Conspiracy Theory Rant

In class on Monday I started a rant about the connection of the 'swine flu pandemic' with the American political agenda- a rant that probably sounded slightly mccarthy-esque but I've been trying to flesh out a bit more. In the past few days I've tried to organize my ideas on this.
9-11 was a hugely formative moment for me. I was living in New York at the time and not only was that one morning a huge event in my life- but the reprocussions were as well. I've touched on this at different times during class, but collectively it has really shaped my experiences since then; and marked the first time I, independantly of class etc, realized how media and propaganda is a method to alter public opinion. Immediately after the attacks we were evacuated to two 'safe buildings', then finally released to join the hundreds who marched covered in debris back to their terrified families. Watching CNN when I got home was surreal- it's hard to see your backyard on national television. I was talking to to my dad on the phone about the attacks that afternoon and he started talking about 'Saddamn' etc. I stopped him midsentace and asked what he was talking about. I realized that he was responding to the image of an Arab man on TV- and given the context, tone of reporters and what was well known as the Bush agenda- he assumed it was Saddamn. When I corrected him his response was 'oh,well, whatever' and continued. The American media machine was able to take the image of one Arab man and demonize an entire section of our population, gather support for a completely seperate war, and terrorize the nation.
After the success of this, media has repeated the process any time we've needed popular support for a government plan of some sort. This might be pushing it- and I'm not saying that these events are fake or somehow created for some sort of 1984-esque control- but if we look at the way that we demonized China and the UK during SARS and Foot and Mouth disease respectively. In 2001 the Foot and Mouth disease hit the UK with avengence- and when America felt weak and wanted to rally ourselves- media portrayed the UK as decimated by this base disease- a tactic that was replayed in 2007. With SARS in 2003 American media effectively turned our entire society against any Asian neighbor- Chinatown in NYC was effectively quarentined and although there were only 8 confirmed cases - white masks were abundant. This was the same year that there was a large public outcry against the 2003 invasion of Iraq. We were effectively united against any group that was seen as 'alien' to America.
A little paranoid? Maybe. I'm also a little over worked, over caffinated and under paid at the moment. BUT- when our borders with Mexico become a huge issue- all of a sudden there's a pandemic virus coming out of Mexico- again turning us against our neighbors and making us live in fear. My concern now is-with this new fear of viruses etc who can we turn it against next? Accusing someone of bringing the virus to our shores is synonymous with accusing them of biological warfare. If there's anything that could strike fear into the hearts of many Americans, as well as shell casings into the barrels of many shotguns- it's throwing terms like 'war' and 'biological warfare around'. CNN wants to identify the terrorist threat- they're it.