Climate change is a very real threat and it's justifiably scary. Our government, in the last 8 years, used remotely operated drones to carry out extrajudicial killings of American citizens -- including a teenage boy. Our security state now engages in mass surveillance of us in a time when our government is engaging in extraordinary rendition of suspected "terrorists" in secret with limited oversight. Economic inequality is worse than at almost any time in human history, including the gilded age prior to the great depression.
That's not rhetoric, those are simple statements of fact. Those things are scary and fear of them is justified.
We may be -- in this very moment -- at the safest point in human history. But the fear isn't about where we are. It's about where we're headed.