Manufactured Crises in the Midst of a Real Crisis

Today's big thought from Jared Yates Sexton:

For generations now the GOP has manufactured one moral or security crisis after another to scare voters. It’s all but halted progress and has cost so many lives. When you look at American history, it’s a tide that shifts between crisis and stability. In moments of stability progress comes to the forefront, but by artificially creating crises the GOP has effectively stayed the moments of reflection and instituted war-time austerity.

Or as Stephen Colbert put it back in 2010 at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear:


Fear, uncertainty, and doubt... a virulent combination. Maybe the fear is starting to shift to fear of climate change? I don't know. Manipulating our brains' structural weaknesses is wrong either way.