Fear is reactionary. Fear is irrational. Fear gets things done immediately -- whether positive or otherwise. Politics and the media have used fear as a means to push certain agendas or to even strive for power. The epitome of fear mongering comes in the form of the holocaust. With nonstop rhetoric and propaganda, Nazi Germany convinced millions of people that exterminating an entire culture is the only way to proceed. Fear gets results - irrational results mostly.
I will evaluate the usage of fear in the media and by politicians and analyze its usage. Donald Trump might be the epitome of fear mongering in American politics. Not only is he generating fear but he's inciting its next of kin -- anger. He's making Americans afraid of ISIS and Muslims in general. In reality, ISIS is getting pushed back in Iraq and is losing precious territory. However, Trump is able to convince millions of Americans that certain death is imminent and that America has to act. And not only is Trump successful with getting supporters with fear, his anger towards democrats for even refusing to say the term "radical Islam" only generates this anger tenfold. Trump wants to broad Muslims as evil, he wants America to be racist. Like a petulant child who doesn't get a Christmas gift, Trump is acting up because his political colleagues don't want to be racist.
My hope is to expand interest of politics for millennials so events like these won't happen again. Here is the link to my blog.
Now that we're in the post-election, it's important to understand how the white demographic of voters (the white and uneducated) were the majority for Trump and led to his victory. This shows how race and white supremacy was rooted in this election and many of us like myself did not foresee it. It would be interesting to focus on that specially in the post-election. One video that truly stuck with me is clip from Van Jones http://cnn.it/2ek1Ewx and Jones states this election was "a white lash against a charging country."
ReplyDeleteIn the aftermath of this election, I think your project emphasizes the crucial point of how fear can blind a nation. While Trump used fear to push his agenda, he instilled fear in not only his intended audience but also the people he victimized. While having a discussion about the election in one of my classes, I heard numerous stories of students who felt victimized and frightful of their futures with Trump as president. I think it would be beneficial to research how paranoia within a nation can target many groups of innocent people. I found this article helpful in mapping out how exactly Trump was able to get away with using his impactful fear tactics http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/22/opinion/donald-trumps-campaign-of-fear.html?_r=0
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting topic. Something you can explore is how are people preparing to deal with racism from now on. Are people just accepting the fact that this is in the country we live or are measures being taken? Interviewing people and seeing their answer would be really interesting.
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