Proof of Fear

The problem with this last election cycle was not misinformation, in the sense that the fears and anxieties that people are displaying, and that others are responding to, are quite real. Therefore, they believe that they are fighting back against immoral, criminal or otherwise harmful activities directed at them. The misinformation lies in the various proofs that are offered of deliberate malfeasance; that the changes being proposed and made to society have disadvantaging them as a goal, rather than being the result of either the reality or perception of limited resources. But those proofs are not the things that allow such conspiratorial thinking to thrive. The malfeasance is taken on faith. The proofs are merely bludgeons to be applied to doubters.

To the degree that the concept is framed as one of good against evil, this is to be expected. And so is the combative response. If Evil does as Evil is, then it becomes rational to see evil people as always planning criminality and harm, and to take steps to thwart or incapacitate them before such plans come to fruition.

But again, this is a response to people's fears and anxieties, and perhaps one of the design flaws of the modern United States is the idea that fear and anxiety are intended to drive people to industry and creativity; it was not anticipated (or perhaps is was denied) that fear and anxiety undercut the belief in the efficacy of work and inventiveness. After all, American society understands that for some 200-plus years, the labor and ideas of many natives and imported Africans were summarily expropriated for the benefit of the ruling White majority. While the "peculiar institution" may have come to an end, the human impulses for intraspecies predation and parasitism didn't end with it, and I expect that many people are fully aware of this.