Book Review: “Fear Itself” by Tammy Bruce
Exposing the Left’s Mind-Killing Agenda.
Legal Insurrection readers may recall that Fox News Channel contributor, independent conservative dynamo, and brilliant news analyst Tammy Bruce is one of my dearest inspirations behind becoming a citizen activist.
She was one of the earliest talk show innovators to move to go all-in on new media, and I continue to follow her work. Bruce has now written a new book: Fear Itself: Exposing the Left’s Mind-Killing Agenda. It is slated to be released today.
Her work could not be more timely, given the recent assassination attempt on President Donald Trump. Trump’s stance and exhortation to “Fight!” summarizes the critical concept Bruce stresses in her riveting new book.
In Fear Itself, Tammy shows us how the Fear Industrial Complex operates by connecting her experience as a leftist activist to a wide array of today’s issues. She touches upon the covid pandemic and its destructive policies, the climate crisis narrative, the woke madness of the American education system, the toxic racialism behind Black Lives Matter, and a host of other topics that the leftist media has manipulated to keep the public filled with anxiety — thus, more inclined to be manipulated into giving progressives more power and influence.
For me, personally, one of the most interesting portions of the book examined the actions of Trump’s coronavirus advisor, Dr. Deborah Birx. I recently covered how Birx used bureaucratic manipulation and a friendship with then Vice President Pence to keep the country under a prolonged lockdown.
Tammy recalls what happened during the Birx “Reign of Restrictions”, which we have now discovered were not based on actual science.
Birx, who had reportedly been lobbying then President-Elect Biden for a job in December 2020, suddenly announced her retirement instead. She cited the public criticism of her hosting a family gathering for Thanksgiving after warning Americans to restrict gatherings to “immediate households” during the holiday citing the dangers of COVID. But the rules perpetuating fear itself do not apply to those who manage the Fear Industrial Complex.
The BBC reported, “It emerged on Sunday she had travelled from Washing- she was joined by three generations of her family from two households.
While in Delaware, she did an interview with CBS in which she noted that some Americans had ‘made mistakes’ over Thanksgiving by travelling and they ‘should assume they were infected.” When caught flouting the rules she promoted for everyone else, she attempted to deflect, explaining she went to prepare the house for sale, and just happened to “have a meal” with family.
As Tammy notes, the feeling of fear is useful and is meant to be transitory. The anxiety and panic are not meant to be chronic. However the leftists and globalists, as well as the politicians and media that serve them, have weaponized the emotion.
She concludes the book with a cure for fear: Awareness.
Awareness is key to breaking the fear spell. The fact that you chose to read this book is a first, and singularly important, step. You knew “something isn’t right” but perhaps couldn’t put your finger on it considering the volume of information we’re all deluged with every day. Now you’ve taken action and know why and how certain inexplicable things happen.
The government’s behavior and agenda during COVID was one of the first times when various agencies and politicians didn’t even bother to hide their agenda. They tripped on their contempt for the average person and got far too excited about all the power the “emergency” afforded them over our personal lives. But that backfired, leading to an awareness through experience for the average person that was frightening but invaluable.
One last note: I have been a long time fan of Tammy’s since the mid-1990’s. She often connects her personal experiences to the topics she is touching on, which is why for many of her fans, she seems like a member of the family.
A portion of the book describes in detail a horrendous personal experience to connect the tremendous damage that sustained and irrational fear can cause. While Tammy had hinted at this situation, she opens herself up within these pages in a heart-wrenching way….demonstrating she has walked the walk when it comes to the recommendations in Fear Itself.
While I often given star-ratings at the end of my reviews, I am simply going to say that Fear Itself will be a priceless addition to any library, and a great gift to give young voters in this election cycle.
For more on the book and Tammy, check out Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey and his interview with Tammy:
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Comments
Is Ms. Bruce a fan of the Dune series? “Fear is the mind-killer.”
First thing I thought of. The Bene Gesserit invocation against fear actually works. I’ve used it.
I have always enjoyed hearing from Tammy Bruce when she’s given a media hit. She offers a reasoned perspective using humor v sarcasm to help deliver her points. When given time her analysis often goes beyond surface level pointing to what may be waiting around the corner and she’s correct about it more often than not.
“ The American press is a shame and a reproach to a civilized people. When a man is too lazy to work and too cowardly to steal, he becomes an editor and manufactures public opinion.”
It’s telling that this is a quotation from General William Tecumseh Sherman from 160 +/- years ago.
Sherman also said some inflammatory things about the press and hell. I agree with that those sentiments as well.
The press has been lying to us since time immemorial. They’re lying to us today.
And just as I sensed a great disturbance in the force on March 15, 2020, I sense it again today.
This whole Biden has COVID bullshit and the sudden coronation of Queen Kamala is really strange and unsettling. I tend to believe the report of a medical incident in Las Vegas and a hurried return to DC in AF1.
The veracity of the report and what it means remains to be seen.
Back in the 80s, I read at least a bookshelf full of Penguin Books’ editions of histories written by authors in antiquity. The single, overarching lesson of the books was that there is not a scam, scheme, or political trick that is new. Politicians have been playing the same game for well over 2,000 years. By now, they’re just playing variations on well-known themes.
I understand that Joe Biden will narrate the Audible version. Now, that’s scary.
It’s for their new “Inaudible” line of audiobooks.
Tammy Bruce is worth the watch/read
It’s basically a 100 level class on lemming behavior.
I can’t get into to because like Ben Shapiro does- it’s captain obvious at this point.
What is needed is the 200 – 400 and 500 level classes. Those advanced can take the Soros Phd course on it.
The 2oo level is seeing it and getting of the way.
The 300 level is protecting your assets and livelihood from it.
The 400 level course is profiteering from it when it is happening AND avoiding the consequences of the hangover.
The behavior is very similar to bubbles.
I met a regular guy who in Feb 2020 chartered a cargo plane and picked up about 300k in PPE from China. He was a regular guy of regular means and had about a half mil of his own cash at risk. I think in the course of a month he cleared about a million.
In March of 2020 I started making big moves in the stock market. I had NO free cash at the time. On ~March 18 – after weeks of market drop after market drop I had been sensing the panic was reaching fever pitch. I initiated the second of what I intended to be 3 market and options purchases. I believed the market would keep going down for another couple of weeks. On that day, I converted a huge chunk of my retirement to Roth (w/in hours of the low). I sold stocks at rock bottom and bought about 70k of options up and down the spectrum. The lowest return on any of those purchases was around 30% and the highest return was closer to 1000% than 500%.
I’m not new to this. I exited the stock market the Tuesday after labor day in 2008. You all may not remember this exact point in time- but the banks started failing en masse that Thursday. I recently told my new neighbor about this- and he actually worked at one of the firms at the center of the hybrid mortgage thing-a-majiggers referenced in the Big Short.
That is 400 level situational awareness. I’m not new at it, but I would like to be much better at it. Seeing it and recognizing it is not enough. You have to see the levers, forces, points of failure, consequences etc. You have to see and understand the world in terms of what the world will look like when the conventional rules all fail and collapse- a world where a second set of rules come into play.
It’s part gangster, part prepper, part engineer, part pessimist, part hillbilly, part anti-social engineer.
The Soros level course is the one where you create and architect these things. I’d say this is more frequent than anyone realizes. How many times did they try to launch BLM riots before it actually took off? When you think about it- you will feel stupid for not seeing it sooner and even more sheepish for not planning on what you will do when it actually happens.
I too assert- never let a crisis go to waste. If there’s one thing a negotiator or a divorce lawyer knows how to cash in on—- it’s an opponent behaving irrationally.
I have a lot of respect for Tammy Bruce, so, although I don’t want to read more about how our country has been corrupted, I’ve ordered a copy. Just makes me sick.