On fear - Matt Richtel interviewing Christopher Bader for NYT:

‘Christopher Bader is a sociologist at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., where he has three times been the principal investigator on the annual Chapman Survey of American Fears. The survey asks adults about dozens of topics, such as nuclear war, pollution, volcanic eruptions and zombies, and then ranks the terrors in order of prevalence. Dr. Bader also studies religion and conspiracy theories, and he finds these big issues often intersect. The most recent survey was published in October 2023. In an interview that has been edited and condensed for clarity, he discussed the latest findings.
As we head into 2024, what does your latest research say we’re most afraid of right now? Government corruption. Sixty percent of Americans are afraid of corrupt government officials.’ (…)

‘So our fears are driven by a more general uncertainty that is finding an outlet? Absolutely right. It’s not this one-to-one thing where I’m saying, “I’m uncertain about who this clown is and therefore I’m afraid of clowns.” The uncertainty is more general.’

(…)

‘By countless measures, the world is a better place than centuries ago — longer life span, more material comforts. Why doesn’t that cause us to be more optimistic and less afraid? Absolutely, on all sorts of measures we are safer and better off. But there’s a term in sociology called relative deprivation, where you don’t gauge yourself on how someone was 20 years ago or in the next town over. You gauge yourself on who is around you — and if the other people in town have nicer cars than you, that’s your marker.’

(…)
‘Unfortunately, we’re just not good at nuance.
You have also drawn a connection between fear and the erosion of religious beliefs.
The major organized religions are rapidly losing members, and what religion can provide is certainty. The Bible is a rule book: Here’s what’s right, here’s what’s wrong, here’s how you get to heaven, here’s how you get to hell. It provides you with a sense of certainty. When you lose that, on a societal level it can have a big effect, causing us to be afraid.
What do you personally most fear for us? Information tunneling and information silos. Algorithms. This is not a conservative or liberal or progressive type of thing; it’s happening to everyone. When I watch MSNBC I just see the reverse of Fox. The algorithms quickly figure out what you want, and that’s all people see. That is incredibly harmful. Every day, all we’re seeing is a broadcast that’s designed to tap into our fears.
What are you most afraid of? To me, there’s this idea of fears and phobias, and the distinction is muddy. One of the things I am afraid of is getting needles stuck in me.’

Read the interview here.

Clowns are frightening, and we don’t look back ten, twenty or hundred years. We are still keeping up with the Joneses. If their cars are bigger and nicer, we will have found a reason to be afraid, our car and for that reasons we will be the laughing stock of the neighborhood.

And pessimism seems to be more profound than shallow optimism. Sometimes pessimism is more profound, but that's not the point.

Tap into your fears, another description of click bait.

Also, it cannot be repeated enough: fear and desire are intertwined. We are just ruled by our fantasies of the near future.