OPINION: Fear is the mind killer

Author Frank Herbert understood that fear can paralyze the body and prevent rational thought. Unlike the basic drives like reproduction, eating and status, fear is induced, a product of external circumstances. Fear is therefore a powerful tool for mind control and persuasion. Fear is the preferred tool in politics when facts or policy are not in your favor. The last Coeur d'Alene School Bond election demonstrated the power of fear.

Fear is the preferred weapon of those infected with the Woke Mind Virus. If you transgress the self-appointed arbiters of hate speech or thought you will be canceled and subjected to ridicule, harassment, label lynching, banishment, loss of job or position, etc… It is fear of these consequences, meted out without trial or due process that stifles free speech and collapses thought to an approved narrow, but ever shifting, corridor.

As we enter the campaign season for the November election, those that deal in fear will crank the volume to 11. These fear merchants know that their candidates and positions are unpopular so they have nothing to promote. Instead they ridicule and demonized the opposition. Terms like racist, white nationalist, bigot, hater, groyper, KKK and extremist flow from their mouths and keyboards with familiar ease, oblivious to the hypocrisy of the “Love Lives Here” slogan printed on their T-shirt. Their actions have the singular intent of instilling fear in others while distracting from their own shortcomings and malfeasance. But to what effect?

The least valued, most disposable members of our society are young men. Whether they succumb to military engagement or gang violence, the deaths of young men are rarely noted by society in general. Of course they are deeply mourned and missed by family and friends, but mostly ignored by society at large.

The Woke Mind Virus causes young men to be denied their biological imperatives. The liberal media portrays men as being stupid or incompetent or inferior in virtually all commercial advertising. They are labeled toxic for being men. They are deemed non-essential. The super spreader of the Woke Mind Virus, China’s TikTok, shows them that to get the attention and status they desire they should castrate themselves, inject female hormones and dress and behave as some grotesque caricature of womanhood.

There is no place for manly men among those infected with the Woke Mind Virus. For a time, video games offered refuge where young men could accumulate money, fast cars and hot women, but even that has fallen. Young men feel canceled.

“Young men are puttin’ themselves six feet in the ground ‘cause all this damn country does is keep on kickin’ them down.” — Oliver Anthony: Rich Men North of Richmond

You cannot cheat biology writ large, no matter how hard you try, which is why young men are so susceptible to a charismatic leader offering fellowship, power, authority and status as men. Be they Antifa, neo-Nazis or street gangs, the common attractant is the offering of tribal membership and the potential for status.

It seems inevitable that young men do and say stupid things. This is true a priori, and there may be a biological basis. The human brain does not fully develop until the late 20s and the last part to develop is the area which evaluates the future consequences of actions. Young men say and do stupid things because their brains have not yet developed the ability to recognize stupid.

When presented with a young man who has done stupid things, what should be done? If someone you know has expressed an interest in a gang or a cult or an extremist group what would be the smart and wise thing to do? What would be the Christian thing to do?

Would it be a good idea to ostracize or banish them? How about getting them fired from their job or publicly humiliated. Should they be “label lynched?” Would it be wise to drive them away and into the arms of the extremists? No, of course not. Yet this is exactly what the fear dealers demand to satisfy their woke agenda. These Woke Mind Virus fear dealers want you to abandon due process, embrace the assumption of guilt and purge those they have labeled as undesirable. They want you to be more fascist, like them.

The righteous act would be to explain to the young man the folly of their stupidity and then to provide an opportunity to act in a correct and productive fashion. Offering an alternate tribe and giving positive reinforcement for good deeds. This is the way. It is more effort and has some peril, but the rewards are well worth the risk.

This isn’t just some hypothetical theory. It is playing out right now in real time. The fear dealers are raising the ridiculous specter of a small handful of “Groypers” who have “taken control” of the Republican Party. The fear dealers demand we denounce and excommunicate them or suffer the fear dealer’s wrath.

The Republican Party has no need to again denounce extremists because we already have in multiple ways. The Republican National and State Party platforms and our party rules all have guarantees for equal rights, equal justice and equal opportunity for all, regardless of race, creed, sex, age or disability and nobody is excommunicated without due process. It is woven into the fabric of who we are as a party. Demanding that we reiterate that which we have already codified is a motion that is out of order. Pandering to irrational demands only encourages more of the same. If you give a mouse a cookie, he’ll want a glass of milk.

Freedom of speech, particularly political speech is under assault. Those infected with the Woke Mind Virus assault free speech with the intent of controlling thought and those in government have established the precedent that they can suspend our fundamental constitutionally enumerated rights on a whim if they claim it is an “emergency.”

We must not comply with the irrational demands of the Woke Mind Virus fear merchants because compliance only breeds further infection.

As Elon Musk observed “The Woke Mind Virus is either defeated or nothing else matters.”

It’s just common sense.

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Brent Regan is chairman of the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee.