The governments must be happy that their populations live in constant fear.
Not necessarily the "governments," but certain demagogic leaders. These overgeneralizations plague our understanding of things, just as Amused suggests.
This sounds kooky to many folks tired of the November propaganda sprees every year. But I have a weak theory about Putin.
Putin or his KGB minions partly figured out the JFK murder. The Russians had been pondering this, creating their own theories -- their own beliefs -- going back to the '70s. So he figured out that an element of the CIA -- including a propaganda specialist (call it also "psy-war") had been involved. He generalized, assuming it was the whole CIA, or even the top leadership in conjunct with industrialists. Not likely so. But I only imagine there was something that gave impetus to their coming up to speed in an area with an old American Cold War history.
Not all Trump supporters are out-and-out bigots. Not all Trump supporters are woefully ignorant, but if not, the remainder must be naïve. MOST Trump supporters believe that because he's a businessman, he's a good or competent businessman, and all that is needed is a "business-like" running of government. But there are armies of people with Trump's "business" education. He's not a good businessman -- he's a gambler. He may be a risk-taker, and taking calculated risks my be a good thing for certain situations.
But he doesn't calculate. He wouldn't be able to count cards in BlackJack. His supporters decided to "risk" his election under this assumption, as if being an unbridled risk-taker were a good thing. But government exists out a collective need to reduce risk.
And Trump has thrown the world into a tailspin of uncertainty. Uncertainty is just another word for risk.
Is Trump a bigot? He is, as surely as he vehemently denies it.
Is Trump a fascist? There are many flavors of fascism, but the Trumpies deny this too, as surely as Trump's entire "public" career underscores a fascist world-view.
Is Trump a Traitor? Most people are confused about the difference between a scientific Truth or Likelihood, and the Legal definition with a Bias toward protecting the innocent at the expense of letting the guilty go free.
With all the information that I have since before the school terror hoaxes of late 2015 early 2016, all the dots, everything he's said, the Comey firing, all the coverup spin -- I figure I have a scientific basis for saying he's a Traitor. The legal basis may -- or may not -- materialize.
For the sake of the country, I hope it does. For the sake of democracy and human progress, I hope it does. And I say this because Trump is the worst example of a human being ever to appear on TV. If a nation takes a cue from Trump, its greatness will grow to the level equal to lower than crocodile piss in a sinkhole.
Those judgments have nothing to do with my take on policy or partisanship. They are judgments of Trump, his personal psychology, his leadership skills, and his abilities. He can hardly write; he speaks for the bottom, least-articulate group of his supporters -- and he speaks to them. Especially, the Tweets are especially telltale, but there is so much more.