{"id":92297,"date":"2021-10-24T16:20:26","date_gmt":"2021-10-24T20:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=92297"},"modified":"2021-10-24T16:22:16","modified_gmt":"2021-10-24T20:22:16","slug":"covid-19-the-weaponization-of-fear-the-loss-of-freedom-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=92297","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19: The Weaponization Of Fear & The Loss Of Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"

WRITTEN BY: Tim Brown<\/p>\n

\u201cFor God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power,<\/strong><\/em>
\nand of love, and of a sound mind.\u201d<\/strong><\/em>
\n— 2 Timothy 1:7<\/p>\n

Right at the outset of the CONvid-1984, we were pointing out the attacks on liberty.\u00a0 We warned that health and science are not a part of government authority and that it would be used to control people and even kill them.\u00a0 We were right.\u00a0 Now, even after exposing countless lies in the media and out of the mouths of criminal, corrupt, bought-and-paid-for, drug hustling politicians, the propaganda continues despite the narrative was shattered long ago.<\/p>\n

Fear is the weapon being used to attack the People not only in the US but around the world.<\/p>\n

John Mac Ghlionn<\/a>\u00a0has the story on this.<\/p>\n

Many U.S. citizens wonder if life will ever return to normal.<\/strong>\u00a0Are masks here to stay? On TV, news channels are\u00a0busy spreading fear<\/a>.\u00a0Meanwhile, some of the most widely read publications in the United States are warning about\u00a0the next phase<\/a>\u00a0of the pandemic.<\/em><\/div>\n
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To live in the United States is to live in a permanent state of fear.\u00a0<\/strong>This, as many readers know, is by design. A more fearful nation is a more passive one\u2014easier to manipulate and easier to control.<\/em><\/div>\n
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In the United States, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, it\u2019s far \u201ctoo soon\u201d to tell if Christmas gatherings will be allowed.\u00a0Considering Christmas is more than two months away, one is forgiven for raising their eyebrows and asking: \u201cWhat are you talking about, Dr. Fauci?\u201d What is the point of vaccines and booster shots if we cannot be with our loved ones? Haven\u2019t we sacrificed enough over the past 18 to 20 months?<\/em><\/div>\n
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Today, across the country, fear dominates the narrative.\u00a0<\/strong>As someone currently completing a doctorate in psychology, I am intimately familiar with the mechanics of emotional salience.\u00a0As a key\u00a0attentional\u00a0mechanism that contributes to our survival, fear is currently being weaponized for nefarious purposes.<\/em><\/div>\n
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When it comes to the mechanics of government-induced fear, the economist Robert\u00a0Higgs is perhaps the most knowledgeable man\u00a0in America.<\/em><\/div>\n
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After reading\u00a0a fantastic article<\/a>\u00a0by City Journal\u2019s John Tierney, I picked up a copy of\u00a0 \u201cCrisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government,\u201d\u00a0a\u00a0book<\/a>\u00a0written by Robert Higgs, an economic historian who has been warning about the\u00a0dangers of government creep<\/a> for more than 30 years. In \u201cCrisis and Leviathan,\u201d published back in 1987, Higgs discussed a phenomenon known as the \u201cratchet effect.\u201d Just like a tradesman uses a ratchet to\u00a0allow effective, one-directional motion,\u00a0governments often use emergencies to \u201cratchet\u201d up their responses. By introducing more programs and more oversight boards,\u00a0such \u201cratcheting\u201d comes with significant costs\u2014including freedoms we once took for granted. The loss of freedom brings a loss of privacy, and with these losses comes a loss of what it means to be human.<\/em><\/div>\n
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Clearly inspired by Higgs, the U.S. government, aided by mainstream media outlets, has weaponized fear to full effect.\u00a0<\/strong>Aided by behavioral experts and masters of spin, a number of highly influential people have\u00a0exploited this deeply wired reaction to further erode human agency. Now, to be clear, fear is a highly complex emotion. Context is everything. If you find yourself being chased by a bear, fear is natural. To feel joy in that situation would likely result in your swift and all too painful demise. However, in modern society, our predisposition toward fear is largely maladaptive. Your chances of being chased by a bear are minimal. In fact, your chances of dying from unnatural causes have never been lower. The world has never been safer. With\u00a0COVID-19<\/a>, though, we are constantly fed\u00a0the life or death narrative. The message from the government and MSM is clear: \u201cIf you enjoy living, then listen to those in power. If instead you enjoy dying, then, by all means, do your own thing.\u201d Don Lemon, CNN\u2019s anchor and part-time preacher, has spoken about\u00a0leaving the unvaccinated behind<\/a>.\u00a0Again, to be clear, I am not advocating against vaccines, but every adult should be free to make their own decisions. They shouldn\u2019t be coerced or fed false, fear-filled narratives.<\/em><\/div>\n

A Culture of Fear<\/em><\/h2>\n
We are bombarded with news stories 24 hours a day, 7 days a week\u2014many of these are of the tragic variety. Not surprisingly, as we are hardwired to sense danger, the human mind provides fertile ground for the planting of fears. However, fears, like plants, can also be uprooted. Sadly, our ability to uproot is being compromised by those in positions of genuine power.\u00a0Because of this, to\u00a0paraphrase James F. Byrnes<\/a>, the now deceased politician and judge,\u00a0too many people now find themselves obsessed by the idea of security.\u00a0By failing to acknowledge opportunity (also known as freedom), \u201cthey seem to be more afraid of life than death.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n
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Fear works best when an element of truth gets exaggerated to epic proportions.\u00a0<\/strong>With COVID-19, we know the virus exists; we also know that far too many people around the world, including at least 709,000 Americans, have died. But\u2014and this is of vital importance\u2014if you happen to be\u00a0reasonably young and reasonably healthy<\/a>, your chances of dying from the virus are minimal.\u00a0One of the major reasons COVID-19 has had such a devastating impact in the United States has a lot to do with one, simple fact:\u00a040 percent of the country\u2019s adults are obese<\/a>. Instead of fear mongering, Dr. Fauci should be advising people to get fitter. This is one of the surest ways to avoid succumbing to the illness.\u00a0Why does this get excluded from the conversation, either intentionally or otherwise?\u00a0Because it\u2019s much better to keep control of the masses\u2014including the younger, healthier citizens\u2014if tens of millions live in a perpetual state of fear.<\/em><\/div>\n
An individual has a far greater chance of being killed in a traffic accident or from the flu than they\u00a0have of dying from COVID-19.\u00a0<\/strong>Obviously, no one wants to get the flu or experience a traffic accident. Nevertheless, we don\u2019t live our lives in constant fear of both. That\u2019s because\u00a0our salience biases, also known as\u00a0perceptual salience, predispose us to focus on novel threats. What\u2019s more novel than a novel coronavirus? Fear is a prison largely of our own making. Let\u2019s free ourselves.<\/em><\/div>\n
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I will finish with a quote from Frank Herbert, author of \u201cDune\u201d: \u201cI must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n
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The fact of the matter is that for many of us, we have never left \u201cnormal.\u201d\u00a0 We rejected giving out business to mask mandating fascist business owners.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t social distance.\u00a0 We went to Church.\u00a0 We did as we pleased and ignored the tyrants.<\/div>\n
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That\u2019s what Americans should have done all along!\u00a0 They should have called the Nazis out for who they are, and quite loudly, and went on their way, and then brought justice upon the heads of those who engaged in such behavior in government from the president on down to local representatives, but the people haven\u2019t quite learned that lesson just yet.\u00a0 Let\u2019s pray they do, and soon.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92297\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}