It's a tactic as old as politics itself---using fear to manipulate and control the public. We've seen it for years, from global warming, to global cooling, floods, droughts, African killer bee invasions, endangered species dying off, bird flu, swine flu, Ebola, Zika, and of course COVID-19. Keeping the public worried about the existential threat out there helps the elites stay in power, and makes the population easier to control. "Fear is the key operator and the key marketing tool of all political parties," says Anthony Russo, political analyst and communication specialist with BeTheChange. "I do believe the left is better at creating fear tactics, and I think the right sometimes takes the bait on things that are eventually proven incorrect."
The ultimate "proven incorrect" example was the pandemic. "The all-time fear tactic we saw was COVID," says Russo. "The way that fear was utilized during COVID for political gain I don't think can be duplicated, and if it is, God help us, because it would be a completely different world we see come out of it."
The other way fear allows the powerful to stay in control is through division, as we also saw during the pandemic. "The end goal of all fear tactics, from a political standpoint, is to create division," says Russo. "Fear creates division, because one side is fearful and the other side believes we shouldn't be fearful."
"I think the way to find middle ground on that is to allow the people who want to be fearful, but also to allow free speech for those who have a difference of opinion," he continues. "Look what happened during COVID...all those people who were not fearful were actually right."