And more fear...

A few more thoughts (in addition to these) about fear as a motivator for political stances:

I think one reason this "fraidy cat" accusation is such a persistent charge towards me is the pre-eminence of feelings among liberals and the Left. So, when looking for a reason for something as puzzling as my terrible apostasy, it's easy to ascribe it to feelings (especially a feeling they can be condescending about, such as fear), rather than reason or cognition.

Anyone who actually reads my "A mind is a difficult thing to change" series (links on the right sidebar, folks) should understand that I've thought long and hard before reaching my conclusions. You may not agree with them, but the path was a mainly cognitive one--mixed with some emotion, as almost all cognitions are. But the main emotion was not fear.

What was the main emotion? I think perhaps outrage, which is more anger than fear, and betrayal, which is sorrow crossed with anger. The outrage is mainly towards the Islamic jihadists, the feeling of betrayal is mainly towards the press. I'm not going to go into it all over again; the "change" series discusses it almost ad nauseam, with more segments to come whenever I get enough time to write them (they're all written in my head, but I know that doesn't do my readers any good).