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[audio https://www.peterbcollins.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/JFrank.mp3]Justin Frank, MD, author of Obama On the Couch, returns to discuss the role of manufactured fear in American life and politics.In this conversation, we touch on the element of fear that is central to many recent events, from the Islamic State/Khorosan Group to Ebola to the alleged threat of terrorists in the US. Frank has launched a series of blog posts about fear that you can read here. We discuss a recent opinion column by journalist Stephen Kinzer, asserting that the “world of threats to the US is an illusion.”
And we talk about the use of carefully staged FBI busts of alleged terrorists, which are amplified unchallenged by the media–and then used to argue for the continuation of surveillance programs that are known to be unconstitutional and ineffective.
In addition to the corporate news media, the entertainment media feed fear and propaganda in movies and TV shows, with little criticism.