The Effects of Fear Mongering on People

David Frum: Fear mongering is the prime way of getting people to lean into their own natural authoritarian tendencies. After 9-11, there was so much fear mongering going on that it began drumming up around 2003 and 2004 in right wing extremist groups such as nativist and white supremacists. By 2005, we had the Minutemen propping up on the border, doing vigilante border patrols run by militia men," he says. "We certainly saw a lot of patriot movement stuff getting fully mainstreamed like a direct conduit"