Politicians gain power by promising protection against imagined threats

Evidence

People generally choose safety. This is not a trait unique to members of any race or religion. People want safety and security for themselves, but also for their families. And giving people what they want is certainly a route to power. Nations like to have leaders who are strong protectors. And for all of recorded history, opportunists like Trump have understood that they can rise on promises to protect their people from imagined threats just as much as from real ones. — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 329

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 329
• XREF: connects to: The protective state’s hidden principle is obedience owed even when protection fails; Successful dominant politics must produce recognizable experiences people embrace; Protective powers actively maintain their subjects’ vulnerability, not merely respond to it. (+13 more)

Related

• Protective powers actively maintain their subjects’ vulnerability, not merely respond to it. (similarity 0.92)
• States manufacture paranoia so the public welcomes the very power that created the anxiety (similarity 0.85)
• Manufactured terrorist threats serve governance by keeping citizens fearful and quiescent (similarity 0.81)
• Terrorism fear uniquely suits political manipulation because it resists quick fixes (similarity 0.79)
• Sovereignty operates by designating quotidian acts as security matters. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Fear of an internal enemy is manufactured to secure consent for empire #corroborates (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 491
• Terrorism fear uniquely suits political manipulation because it resists quick fixes #expands (0.75)
• Racialization shifts with the political interests of those in power #expands (0.60) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 86