Bush’s Greatest Sin Was Telling America to Be Afraid

[kpete]

Bush’s Greatest Sin Was Telling America to Be Afraid
By: Jon Walker Friday April 26, 2013 7:35 am

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If FDR’s presidency could be summed up with his famous line “we have nothing to fear but fear itself,” the years under Bush basically consisted of the message ‘fear everything.’

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After 9/11 Bush didn’t tell us to stay calm and carry on. He didn’t tell us to be more vigilant but not let terrorists change what makes us great. He told us to be scared, not just scared but irrationally terrified.

His administration not only preyed on our fear but created fictitious dangers behind every corner. At a moment of national panic we were told to buy duct tape and plastic. We were constantly told to worry about color coded “threats” that were never specified. At airports 90 year old men were treated as threats and we were told nail clippers were too dangerous to carry aboard.

We were made to fear “dirty bombs” even though they won’t really do serious damage. We were told to worry about “suitcase nukes” even though technological it is not even possible to put a nuke in a suitcase. We were made to fear yellowcake, aluminum tubes, and Saddam’s mobile “WMD” factories despite them all just being fantasies. We were at war not with a group of terrorists but terror itself. We faced an “axis of evil” even though the impoverished members of this axis basically never worked together.

Bush exploited this fear he helped fuel relentlessly. He used it for political gain. He use it to strip us of our civil liberties. He used it to get us into war. He used it to bankrupt the country by dramatically expanding our defense industry while also enriching his friends.

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the rest:
http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2013/04/26/bushs-greatest-sin-was-telling-america-to-be-afraid/

[no_hypocrisy]

1. "Be afraid. Be very afraid."

Except for going shopping.

[Ron Green]

4. A very important point. Consumerism is a fear-based thing,

and capitalist hegemony depends upon this curious mix of buying things and being afraid of the Other.

[byeya]

2. During the last days of WW2 and for the next few years, the ones who controlled the political

economies decided the only way to keep their populations in line was through fear. Hence, the Cold War. After the UK voted Churchill out at the earliest possible moment, the right wing was afraid their favored place would be lost and scaring the crap out of the citizens was the way to maintain the MIC and their position of power(and regaining it in the UK)

[rhett o rick]

3. Fear has long been used by our govment to control the 99%.

Bush/Cheney admin excelled at it. They even had color codes to control the current fear levels.

FDR was correct in his speech but it truly was just so much rhetoric. Fear was used during the war to paint the Germans and Japanese as monsters.