How to Counter Fearmongering

(Intro) This article is the hardest one I’ve written so far. Conception alone took me 3 days (counting from the day I decided to write about this). The mainstream narrative of “hate” and “love” also obstructed my search for a solution to this shenanigan. The root cause is not hate, but fear.

I am writing this because I am so tired of seeing people being played by far-right politicians like a fiddle. Those politicians instill fear in their subjects, and advocate elimination of the “public enemy” by death. Naturally, as politicians, they promise to execute the elimination plan once they hold power, so their subjects don’t have to.

Even those who hate the far-right are sometimes bamboozled by the far-right ideology and push out the “counter” propaganda: “Love, not hate!” Sadly, far-right ideology has nothing to do with Love or Hate. It has to do with Fear, and only Fear. The target of their Fearmongering can be different though.

Internally, I do not use the term “right” or “left” when I reason about culture and politics. I just call those who fearmonger “The Fear Demons”.

(Background) This article describes how to counter fearmongering, a tactic some politicians use to gain power. Search the Internet for “political fearmongering” to learn more. The gist is, when the economy is bad, people feel uneasy, making them easy to fearmonger.

How to counter fearmongering

First, do not fear. Do not be fearmongered yourself. If you are reading this article, chances are you aren’t. If you are, I’m sorry… you are already played like a fiddle by them.

When you meet someone who has been fearmongered, do this: Instead of arguing with them (i.e. pointing out lies), tell them earnestly about the political tactic of fearmongering. They may deny at first, but I had better chances with this method.

You argue, you lose (time). The only winning move is not to play.

If you still have time to spare, tell them to read the history of populism (could be from any time period; they look all the same).

How to change someone’s mind

So they now know that their mind has been tampered with, but they still dislike a group of people. Now what?

Exposure effect is good enough. It’s slow, but it works all the time.

If they are open to criticism, you can also talk to them about it. Be chill. Be sleepy. Do not argue. It may take a few weeks for someone to change their mind though, so be patient.

Epilogue

I hope this article is useful for you, and it has found its way to you through nonviolent means.

The next time you see someone lie to spread fear, say this: “Stop fearmongering! You evil monster!” If you are Christian, you may say that fearmongering is the Devil’s work, since it brings out the worst in us.

I also made this plaque, which you may take a screenshot of and send it on social media.

If you have a HTML website, you can copy the following <a> and <style> tags (use “View Source”) and put it on your website. You can also just link to this page with the same text.

I hope you will share this article because you think that this article will have a positive impact on whoever reading it, and a positive impact on society at large.

Related Reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty,_and_doubt