Congratulations. You are not the target of that kind of fear-mongering. IMHO, the majority of the people intelligent enough to be on HN aren't either. Books like 1984 and 'State of Fear' are intended for consumption by The Proles (to use the term from 1984 itself). They're intended to raise awareness for what's going on to those that willing trade liberty for a (false) sense of security. I think our bearing the presence of these books is well worth others waking up and smelling the coffee for the first time.

Avoid making sweeping generalizations about HN'ers and society at large. If you are using terms from 1984, and you are not a Prole, then you are an Outer Party member. How does that feel?

Right, I guess it's always been pretty obvious to most of us that the media uses fear for ratings. But there were some interesting examples in State of Fear that were new to me.

For me too - and, of course, 1984 was just brilliant. I personally enjoy reading this type of stuff; my only point above was just that if anyone's about to complain that this "fear mongering" is getting old they should think twice about the alternative. Alas, it seems people are of the opinion that I should be downmodded for expressing such a thought.