When Fear Comes Home: Before I Speak at the Wake Forest Town Meeting a few thoughts about harassment, belonging, and what happens when intimidation becomes civic culture.
I’ll be speaking at the Wake Forest Town Board meeting tonight about something that’s been weighing heavily on me — not just as a journalist, or a veteran, but as a son of this place.
My name is Tom Baker. My family has lived in Wake Forest since around 1710. We’re one of the old families; I grew up knowing the names on half the mailboxes in town. I left for a while, to Iraq, Afghanistan, and later back to Iraq again — where my work was reconnaissance and intelligence analysis. I spent years studying how networks form, how fear spreads, and how authoritarian movements take root long before they seize power.
I started Wake Forest Matters because I believe local truth-telling is one of the last defenses against that kind of rot.
The Flyer and What Followed
A few weeks ahead of Wake Forest Pride, a concerned citizen from Franklin County sent me a flyer that had been circulating through activist networks in and around Wake Forest. It called on people to attend our Pride Fest on October 11 and “observe and record” attendees — including minors and families — and to log their license plates.
On Pride day, that call was answered. People showed up, filmed families without consent, and later uploaded those videos to YouTube under the title “Children at Pride.”
That’s not free speech. That’s surveillance as intimidation.
It’s part of a broader pattern of targeted harassment sweeping across the country — hundreds of incidents over the past year, from drag story hours to small-town Pride events, where people use cameras and online platforms not to inform, but to expose and punish.
This is the same tactic I once studied overseas: gather intelligence, identify targets, and use fear to shape behavior. Only now it’s happening here, to our neighbors, in our own downtown.
When Intimidation Becomes a Civic Tool
It’s easy to think of authoritarianism as something that happens elsewhere. But its logic begins at home, in small acts of cruelty we learn to excuse.
Across America, and even here in Wake Forest, harassment has become a political tool of enforcement.
What used to be disagreement has become discipline.
Candidates and citizens alike are being punished — not just for who they are, but for refusing to conform completely.
This is the psychology of authoritarianism:
draw a boundary around who belongs,
turn fear into a filter for participation,
and convince the majority that controlling others is a kind of virtue.
It’s what Ray Bradbury warned in Fahrenheit 451 — that safety through sameness is the first step toward tyranny.
The Local Face of a National Pattern
Wake Forest is not immune.
This town has long been shaped by powerful networks — families, churches, and civic groups whose influence runs deep. That legacy can be a source of pride, but it can also breed entitlement: a belief that some people belong here more than others.
Now, we’re watching as that old in-group power adapts to a new era — using digital tools, social media, and anonymous networks to police who gets to exist publicly without shame.
First it’s Pride attendees. Then it’s immigrants. Then it’s anyone who speaks too loudly, loves too freely, or simply refuses to blend in.
That’s how this works. It starts with the “others.” It ends with everyone.
Why I’m Speaking
I’m speaking tonight not because I enjoy the spotlight, but because silence is how these tactics win.
I’ve seen what happens when fear becomes ordinary — when people decide it’s safer to look away.
And I won’t.
Not here.
Not in Wake Forest.
This town is where I was born and where I’ll die. My family’s name is part of its soil. And I will not let that soil be poisoned by bullies, whether they hide behind faith, politics, or the flag.
Wake Forest can be better than fear.
But only if we say so out loud.
Tom Baker IV is the publisher of Wake Forest Matters, Wake Forest’s only independent local newsroom. A Wake Forest native, Navy veteran, and intelligence professional, Tom launched Wake Forest Matters to bring serious accountability journalism to his hometown. Tips and story ideas: publisher@wakeforestmatters.com