selling irrational fear 3/23/2016 0 Comments   by E.L. Christianson Jr. In the United States of America, one of the best selling products is fear.  Probably, the best sales mechanism and the most profitable of the fear merchants is the institutional 'news' media.  "Fear sells" is now and has been the guiding principle which determines what gets printed or broadcast. Irrational fear seems to sell the best.  It is difficult to undermine irrational fear because reason, common sense, and rational thinking are discounted at the very beginning of the process. Humans have this thing about the 'bogey man'.  We all know that he doesn't exist, and yet, back there in the shadows where we aren't sure about things, there is this deep seated anxiety, likely left over from our early primate days.  We fear what we don't understand.  We concoct stories to support these fears.  And, we concoct religion as an antidote against these fears. We bring these things together in a manner that favors the dominate culture in our country.  The less dominate sections of our culture typically suffer from our fictional creations of fear. To date, black and brown people have suffered from general ignorance and irrational fears perpetuated by the European dominated society in which we live.   The Native American was portrayed as less than human... as a savage.  The African American was portrayed as less than human... as a savage.  Asian Americans were portrayed as less than human... as savage.  The brain-washing, the propaganda, the 'education' have been standardized and it has worked very well.  These populations have been successfully marginalized, discounted, taken advantage  of, and disadvantaged.  There is no measure of our society today that does not demonstrate this truth as related to black and brown people in the United States. Settling the west was a war against Native Americans.  The "war on drugs" was and is a war on African Americans.  "Immigration reform" was and is a war on Latin Americans.  Trump's wall on the Mexican border is a war against Latin American.  Essentially, the complete list of these abuses is the complete history of the United States. And now, we have the "war on terror".   This is in every way a religious war.  This is a war against the Muslim religion being waged by so-called 'Christians'.  "So-called" Christians because in every aspect, this war is everything Jesus spoke against.  Nobody who believes in the teachings of Jesus could possibly be involved in this hatred against Muslims. The propaganda machines of the mass media are at full throttle pumping out misinformation and lies aimed at creating hatred for Muslims.   And this process sells. And then came the bombing in Brussels.  And in response, the self-identified reincarnation of Christendom, presidential candidate Ted Cruz sells his solution of more hate.   Ted Cruz on Tuesday called for a freeze on the U.S. accepting refugees from regions where the Islamic State (ISIS) and al Qaeda have a strong presence and said local law enforcement should be allowed to "patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods." The Republican presidential candidate made the comments within hours of the bombings in Belgium that killed at least 30 and wounded hundreds more. ISIS has since claimed responsibility for the attack. Tensions were further exacerbated when Cruz's campaign spokesperson Alice Stewart told Politico, "We know what is happening with these isolated Muslim neighborhoods in Europe. If we want to prevent it from happening here, it is going to require an empowered, visible law enforcement presence that will both identify problem spots and partner with non-radical Americans who want to protect their homes." Cruz's "visible law enforcement presence" would be the other end of Trump's "kill the family".  "Non-radical" Americans would mean, white people.  The results are entirely predictable. The fact that most people are opposed to terrorists attacks is irrelevant in this particular conversation among people who are afraid of the dark and feel hatred for the unknown.  That Muslims are no more likely to launch a terrorist attack than Christians is irrelevant in discussions where fear and hatred are the major points to be considered. That United States foreign policy breeds terrorism cannot be allowed in the discussion because telling the truth upsets the balance between fact and fiction, and when one is selling fear, fiction is the most important asset.  Irrational fear requires ignorance, and that's the truth !!!