Yeah, there’s usually more than one of these going on at once. Makes it easier to pivot if they get called out for it being nonsense.

There’s always an element of racism running as an undercurrent, so you can pick your Boogeyman du jour, be it Muslims/Arabs (they don’t differentiate,) central/south American immigrants, black lives matter, CRT, DEI, etc.

Then you can add some kind baseless moral outrage on top. Trans people existing, gay people wanting to get married, satanic panic, etc.

It’s really like a fear cake, I guess.