When did the people of the United States become terrified cowards?

[sinkingfeeling]

Not only are we supposed to fear the bogeymen our government has invented for us, but we are now to fear words, printed ads, and debate. We have groups of people actively working to eradicate those words, ads, and debates. This is not the country I was born into, but I cannot figure out how this happened so quickly!

[JuniperLea]

1. Read the history of Nazi Germany

And you will see a paralell... and you will see that this is nothing new... and you will see that it didn't really happen so quickly... and you will see that we are the "good Germans" who didn't question dur Fuhrer, and more importantly, didn't stop him... and you will see how GWB is a madman...

[depakid]

2. Around the time of Ronald Reagan

That's basically when post McCarthy America began selling out its basic principles for fear- and for unrestrained greed.

[BOSSHOG]

5. when he did away with the fairness doctrine

(when he wasn't killing priests, nuns and children in Central America) he gave birth to the right wing hate and shout and lying disinformation machine that violates the "public" airwaves today. And the lemmings do as they are told. As evidenced they are told to share that they don't take marching orders from limbaugh and fox radio and thats exactly what they do.

[PDJane]

3. The short answer is that it didn't happen that quickly.

The answer is that it has been moving slowly but steadily since before the last world war. The "élite" like the Rockefellers, the Bushes, and the usual suspects have been moving the US in the direction of empire for a long time. Empire abroad means fascism or totalitarianism or whatever you want to label it at home.

US public opinion has been moving to the right with a little blip in the sixties to the left. Unfortunately, the people are still much to the left of the governments they elect; they are simply misinformed by the media.

[Fovea]

23. agreed

The military lull after WW1 allowed a huge economic expansion that created a large middle class
in America. It also created pressure on religion and civil authority.

When the bubble of unregulated capitalism burst, human misery and fear of starvation, communism,
outright fascism, and calamities like the dustbowl created a panic in the public mind. The twin counter reactions of
the repeal of prohibition and increasing militarism liberated the worst in America's greatest generation.

After WW2, there was a determination not to de militarize the economy. But to get the nation to accept more guns and less butter,
they had to fear something more than they wanted progress. The cold war and the old nemesis communism came to the rescue. Remember, for half a decade, Stalin was our ally.

After the cold war... the elite's fear of the end of the mighty gravy train was intense. There was hope that a long term peace might create an open ended boom. Global economic growth was more attractive than better jet fighters, and SDI went belly up, for all intents and purposes.

So here we are, terrified again that terrorists will bomb and poison us in our beds or shut off the oil tap, and the question that all Americans might ask themselves before they go to sleep tonight is...

Qui Bene?

[madrchsod]

4. september 11,2001

the day we became a nation of cowards.

[PM Martin]

17. I agree.

[leftofthedial]

6. November 23, 1963

[NashVegas]

19. I Would Say "Good Estimate"

Except that day made many Americans move forward in defiance of their fear. 1968 was chilling in comparison, but still, people moved forward.

My estimate was sometime, in the 1980s. One segment of US society was whipped into a hostile frenzy against another which was busy, still trying to move forward. The last great movement on US campuses was anti-apartheid. There hasn't been anything else to affect great change since the Fairness Doctrine was over-turned, at the time the conservative movement took over the airwaves.

[Initech]

24. Yup. No debating that one.

[unpossibles]

7. I would say this has gone on for a long time

at least since the 30's if not longer.

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/banned-books.html

[madokie]

8. somewhere around thanksgiving in '99 I believe it was

been shittin' down both legs since too, figuratively speaking that is.

[TomInTib]

9. It's been a long time coming.

But I think it started to accelerate during the Reagan years.

Remember when the Commies were "a two day drive from Brownsville, Texas"?

When Congress was proven to be totally impotenet during Iran-Contra.

Then Atwater started scaring the electorate with the likes of Willie Horton.

Now these bastards obviously have a blackmailed, terrified Congress scared shitless and the people of the country feel absolutely helpless.

And it is not going to get any better any time soon.

An abused dog never really recovers.

[Hieronymus]

10. I'm really discouraged by the reactions of our government and

media to this speech.
Pelley, on 60 Minutes, was incredibly inept and opinionated in his interview with Ahmadinejad. Kyra Phillips, the very shrill redhead on CNN, was absolutely vicious toward the professor she interviewed. She interviewed him in the middle of Ahmadinejad's speech.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

11. We've always had bogeymen to be afraid of.

From the Salem witches to Ahmadinejad.

[cali]

12. I don't know when you were born but this

constant invention of an ideal and pristine America- that in reality never existed, is such a snore. You want to know about real fear? Read about McCarthy. Read about HUAC. Seriously folks, what happened then is actually worse than what's going on now.

[sinkingfeeling]

14. Well, since I was around during McCarthy & HUAC and I disagree. I had a ton of

family in WWII and I know how they behaved just prior to and after Pearl Harbor.

[Rex]

13. When we became mass consumers.

Pick your year.

[Skidmore]

15. That and combine that with rule by chickenhawks...

[Rex]

18. And a huge imbalance in the way they spend money on the country

bound to get a clusterfuck.

[Breeze54]

16. There is no "fear" of the ads, or words and debates. Only the attempts to suppress them.

That isn't cowardice. It's facsism!

1 : often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti)
that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic
government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible
suppression of opposition

2 : a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=fascism

[Aristus]

20. December12, 2000. We appointed a terrified coward to the Presidency.

We got the President we deserved.

[porphyrian]

21. B...but 9/11 changed everything? Support our troops?

We're afraid by design, because it's easier to control scared people with blatant bullshit.

[no_hypocrisy]

22. It started with Woodrow Wilson and enactment of the Sedition Act and the Espionage Act.

Just protesting the draft put Eugene Victor Debs in jail.

Then there was the House Un-American Activities Committee (the Dies Commission?) that "investigated subversive" art, music, and theater in the Thirties and Forties. This Committee survived post-war and was used a terror vehicle by Joe McCarthy. During that time, not only former and present members of the communist party, labor organizations and liberal groups worried about losing their jobs and ability to survive, but their relatives. If your brother joined the Party in the Thirties, you could be fired legally for that reason alone.

And finally, yes, 9-11. Nobody was afraid to say or do anything concerning * and his cohorts until then. Afterwards, anything could and would be used against you (if not now, then in the future) as the government and the media could brand you as "unpatriotic", a "terrorist", and/or "unamerican" (some things just don't go out of style in America).

[Rex]

25. '911 changed everything', come on now

I think the DHS has that trademarked. Or they should.

[benEzra]

26. As Mencken wryly noted,

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." --H. L. Mencken