Fear is the greatest intimidator. It is how many people (including myself) live their lives, out of fear. Fear is what has caused some of history's greatest and most forgetful moments. Wars were started over fear, fear of terrorism, nuclear wars, and religion. It is no wonder that politicians use fear to further their political agenda. Fear is a motivating factor to actually go out and vote. For example, just for reference both political parties use fear and demagoguery, it is just Republicans use more blunt scare tactics; their fear mongering is much less subtle. Republicans try to scare Americans into saying Obama is a socialist who wants to spread the wealth. First, my argument to that is America is already a socialist nation already. We have Medicare, Medicaid, social security, and so on. How do people fear socialism when hello, it is here in America that we redistribute money? We take money from the working people and give it to people who already worked. We take money from the young people and give it the elderly so they can have healthcare.
I enjoy reading your posts. They are always short, sweet, and straight to the point. I must agree with your position on politicians and their use of scare tactics. In my political science class, my professor made an assignment for the class to find 10 political ads (TV, internet, newspapers) analyze them, and determine whether these ads used a good fear or bad fear to attract viewers. For example, when Prop 19 surfaced, there was a group of activists parading around SJSU with fliers that had a 2-year old baby with a joint in his mouth. This was their way of saying, “if Marijuana was legalized, EVERYONE would have access to it.”
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