Appeal to Fear

   Logic 101 teaches that one of the basic fallacies in reasoning is the Appeal to Fear.
   Often, of course, there is good reason to be afraid. But demagogues use this fallacy to incite fear of the unknown as a way of advancing their own racist agenda.
   Moreover, while the rhetoric may sound good and appeals to those who are not familiar with facts and falsehoods behind the rhetoric, the strategy becomes part of the Big Lie technique. Say something often enough, loud enough and long enough, then some will begin to believe it.
   Recently, a high school student was chastised for writing in his yearbook about the Big Lie technique, as some folks complained to the school principal that the student was advocating the strategy used by Joseph Goebbels during the Nazi era in Germany.
   But the student could well have been noting that a similar technique was being used in America today.
   Usually, the target of the fallacy is a minority group, whose members are blamed by the demagogue for what he claims is a sharp rise in crime and that the target group is plotting a threat to the national culture and its way of life.
   The reality may be that the minority folk are only seeking refuge from violence and hope for opportunity in America.
   This reality, however, does not fit with the demagogue's plan, which is to enhance his own power at the expense of the minority. And the most effective recipients of this racist demagoguery often are members of a social group who have no knowledge or familiarity with the newcomers.
   That seems to be the case in America today. Those most afraid of newcomers crossing the nation's southern border are those who know least about the newcomers and the reasons why they risk so much to come to America, whether legally or not.
   There's nothing new here. In the past, newcomers to America have faced similar bigotry from those who were already here and want to shut the gate to freedom against those who seek it.
   It's happening again, as demagogues rant against the alleged danger to America brought by what they claim are millions of bad people streaming across an undefended, totally open border.
   As a result, this "zero tolerance" policy results in thousands of children taken from their refugee parents and sent far across the country with no provision, plan or effort to reunite them.
   Unfortunately, many of the "true believers" in the demagogue's support group endorse this radical, racist policy regardless of whether it is based on fact or reality.
   Rather, it is based on the fallacy of unreasoning, baseless fear.