# I am so sick of the damned fear-mongering. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 8, 2009, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-so-sick-of-the-damned-fear-mongering/509265 "2009-09-08T10:59:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-so-sick-of-the-damned-fear-mongering/509265/21 "2009-09-08T15:53:05Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > Is this different than it used to be? > > I feel like the last 5-7 years or so has been dominated by a complete, almost comical, distrust of the other party. I keep telling myself that it didn’t used to be this way, during the Clinton or Reagan eras. I imagine that Congress didn’t break down completely and utterly along party lines on practically every issue. I don’t recall completely nonsensical attacks on the President, or that every decision / statement was something to be attacked, or that the President / his Party were Evil/Socialist/Fascist. > > Am I wrong? I hope I’m wrong, and it’s just my perception changing. The difference is one party controlled the presidency, the House and the Senate. When the repubs did they rammed some horrible policies through in spite of the uproar. Now the Dems are in the same position. The repubs are screaming in advance. They know what can be done, because they took huge advantage of the power. Just swinging the pendulum back would piss of the repubs. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-so-sick-of-the-damned-fear-mongering/509265/22 "2009-09-08T16:00:44Z")
> [@SentientMeat](#): > > [The Power of Nightmares](http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2798679275960015727#) is one of the most interesting political documentaries I’ve ever seen, charting the failure of “positive” ideologies in western politics and the inevitable decline into exaggerating the _negatives_ which politicians will save you from. It’s in three 1 hour parts, and you will never view politics the same again. I’m halfway one episode now, and it is indeed fascinating. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-so-sick-of-the-damned-fear-mongering/509265/23 "2009-09-08T16:33:29Z")
I’m actually somewhat sympathetic to the teabagger cause. I _do_ think the Obama administration is spending more money than it should, and I applaud the people who are trying to curb it. On the other hand, it’s impossible to accept the fiscal-discipline message without implictly accepting the birther/socialist/Nazi bullcrap, since those are the people standing front and center, so I won’t support the cause. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-so-sick-of-the-damned-fear-mongering/509265/24 "2009-09-08T16:59:29Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I’m actually somewhat sympathetic to the teabagger cause. I _do_ think the Obama administration is spending more money than it should, and I applaud the people who are trying to curb it. There’s an old saying: It takes money to make money. The previous administration screwed up this country so badly (Who could have know, looking at 43’s previous involvement in running businesses?) that it’s going to cost a lot to straighten things out. But indications are that UHC will save money in the long run, and the expenditures so far seem to be helping to turn the economy around. We’re going to have UHC eventually. We’re going to afford the same civil rights to gay couples as we do to straight couples. We’re going to put more funding into stem cell research. (Just wait 'til the Boomers _really_ need it!) We can do do these and other things now, and some of them will be expensive; or we can wait until the Boomers die off and they will be done later – at much greater expense. This is why I try to maintain my vehicles. If I don’t, I’ll pay much more later. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-so-sick-of-the-damned-fear-mongering/509265/25 "2009-09-08T17:12:08Z")
> [@DudleyGarrett](#): > > You know, I would have responded to this thread with something like, “It’s just the media, no one really buys into this shit.” But since joining Facebook and having about 100 friends on there, there are about 5 or 6 who EVERY FUCKING DAY write tirades on how the left is going to send the US into poverty or like the point you brought up, Jman, Obama’s speech to kids in classrooms. The furor that this incited is mind-boggling. I’ve got to say, thanks to Facebook I have a very different view of some of my former high school friends. And not a good one, either. Whether it’s “stock up on ammo before the socialists take it away”, or “put God back in schools” (Back? Really? Didn’t you go to the same godless public school I did?), I’m hearing it every…single…day. My “ignore all posts from” button is on fire of late. They can’t have been like this “before”, right? Right? Damn, there are times I hate being a stranger in my own country. ---
**Author:** ![wierdaaron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eada6e/32.png) [@wierdaaron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wierdaaron)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-so-sick-of-the-damned-fear-mongering/509265/26 "2009-09-08T17:14:23Z")
They cant decide if the forthcoming stormtroopers will be jackbooted or brownshirted. I’m having a dickens of a time coordinating my ensemble. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-so-sick-of-the-damned-fear-mongering/509265/27 "2009-09-08T17:16:40Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I’m actually somewhat sympathetic to the teabagger cause. I _do_ think the Obama administration is spending more money than it should, and I applaud the people who are trying to curb it. it’s interesting that the teabaggers didn’t show up until this year, though. If they only knew the [truth](http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/06/whose-deficit). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-so-sick-of-the-damned-fear-mongering/509265/28 "2009-09-08T17:21:58Z")
> [@Duke](#): > > \Damn, there are times I hate being a stranger in my own country. Remember, they’re the minority. It’s not you who’s a stranger in their country. They’re strangers in YOURS. ---
**Author:** ![DudleyGarrett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@DudleyGarrett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DudleyGarrett)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-so-sick-of-the-damned-fear-mongering/509265/29 "2009-09-08T17:36:23Z")
> [@Duke](#): > > I’ve got to say, thanks to Facebook I have a very different view of some of my former high school friends. And not a good one, either. Whether it’s “stock up on ammo before the socialists take it away”, or “put God back in schools” (Back? Really? Didn’t you go to the same godless public school I did?), I’m hearing it every…single…day. My “ignore all posts from” button is on fire of late. > > They can’t have been like this “before”, right? Right? Damn, there are times I hate being a stranger in my own country. I’ve had similar experiences to yours, although I haven’t ignored any yet. Some people seem to take to heart the saying, “If you’re not a liberal at 22, you’ve got no heart\*. If you’re not conservative at 40, you’ve got no brains” a little too seriously. I have some former military friends as “friends” on FB and they’re the absolute worst. Everything they seem to write is just a carbon copy of what’s on FoxNews’ front page. There also seems to be a huge misunderstanding as to the differences between socialism, communism and fascism. To my righty “friends” these terms are interchangeable. Frankly, they all just sound really stupid. For that, I’m sad. They were, or at least from what I remember, smarter than this… …and happier in their lives where things like universal healthcare and presidential speeches in classrooms didn’t get their blood boiling. - I may have totally fucked that up. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-so-sick-of-the-damned-fear-mongering/509265/30 "2009-09-08T17:55:29Z")
> [@Just\_Some\_Guy](#): > > I hate to break it to you but it isn’t an American thing, it’s a human thing. In every culture that there is and has been on this earth there have been those who roused the fears of the public in order to manipulate them. I hate to break it to you, but it is an American thing, not a human thing. You don’t see the industrialized democracies falling for this line of BS, only America and other third world nations. When you have more than half of a population that does’t understand the basics of how the earth revolves around the sun and think Fred Flinstone rode a dinosaur to work, all kinds of moronic political beliefs are possible. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-so-sick-of-the-damned-fear-mongering/509265/31 "2009-09-08T18:03:23Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > The previous administration screwed up this country so badly (Who could have know, looking at 43’s previous involvement in running businesses?) that it’s going to cost a lot to straighten things out. But indications are that UHC will save money in the long run, and the expenditures so far seem to be helping to turn the economy around. I’m talking about the federal stimulus/bailout packages, rather than UHC. I fully support universal healthcare even if it slightly _increases_ costs in the short term. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-so-sick-of-the-damned-fear-mongering/509265/32 "2009-09-08T19:50:49Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I’m talking about the federal stimulus/bailout packages, rather than UHC. I was including those. When the economy crashed in 2008 Congress passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which created the Troubled Assets Relief Program. Now, people will debate whether the crash was caused by Bush’s policies; or whether Bush inherited a ticking time bomb along with the $127 billion budget surplus from Clinton. Either way, the crash happened on Bush’s watch. (And if he did inherit a problem, he failed to do anything about it for nearly eight years.) So hundreds of billions of dollars had to be spent quickly in order to attempt to pull us out of the nose-dive. I remember Obama being not-exactly-thrilled to have to spend hundreds of billions more, but he had little choice. To get back to the car analogy, he either had to spend a lot of money to repair or replace the engine, or else lose the car entirely. (I know a car isn’t a particularly good analogy. I’ve spent much more on my MGB than I could ever sell it for. Maybe an airplane would be a better example, as used planes have become more expensive over the past couple of decades.) Nobody likes bailouts (except for the recipients), but sometimes you have to spend money now to make money later. We’re not out of the woods yet, and we’re going to have to spend a lot more money; but we’re starting to pull out. Spending money now will allow us to recover and then grow later. And I lumped UHC in there because it is another example of something that will pay off after investment. Stem cell research will better benefit the population if it is developed sooner rather than later. Civil rights for Gays is going to happen eventually, so why not save the money now and stop fighting it? We’re going to have to come up with alternatives to importing oil, so it would behoove us to invest in alternatives. Nuclear power plants will only become more expensive. And so on. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-so-sick-of-the-damned-fear-mongering/509265/33 "2009-09-08T20:07:21Z")
> [@PrettyVacant](#): > > From afar, it seems almost surreal. > > It looks like the population has been trained to react to ideological rhetoric regardless of its relevance to the issue in hand with more ideological rhetoric. > > It’s emotional, seemingly visceral when it needs to be exactly the inverse. > > And it’s not just the information that is dishonest, you will not have a democracy if the media do not frame the debates themselves with responsibility. > > I hate to say it, but it is manufactured consent, isn’t it? It isnt surreal, it is 1984 … remember how the rations were being cut down because they needed everything for the army to defend against the eternal enemy [that kept changing …]and every shortage was explained as either materials needed for the military or lost as a result of an enemy attack on a convoy carrying it. Same shit now, We need to protect our interests overseas, so Bush fabricates a WMD charge. We need to protect america so Homeland Security is invented when all we needed to do was actually integrate databases, not add a layer of bureaucracy… I am a documented american citizen who has held a number of security clearances. Why the fuck cant I take a bottle of freaking shampoo onto an airplane? I have seen a guy in full us military uniform traveling on orders, and they made him throw away his shampoo. Be fucking real. Im sure I can threaten an entire plane with my nail cutters. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-so-sick-of-the-damned-fear-mongering/509265/34 "2009-09-08T21:33:06Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > I hate to break it to you, but it is an American thing, not a human thing. You don’t see the industrialized democracies falling for this line of BS, only America and other third world nations. When you have more than half of a population that does’t understand the basics of how the earth revolves around the sun and think Fred Flinstone rode a dinosaur to work, all kinds of moronic political beliefs are possible. I have no other word to say than this: bullshit. I do see fearmongering constantly from politicians in every single country. It’s a different topic in each place; the words change but the song is always the same. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-so-sick-of-the-damned-fear-mongering/509265/35 "2009-09-08T23:07:20Z")
A few of my RW family are going [here](http://912dc.org/). They think it’s going to be huge. I’ll be disappointed if there’s no counter demonstrators ( not that I’ll be able to go). ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-so-sick-of-the-damned-fear-mongering/509265/36 "2009-09-08T23:23:28Z")
> [@River\_Hippie](#): > > A few of my RW family are going [here](http://912dc.org/). What’s up with the [Black Power Salute](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Olympics_Black_Power_salute) on the front page? ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-so-sick-of-the-damned-fear-mongering/509265/37 "2009-09-08T23:51:56Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > What’s up with the [Black Power Salute](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Olympics_Black_Power_salute) on the front page? Heh, I’ll point that out to them. ---
**Author:** ![Gotterfunken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58956e/32.png) [@Gotterfunken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gotterfunken)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-so-sick-of-the-damned-fear-mongering/509265/38 "2009-09-08T23:53:06Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > What’s up with the [Black Power Salute](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Olympics_Black_Power_salute) on the front page? But that’s a _red_ raised fist, which is a gesture traditionally associated with… [COMMUNISM!!!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raised_fist) Just further proof that the tea-baggers have no sense of history at all. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-so-sick-of-the-damned-fear-mongering/509265/39 "2009-09-08T23:54:26Z")
> [@River\_Hippie](#): > > A few of my RW family are going [here](http://912dc.org/). They think it’s going to be huge. I’ll be disappointed if there’s no counter demonstrators ( not that I’ll be able to go). Hmmmm…Now’s the time to take a page from the playbook of Lester Maddux, and greet them with attack dogs and fire hoses. What’s good for the goose, after all… ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-so-sick-of-the-damned-fear-mongering/509265/40 "2009-09-09T00:12:24Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I’m actually somewhat sympathetic to the teabagger cause. I _do_ think the Obama administration is spending more money than it should, and I applaud the people who are trying to curb it. I think it is becoming accepted that without spending that money we’d be in a depression now. At least Bush was responsible enough to not stand in the way of the people who really understood the problem. You might remember the Dems were in his corner in the crisis, backing the bailouts, while many Republicans wanted to let the entire financial sector crash. If the Dems were like the Republicans today, we’d be in deep shit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-so-sick-of-the-damned-fear-mongering/509265.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-so-sick-of-the-damned-fear-mongering/509265.md?page=3)