those thoughts, and hardly anyone blinks.

Worst of all, the rest of the country has succumbed to another fear. The fear of being harassed, bullied, trolled, or attacked for pointing out the bigotry and fearmongering driving the MAGA movement. Point out the misogyny, and it is flipped into you somehow attacking “traditional family values.” Call out how unnecessary it is for Trump to militarize DC while crime is dropping, and MAGA claims you’re pro-carjacking.

If you call out the Speaker of the House for promoting the white supremacist Great Replacement Theory, MAGA will attempt to ridicule you for “bringing race into the conversation”. If you’re a prominent figure who stands up to the aggressive fearmongering administration, you may receive death threats or even experience violence brought to your doorstep.

Their goal is to keep resistance quiet and isolated, like lions separating a gazelle from the herd to make it easier to attack.

Don’t be quiet.
Don’t accept the hatred and bigotry.
Don’t accept the assault on the Constitution and the rule of law.
Do not fear the elites. They fear you.

The biggest fear of the billionaires and special interest groups funding this division is that you will stand up proudly, speak confidently, and organize against their movement to undo 70 years of American progress and replace it with one focused on improving the lives of the working and middle classes.

Politicians aren’t going to save us. The media certainly won’t. It is up to us. We, the people, must reclaim our country. We must inspire those who have been taught to hate that the power to effect real change and solve our shared problems lies in solidarity.

I should like to help everyone - if possible - Jew, Gentile - black man - white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness - not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

—Charlie Chaplin, The Great Dictator