Media Hysteria!

By Dom Nozzi

To survive the loss of advertising to the Internet, the US media has ramped up its use of words designed to make people crazed with hysteria, paralyzed with fear, apoplectic with outrage, and staggered with tantrums. The media is engaged, in other words, in an obsessive effort to maximize what is, in the Internet age, euphemistically called the proliferation of “clickbait” or “viewership.”

The more clicks and views the media gets with its terrifying, outraging headlines, the more money the media makes.

Tragically for those of us on the political left, fear-mongering is known to move a society toward the political right because fear is the mother of right-wing thinking.

Here are some examples of headlines we see on a daily basis.

SNOWPOCALYSE IN NEW YORK!

TRUMP TO MAKE DEAL WITH RUSSIA! UKRAINE! NORTH KOREA!

TRUMP USES A BAD WORD!

KILLER FLEES! STILL AT LARGE IN SAN DIEGO!

BOMB CYCLONE HITS NEBRASKA!

SNOWMAGEDDON BURIES IOWA!

HURRICAN WINDS CAUSE POWER OUTTAGES IN 349 CITIES!

ALL-TIME LOW TEMPERATURES SET IN 4,366 TOWNS!

KILLER BEES FOUND IN MEXICO!

16,000 STRANDED AT AIRPORTS DUE TO FLIGHT CANCELLATIONS COAST TO COAST!

GREAT WHITE SHARK SPOTTED OFF COASTLINE!

HEROIN OVERDOSES AT RECORD LEVELS AS HEROIN KINGPINS TIGHTEN THEIR GRIP IN DETROIT!

FLESH-EATING BACTERIA SPREADS IN AFRICA!

UNPRECEDENTED FLOODING IN THE MIDWEST!

MAN CAUGHT VIEWING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY IN TOLEDO!

RACISTS AND FASCISTS INCITE VIOLENCE IN DALLAS!

SEXUALLY VIOLENT PREDATOR TO BE HOUSED IN NORTHRIDGE NEIGHBORHOOD!

CHILD MOLESTER RELEASED FROM PRISON IN OKLAHOMA!

GLACIERS MELTING AT UNPRECEDENTED RATE IN GREENLAND!

LEADING SCIENTISTS FIND SPECIES EXTINCTION AT ALL-TIME RECORD RATES!

WITCHES SEEN FLYING ON BROOMS IN OHIO!

What is the underlying, rightwing-breeding message of all of this fear-baiting? HIDE UNDER YOUR BED BECAUSE THE COMMUNISTS ARE COMING! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE BECAUSE DEPLORABLE BAD PEOPLE ARE AFTER YOU! SUPPORT MORE TRILLIONS FOR MILITARY AND POLICE SPENDING! I’M SO AFRAID OF DEATH THAT YOU MUST SAVE ME, JESUS! FAVOR MORE EXECUTIONS FOR DRUG PUSHERS AND RAPISTS! CUT GOVERNMENT SPENDING FOR LOW-PRIORITY SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAMS!

The end result of all this is an increasingly dysfunctional, reactionary, irrational society. I don’t see any way our society can divert itself from this downward path in my lifetime.