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If people aren’t panicked, they wouldn’t elect panic-pandering politicians, so there must always be a panic — crime, drugs, commies, libruls, etc.

  • WashedOver
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    1 year ago

    I have to also wonder if it is due to people not understanding how things work.

    When I moved from my rural area to a large local city, my small town father was quite concerned everything he saw on the evening news was happening in my neighborhood nightly too.

    Every fire, gang shooting, stabbing, car theft, etc on the news that night was next door to me. He was pretty concerned in the beginning. He grew up in a pretty remote place which was small.

    He passed over 10 years ago now and this was before social media really started to become our main sources of our curated news, not that he had a cellphone or a computer so I think for people like him social media would be even more effective at ramping up that fear of everything beyond the nonsense of the supermarket tabloids that had general threats and BS.

    Now today’s social media and news entertainment can really zoom in on creating specific fears for each person or highlight BS that isn’t even a part of their normal lives to worry about.

    My father had fairly outdated ideas like everything he saw in the press must be true because they wouldn’t be allowed to print it otherwise. That included the tabloids. I can only imagine those that digest social media click bait fall into this trap pretty far…

    • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Part of it could just be parenting instincts. My wife is from a country where you can get heat stroke all year long. The first year, after our first child’s was born, my mother-in-law would call after every snow fall.

      Are you alright? Is the baby alright? How do you keep your house warm? Oh God what if you have to go into the car, there is no heat, and the baby dies!?

      Took reassurance and time. She really is a sweet woman.