3 ms·

Not just the media. A lot of current U.S. politicians apparently believe their best path to power is endless fear mongering. And it works pretty well.

• mmirate 9y ago
  That's interesting. While studying the Reichstag Fire in grade-school history class, I ran across a quote from someone in the Nazi propaganda machine, who asserted something to the effect that exerting control over a democracy was simply a matter of manufacturing a large enough exterior threat for them to fear. Sadly, I cannot remember the quote nor the author.
  • __jal 9y ago
    It was a well-discussed idea at the time, so I'm not sure who you're referring to. But Hermann Goering famously discussed it with Gustave Gilbert: "[...] the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
    • mmirate 9y ago
      That was the one! Clearly I didn't remember the details of the wording well enough to use the right search term.