The Truth about Panics

The Trump administration is trying to seed a panic about «antifa,» one which, if it succeeds, brings the media and the result of us along as collaborators in authoritarian regime change. So let’s be thoughtful. It is not good practice to just repeat the words of those who are trying to manufacture a panic. Nor is it it good practice to juxtapose malicious fantasy with known reality and imagine or pretend that somehow the truth is in between. That just helps those who are seeding panic by providing an admixture that they cannot create themselves. The way forward is to recognize that it is a fact that people in power sometimes try to sow and that they do so by patterns of lies. That is the fact that can be known and reported on. The current « antifa » scare is an attempt at generating a panic, by people who do panic for a living and who have, unfortunately, succeeded before, at great cost to the rest of us. The price of an « antifa » panic is likely more than we can bear. We need the truth about panics: that they are a form of deliberate politics based upon scripted lies. And we need this truth now. My thought about all this are in the video—please share. Thinking about... is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit snyder.substack.com/subscribe