Fear is like a drug…

I apologize in advance for this one, but to paraphrase Lesley Gore: “It’s my blog and I’ll rant if I want to.”

While I realize that this is supposed to be a blog focusing on the earth sciences, it’s getting ever more difficult for me to ignore the political insanity rampaging across our country. At some point we all have to just stop and vent a bit of frustration…

This tirade was prompted by an article I saw on the Newsweek website from 17 October 2023. It described how Donald Trump Jr. says that we all need to buy AR-15 style assault weapons to protect ourselves from “motorized paragliders” flying into our homes and doing all the terrible things that motorized paragliders can do.

Holding forth on his Triggered podcast, the eldest son of the former president warned that we can no longer rely on the government or the police to protect us, and urged everyone to purchase an assault weapon and train themselves (and their family) to use it. He based his concern on how the Islamic militant group Hamas used paragliders as part of their 7 October multi-pronged attack on Israel.

To quote part of his Triggered podcast (verbatim and unedited):

Take your family, let them learn not only is it safe, but you’ll all have a lot of fun. I can guarantee 99.999 percent of you are going to have an awesome time having a new hobby while also being able to defend yourself.

The Democrats out there who’s constantly trying to ban you know, 30-round mags for your AR-15 and the AR-15 themselves. That’s why you need those things. That’s why you need an AR 15. That’s why you need a 30-round mag because if people in motorized paragliders come into your home, that’s what it’s for.

It seems like his premise — along with all the family fun and bonding this would generate — is that there is no way a paraglider (with or without a weapon), could withstand the combined response of a trained family; each of them armed with an assault weapon that sports a 30-round clip. This way, if mom misses, maybe her nine-year old daughter — with better eyesight and a steadier hand — will be able to blast the bad guy (or guys, if they come to attack you en mass) out of the sky.

I leave it to you to decide the applicability (or lack thereof) of Junior’s podcast to your own personal beliefs and values, and there really isn’t much more I want to say at this point about his tone or intent — although I would like to observe that he obviously inherited his father’s skill with the spoken word. (I’d also like to share a refrigerator magnet that one of my boys gave me: “Grammar — the difference between knowing your shit and knowing you’re shit.”)

All true (I think), but what I do want to touch on is one of the comments that his missive prompted. (I have to say that in many cases I enjoy the comment section more than the actual article itself.)

Anyway, a concerned citizen named “FabricatorGeneral” offered this particular observation. I quote it — also verbatim and unedited — in full:

Fear is like a drug in that it is literally addictive. Everyone who gets a good thrill out of a horror movie knows this.

Problem is, like any drug, continuous exposure lessens the “high” of each dose. Everyone who watches too many horror movies knows this.

So what’s the answer? To go to increasing extremes of fear to get that same jolt. It’s why the far right’s fears have been increasingly hysterical over everything from M&Ms that are too attractive to books about gay penguins in libraries to…whatever the heck this is.

I again leave it to you to decide how many grains of salt you want to assign to FabricatorGeneral’s reflection, but I have to say that it kinda/sorta rang a bell with me.

Full disclosure: For the most part I have been a life-long conservative, with contradictory liberal overtones. To say I have been (and remain) conflicted would be an understatement. But… it is becoming ever easier for me to abandon my traditional values (and votes) as I watch the destruction of the Republican Party at the hands of the current crop of elected officials (and their rabid followers).

To credit Trump-45 and the MAGA movement for this downward spiral is easy and tempting, but I can’t help but feel that the issue runs much deeper than that. Many in our country welcome this approach, and embrace the fear mongering that keeps it going.

(The use of fear to rile up the base certainly didn’t start at the bottom of the “golden escalator” in 2015 — I’m old enough to remember Joseph McCarthy, Barry Goldwater, and Spiro Agnew — and while T-45 made peddling fear into an art form and gave it dubious legitimacy in the Oval Office, the tactic predates MAGA by many, many years.)

The message is always the same, with subtle variations depending on the venue and audience: “You are suffering and in pain, but it is not your fault. It’s their fault.”

Just who “they” are changes with the tirade, but generally seems to include everyone who doesn’t look and sound and share the same values as you do: Hispanics; migrants and immigrants from anywhere; Blacks; Muslims; Asians in general, but especially the Chinese; any and all communists and fascists (don’t you just love it when a single individual or group is called both of these political opposites in the same breath?); and, of course, always the Radical Left and Antifa.

So, basically, “they” includes any loser that doesn’t show unwavering (and unquestioning) loyalty and allegiance to our team. In short: the bad guys like them, not the good guys like us.

This is a great con that obviously works really well, and has apparently resonated with enough Americans in these troubled days of modern times to severely polarize our country: socially, morally, and most especially politically.

How anyone can actually believe this stuff continues to puzzle me. What is even more bewildering is that enough actually vote to insert like-minded candidates into positions of authority in federal (and state and local) government!

We are all bearing witness to how this strategy is working (or more accurately, NOT working) as the House of Representatives in Washington D.C. currently struggles to overcome a fractured Republican majority and come up with a Speaker (who will also be second in line for the presidency — now there’s a thought to keep any vigilant person awake at 2:00 am).

Whether Trump-45 becomes Trump-47 remains to be seen, but the possibility is all too real and fills me with such mixed emotions that I really don’t have a clue how to react. IMHO, some of his policy concepts may in large measure be valid and potentially good for the country, but please… let’s hope the GOP can put forth a messenger (and candidate) who doesn’t pose as a third-grade schoolyard bully (although that may be an insult to third-grade schoolyard bullies).

Again, I apologize for stepping beyond the self-imposed mandate of my blog. I could go on and on (and don’t promise not to circle back to this as the madness escalates, as it surely will), but this is more than enough for now.

Is it 5:00 yet? It has to be somewhere!