There's a human 'set point' for fear. If there aren't enough real things of which to be afraid, the mind will latch onto the next-most-credible things, even if

There's a human 'set point' for fear. If there aren't enough real things of which to be afraid, the mind will latch onto the next-most-credible things, even if relatively farfetched. With current long lives, lower crime, domestic peace, reasonable prosperity, and social insurance, there's a lot less to genuinely fear, in the US, than ever before. Without the challenges and stresses of full-time, market work, the retired are especially lacking in 'common project' or 'tribal team' fears (as opposed to say personal-health or relationship fears). Politics, among other industries, competes to answer this craving for objects-of-fear. The cable-news/permanent-political-campaign/crusading-government-busybodies nexus is an extremely efficient, low-cost, high-emotional-salience provider. Small staffs, recurring themes, and grandiose good-vs-evil narratives can be constantly redeployed, as a neverending modern fairy-tale with the added sheens of 'reality' and 'import'. Compare also: the hygiene hypothesis, for how an immune system unchallenged by real threats may tend towards misguided allergic or autoimmune overreactions.