Conservatives and reactionaries are triggered by fear. They fear the unknown and the future and worship and cling to the past. They hate change and anything that is outside the "norm" turns them into reactionary, wilting, whining snowflakes. They also gravitate toward authoritarianism and paternalism. They have a narrow definition of their ingroup and rigidly define and maintain it, while discriminating against, hating and blaming all others as outgroups. This is what leads them to "hate" minorities and blame them for their worsening economic condition, while often embracing the obscenely wealthy as authoritarian father figures even though they are responsible for their economic free-fall. And, they don't want their racism or its long history to be talked about, taught to their children or used to change the privileges that they feel entitled to. That makes them feel uncomfortable and under assault from change as they more vigorously try to cling to the past. Gay and transexual people are more than they can handle, it isn't what they are used to and it threatens the dogma that their worship of the past and constancy requires. They don't want to hear about them; they want to sweep them out of sight, ban them, and blame them for the discomfort they feel in the face of change and when they think outside their safe, straight, "normal" past-worshipping box.

Fear and insecurity are what drives them and that is exactly what the GOP, right-wing media and wannabe autocrats use to control them like puppets, scare them into voting and poison them to any policies that they, or their obscenely wealthy masters, object to like raising taxes or taking away white privileges. This is one reason they routinely vote against their own self-interest. Fear and insecurity make them easy suckers for the Barnums of the political world and the rest of us pay the price.

Tennessee Education Bill Would Ban Discussion of Systemic Racism at Colleges - Truthout https://truthout.org/articles/tennessee-education-bill-would-ban-discussion-of-systemic-racism-at-colleges/

#GOPUsesFear
#GOPManipulatesTheirBase
#InsecurityComplex
#ConservativesFearOthers

"Shortly after Democratic state Representatives Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson were sworn back into office on Tuesday, the Tennessee legislature passed a bill that would limit discussions on race on college campuses across the state.

House Bill 1376, also known as the Tennessee Higher Education Freedom of Expression Act, would ban the discussion of 16 “divisive concepts,” including the idea that “the United States is fundamentally or irredeemably racist or sexist.” The bill — which Pearson has said will likely curtail conversation on issues like white privilege or unconscious biases in classrooms — is currently awaiting the governor’s signature after passing in a 68 to 26 vote..."

Why the GOP, Fox-So-Called "News" & Rightwing Hate Radio Use Fear as Their Primary Tool https://hartmannreport.com/p/why-the-gop-fox-so-called-news-and

#GOPUsesFear
#InsecurityResponses

"...Most Democratic political messaging and ads are upbeat and talk about what politicians and the party have done and hope to do for working class and poor Americans. Most Republican ads, on the other hand, are dark, ominous, and point to danger, death, and destruction.
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Our most primal emotion is fear.
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This is why fear is so powerful: it’s at the core of our survival instincts
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Because fear was primary at our birth, when we experience it as adults it tends to throw us back to our infancy. It’s why torture victims usually sob uncontrollably; why George Floyd and Tyree Nichols both called out for their mothers as police officers brutally murdered them
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Fear, in other words, infantilizes us. It takes us back to a time before knowledge, before logic, before we felt power and agency as an adult. Fear sweeps aside a lifetime of learning and maturing and reduces us, emotionally, to infancy.

Which is precisely why Republicans and GOP-aligned media like Fox “News” and rightwing hate radio use fear as their primary tool to capture and motivate voters. Turn on rightwing media at any random time and you’ll get a fiery blast of rhetoric and imagery specifically designed to induce fear, thus producing infantilization.

...when Republicans can throw them into that state of fear, part two of the classic authoritarian playbook kicks in: offer a powerful-seeming parental figure (almost always male) who can reassure frightened Republicans that he’ll take care of them
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Donald Trump has been playing this game ever since he came down the escalator in 2015 ranting about dark-skinned “rapists and murderers pouring across our border” from Mexico.
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Nixon did it when he declared his racist “war on drugs.” Reagan did it when he referred to Black people as “monkeys” and “cannibals” who are “uncomfortable wearing shoes.” ...George W. Bush did it to justify two illegal wars
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If you can scare people badly enough, you can get them to go along with almost anything sold to them as providing safety and security.

It’s why every fascist movement in history starts out by dehumanizing its victims, then characterizing them as an existential threat. Whether it was Hitler’s characterization of Jews, or DeSantis’ portrayal of trans people and drag queens as “groomers and predators,” the script is always the same.
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As the brilliant Amanda Marcotte noted for Salon:

“The last thing MAGA stands for, in fact, is making America great, much less ‘great again.’ These are people caught up in a dark fantasy that they live in a zombie movie.”

She goes so far as to speculate that Republicans refuse to do anything about gun violence because mass- and school-shootings increase the fear of Americans, and Republicans live on fear the way vampires live on blood .
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Republicans instead want you to believe that drag queens, public school teachers, and trans people are “groomers” and “molesters.”

You won’t hear a peep out of them about the steady stream of fundamentalist and Catholic pastors and priests (and Republican politicians) arrested for grooming and molesting: this is about creating fear and then redirecting that fear against people who are the least likely to be able to fight back.
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Once white voters are reduced to that child-like state, with every fear assuaged by performative anti-trans, anti-gay, anti-Black history, anti-drag, and anti-abortion laws, it’s an easy step to telling them, as Trump did repeatedly:

“Only we can help you. Only we can ‘save’ America and bring her back to the uncomplicated white supremacy glory days of the 1950s.”

This strategy, employed by dictators and autocrats, is as ancient as history. Caligula did it, as did Nero. Mussolini, Hitler, Putin, and Orbán achieved and exercised power using fear.

And now the GOP has adopted fear as their first and foremost electoral strategy, knowing it’s so powerful that both optimism and fact-checking almost always fail against it.

Ironically, in their overreach, Republican policies are now inspiring so much reactive fear in Democratic voters — particularly among women, students, the queer community, and people of color — that it may end up propelling millions of new progressive voters to the polls."