Behold, the Party of Rapture-welcoming fanatics, power-hungry cynics, and far-right nihilists.

[ArtTownsend]

I’m talking, of course, about the Republican Party, the modern one.

Democrats (and many/most Independents) recognize the existential threat we’re facing, and are doing their damnedest to stop it.

Republicans (ie. Trump supporters) also recognize the existential threat we’re facing, and are eagerly doing their damndest to speed it along.

That’s the difference. That’s a key root of our polarization, layered with centuries of all-American foundations of racism, xenophobia. sexism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, spiced with Fake News from hostile foreign actors like Vladimir Putin (a jaded KGB man and resentful cynic himself - no wonder Trump and other Republicans like him) along with the existing far-right media infrastructure of Murdoch’s rags + FOX, talk radio, Sinclair, OneAmerica, Breitbart, InfoWars, the NRA, the white supremacist evangelicals and neo-Birchers...ok, I’m rambling, but you get the gist I hope.

There are more of us than there are of them. But they’ll stop at nothing, because they have no shame, no scruples, no sense of or care for basic notions of right or wrong. For them, it’s all about blowing up the world to spite the rest of us. That’s where we are now...

[Karadeniz]

1. Thanks for the good read...I hope the more of us get to the voting booths!

[Mike 03]

2. There are individuals who want exactly this.

Nihilists, accelerationists, etc. I agree, it's very dangerous. Some mental health professionals have likened Trump supporters to cult-members, and we have examples throughout history of cultists choosing death over life. The Christchurch shooter wrote about accelerationism in his manifesto. Freudian analysts call this drive "Thanatos."

In his classic psychoanalytic studies, Freud described the human drive or instinct for life, Eros--for the Greek god of love--and its opposite force, a "death drive" toward self-destruction that writers later labeled Thanatos, after the Greek god of darkness and death.

That quote is from "The Age of Thanatos: Environmental Consequences of the Trump Presidency" by Lise Van Susteren and H. Steven Moffic in "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump," edited by Dr. Bandy X Lee. (p. 419)

We are at odds here with some people who are willing to die and who expect to die in a fight for something that is difficult to understand, and to objective observers looks pretty ridiculous. That's always a terrifying scenario.

I wish there were more discussions about this. It's a difficult concept for some, maybe most, people to come to grips with. I don't say it's an 'epidemic" but it's out there. As an aside, I also wonder about this nihilistic drive being the same force that kicks in where you see genocidal behavior, where people who not long before lived side by side in peace are suddenly murdering each other.

[Evolve Dammit]

6. It is here now. The numbers may be larger than we know because it is not openly revealed.

Thanks for the thoughtful and researched post. I wish it were only a historical concept/ precedent but I think it could present quickly. MLK Day tomorrow in VA may be an indicator. "Thanatos." Crazy shit thousands of years old, with 2020 clothes.

[PandoraAwakened]

9. Thank you for this analysis.

I too often ponder the nihilistic nature of humanity. Nice to see somebody posting with intellectualism on the topic.

[TheRickles]

3. Don't forget the Second Coming

They don't want to blow up the world to spite the rest of us, but to bring on the Rapture and the Second Coming. The end justifies the means, or something like that.

[Kaiserguy]

5. The Rapture

something that is not even in the Bible according to Bible scholars yet they eagerly await it coming. Of course the reason they want it is because they believe that only they get to go and they are so looking forward to watching the rest of us suffer. I suspect that if it ever happened that would be surprised when they got to their destination and found that it was very hot since they don't begin to follow Christ teachings. Religion is capable of great good and great evil the evil seems to be more common than the good in America today. That might be because it has the biggest and loudest mouth.

[Ahpook]

10. Or find out they

are just a dead leaf in the wind.

They feel far to much of themselves!

[erronis]

4. I also think a lot have gotten in way over their heads. Slowly but surely they've been suckered in.

At first it seemed like a cool club to belong to. Some rich guys wearing nice business suits and selling condos and get-rich schemes.

Then you had to start to pledge fealty to people that seemed a lot like the old John Birchers/KKK types.

Then you get some nice spare change (non-reportable) to help you buy some glint, perhaps have a hot toddy on your arm.

Then you started to receive some warning notices about toeing the line, not saying things that weren't vetted by the bosses.

Then you knew that your family, your reputation, your future were at risk unless you toadied up.

When it really gets bad, you look like McTurtle or Donnie-two-shits.

[Evolve Dammit]

7. That's pretty much what Lev said to Rachel. And Michael Cohen said under oath.

[PatrickforO]

8. Rapture welcoming fanatics...yes.

I've often thought about this whole concept of 'salvation.' The idea that you get on your knees, say the sinner's prayer and grovel, and then thumb your nose at everyone, say, "hooray for me and fuck you! I'm saved and you're gonna go to the fiery lake with worms that never die!" doesn't really fit.

Salvation, if you want to call it that, is collective, and has to do with making decisions that benefit our whole species, as well as all other life on the planet.

Not even speaking about the afterlife (and don't tell me there isn't one - you believe how you want, and I'll believe how I want) but only this one, here on earth - life could be SO good for people if we just got rid of greed and started organizing ourselves around human need.

Utopian?

Maybe.

But maybe we just haven't grown up as a species yet. Evolved to the next level as it were.