The anatomy of fear porn utopias

We are in non-stop war for the kind of future we want. We should look at the weapons used by the dark side.

I finished my last post with a concept that keeps growing on me: ‘fear porn’.
The expression was first used in a 1994 article of Michael Kinsley talking about the O.J. Simpson trial and the media’s response to it. It evolved since. The generally accepted definition is:

“… media content, often sensationalized or exaggerated, that is intended to evoke and exploit people's fears for entertainment or attention. It typically refers to news stories, articles, videos, or other forms of media that focus on and amplify alarming or frightening information, often without providing proper context or balanced reporting.”

I would suggest that the evolution is still going on, well beyond simply describing the media’s sensationalism to capture the attention of its consumers.
It evolved into a full-fledged propaganda weapon to manage public opinion and behaviour. It is a political tool to justify changes in policy, laws and regulations. The most important change from the original use referring to attention seeking sensationalism, are the new elements of the positive promise and the behaviour prescription.

Whatever the subject is, the message is the same:

Humanity is facing a serious challenge that requires a concentrated, focused response representing the will and the interest of everybody on the planet. The problem is urgent and we have to rely on science and our experts to solve it. Pledging our support to the grand plan will bring us to utopia. We cannot doubt or hesitate and cannot entertain the crazy ideas of reality deniers. The future of humanity depends on our full compliance. Anybody opposed to the grand plan that the best of us put together is an enemy of humanity.

It is always the same story, the same frantic urgency, the same language, the same demand for compliance, the same disconnect from common sense, the same refusal to consider readily available and easy solutions, the same shaming and censoring of any dissent, the same promise of deliverance through uncritical acceptance of the narrative and unquestioning obedience.

The naked totalitarian ambitions are not the only motivations and causes behind the particular subjects; there is greed, corruption, ideology, institutional inertia and some others, but that’s a different story. What we need to pay attention to is the strategy, as I am certain that we will see it again and again.
The following are some elements of the fear porn strategy.
I will use four examples to illustrate them: climate change, the scamdemic, the war(s) and the recent artificial intelligence scare/debate.

Gross exaggeration of the problem

Every one of the fear porn projects start with a gross exaggeration of the problem. Only global cooperation under the supervision of global organizations can save us.

• Climate change is about the fate of the whole planet. It affects everybody. The survival of humanity is at stake.

• The virus is a global threat and everybody is equally suspect of getting it, spreading it and be seriously harmed by it.

• The war is for the spirit of democracy against the evils of authoritarianism and the recreation of the bipolar world of the cold war.

• AI is a threat to humanity’s survival. It’s either us or the machines. We cannot even imagine how smart they can become.

The urgency

The hurried frenzy with furtive glances around is the telltale sign of a conman. Every fear porn project is a con. The answer to the problem has to be immediate. We have no time to think and debate. Missing a minute means that we may be missing the goal.

• Climate change is already a perpetual emergency. The more persistent the problem, the greater the urgency. The millennials were born into it, but just like with any other end of the world prediction, when the day comes and goes, the doomsday is just recast for another day without missing a beat in the rhetoric. The time we have is always limited, we are always on the precipice of a disaster. We have no time for debate, we need to act without hesitation.

• It is fascinating how quick, well planned and organized the response to the fake pandemic was in 2020. As if it was planned.

• The sanctions on Russia to save democracy and the rules based international order were also extremely quick. As if it was planned.

• The best headline about AI asks Six months to save humanity from AI?  
  We clearly cannot afford to wait and debate. Can AI replace climate as the perpetual emergency?

The scope of action

The scope of our actions has to be all encompassing and requiring GLOBAL cooperation.
We have to support the collective goals and do everything in our private life to show that support.

• Reduce, reuse recycle! Eschew the use of plastic! Walk, cycle or use public transport!
  etc., etc., etc., etc. ….
  Oh, …and pay the Carbon tax!!!

• Lock down, social distance, stop traveling, muzzle up and tell off the scumbags who don’t do the same.
  Oh, ….and vaccinate!

• Donate for the Ukrainian cause, show the flag, boycott anything Russian and support your politician in sending billions of your tax dollars to them to weaken Russia.
  Oh, ….. and stop complaining about inflation and the impending economic collapse!

• Prepare for the changes! Get ready for biometrics and digital IDs! Embrace social credit scores, buy bitcoin and try chatGPT.
  Oh, ….. and apply for a job as a prompt engineer!

Misidentification of the cause

The stated cause must be simple to understand and simple to relate to. It can be stupid. The dumber it sounds, the better it can elicit an emotional response.

• CO2 – our enemy is the element that is foundation of our biological existence. Not the ever-changing nature around us. Not the natural causes that we cannot even properly understand.

• A virus. Not a weakened immune system, a number of comorbidities, lack of early treatment, vitamin deficiency.

• The megalomaniac madman called Vladimir Putin who wants to restore the former glory of a dying empire. Not NATO expansion and the imminent threat of Ukraine’s membership. Not the abuse of Russian minorities by actual fascists and a Western puppet government.

• When the singularity of general intelligence arrives, AI will rule us all! It is not the irresponsible programmers and their algorithms playing the sorcerer’s apprentice. Not the social media companies trying to used it to gain even further control over our lives.

 Malignment of questions and criticism

The goals behind the fear porn projects are so obvious, that most actual experts can clearly see them.
For the first three, lives, careers and reputations have been destroyed for the slightest disagreements or any sign of non-compliance with the official narratives.
Asking questions about the methods is pictured as opposition to the goals of solving the problem.

• All proponents of the climate scare are pundits. Most of their critics are highly credentialed scientists. I can name a dozen and recognize the names of another dozen. I cannot name a single real scientist cogently arguing for it.

• The same can be said about the scamdemic.

• …and about the Ukraine.

• The AI scary is too new to have a developed opposition to it, but I cannot wait to be called an ‘intelligence denier’.

Dismissal, censoring and ridiculing of actual solutions

Real solutions to any problem tend to be local, varied and nuanced. Having actual solutions to the problem invalidates the fear porn projects’ underlying cause.

• Climate is a local phenomenon with local solutions. We can manage water and land use, restore forests, green the deserts. While these are not ridiculed or censored, they are not part of the global effort either.

• The virus is another story. It needs full compliance with the official prescriptions. The suggestion of any alternative endangers the effectiveness of the official message. We cannot tell people to drink bleach and eat horse-paste, because they are stupid enough to do it.

• Few conflicts have seen as many blatant lies as the war in Ukraine. The persistent efforts of the Russians to reach a negotiated settlement was/is either ignored or sabotaged.

• The AI fear campaign is still too new to see any actual solution that can be ignored, ridiculed or dismissed.

Demand for fascism

I mean, of course, the original meaning of the word, the ‘fasci’ (bundle) symbolizing togetherness.
We are all in this together, the problem represents a danger to every single one of us and the only way to protect ourselves is through collective action.

• Fighting climate change requires international compliance and individual action from every person and institution on the planet. The problem is too serious for democratic considerations.

• The virus can kill us all. We ALL have to comply or we will ALL be harmed. Only the unity of action can save us. The deviants are enemies and they must be purged to save the rest.

• You are either with us or against us. You must support the war effort as it is a fight for freedom. You are either on the side of democracy and the liberal world order or you are the stooge of Russian totalitarian barbarism.

• We ALL have to halt ALL research into AI until we can ALL agree on ho to control it.

Promise of salvation through the unattainable

The critical element of the promise is unattainability, the foundation of blind faith and personal guilt.

• A sustainable environment (whatever that means).

• A world where all our ailments will be prevented by vaccines.

• The end of history and the new man, a perpetual Western (US) hegemony over the world

• A well controlled and trained AI without our implicit biases and prejudices.

Conclusion

The point about every fear porn project is not that they are missing the point, but that they are making the problems worse. Why? Because it is the existence of the problem that empowers its promoters, not the solution.

The above examples all have the same drivers, laid on us with the same strategies, representing the same interests: a new globalized power structure superseding the sovereignty of the nation states and implementing a command economy with full control over individual action, thought and its expression. Globalist totalitarianism combining the worst features of communism, fascism and even the most extreme of dystopian fictions.
In other words: a centralized, bureaucratic power structure based on centralized decision making and control: power over ideas.

The threat to these aims are individualism and societal autonomy, a free market, free speech in an organically evolving complex system of cooperation between them.
In other words: a distributed power structure with distributed decision making and experimentation; ideas over power.

To the dismay of many, fear porn works, showing us yet again that reason cannot win over irrational fear.
People with cool, collected reason have to collide with frenzied emotions.

Just as I was writing this post, a relative sent me a link to a most disgusting fear porn interview about climate change with a Hungarian ‘expert’ with the title: “According to correct calculations, the total collapse of humanity will likely happen around 2050” with the following comment: “When a woman reads this, she will not want to give birth, because the fate of her offspring is unforeseeable.”

What can I tell her and her daughter, a bright young woman? You tell me. I am looking for the recipe on how to counter irrational fear with compassionate reason.

More important still, how can we redirect the emotion against the real threat, the globalist drive for the enslavement of humanity?

Worthwhile reading (more from Others)

Just so that you can see how silly the fear porn can get

Has Fear Porn Inserted Its Way Into Your Mind? | Psychology Today
The worst four minutes you'll have today - by Alex Berenson

Geoffrey Hinton: Reasons why AI will kill us all

The financial crisis no one is fixing | Business Beyond

AI regulation: How scared should we be of artificial intelligence? | DW Business

Max Tegmark interview: Six months to save humanity from AI? | DW Business Special

Is AI coming for your job? | DW Business

Can artificial intelligence become sentient, or smarter than we are - and then what? | Techtopia

How the AI revolution disrupts societies | DW News

How AI is driving a future of autonomous warfare | DW Analysis

Why Musk and some experts call for a pause on the development of powerful AI systems | DW News

Who is feeding some of the most popular and advanced AI-applications? | DW News

Here is a spectacularly stupid addition to the list:
AI and the future of humanity | Yuval Noah Harari at the Frontiers Forum
If you think that it’s a smart speech, tell me why; If you would be interested in me taking the speech apart, let me know.