New at Reason

November 14, 2006

Cathy Young steadies her nerves for a look back at the scare tactics of campaign 2006.

Comments

D.A. Ridgely|11.14.06 @ 9:34AM|#

Young takes a courageous stand against fear mongering! Not that there aren't things we really should be frightened by, of course...

(So, how's the money in this columnist business, anyway?)

Dan T.|11.14.06 @ 9:54AM|#

So Young is against politicians warning voters about concerns that she later admits are "quite real"?

What are they supposed to talk about, then?

|11.14.06 @ 9:58AM|#

I'm trying to think of (significant) elections where the politicians do not use chicken-little rhetoric to work up the voters.

Tell me again - am I going to burn in a Bush-instigated nuclear conflagration? or will I drown in my own lungs after a terrorist bio-WMD?

If I surive that (or perchance they do not happen), what next? - do I starve to death after global warming destroys all arable cropland (or was that overpopulation?) - or do I just turn into a mindless zombie after I've been indoctrinated into Evangelical Christian "re-education" camps? Damn I'm confused.

I say bring all the BS on. Hopefully, my generation (X) - raised as post-Watergate, cynical of goverment; our parents did a whole-helluva lot more drugs, and their brains aren't fried eggs; inane TV commercials - is it the "Sale of the Century" again?; nope, the Cold War didn't turn nuclear like they said it would. Maybe we will be skeptical enough (and as we haved learned from history) - is that politicians predictions of doom are unfounded bullshit.

Fear of a terrorist behind every corner? Bullshit.

Fear of a global warming The Day After style Armageddon?
Bullshit.

Will that government solution work?
Bullshit.

Will that make-my-teeth-white, insta-lose-weight, whatever-gizmatic-product pitched from that company perform as promised?
Bullshit.

The more the sky doesn't fall, the more a certain libertarian position garners interest. Aren't we skeptics first? - we realize that both policital parties (hell, maybe even the big "L", too) are out to control us? that big corporations are sometimes the biggest impediment to a free market? that organized religion does not have the answers? and that group-think is a dangerous path?

Bring the doom-saying on. I'm gonna have a drink before they come and get me.

Sam Grove|11.14.06 @ 11:51AM|#

Consumers develop a tolerance for hyperbole, hence increasing hyperbole.