Deadly Delusions: Right Wing Death Cult

Keywords

Politics; Terrorism; Delusion; Mental Illness; Denial; Republicans; Right Wing

Abstract

Educators want their students to live healthy, ethical lives within a healthy, ethical society. But an enormous obstacle stands in the way: a right-wing cult that poses an existential threat to personal and collective well-being. This cult, tens of millions strong, blocks efforts to address all other major problems including climate change, racism, economic exploitation, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet many people fail to see the right wing for the serious threat that it is. Often, those who do take the threat seriously lack a holistic understanding of the problem and grossly underestimate the difficulty of confronting it. The rise of an anti-intellectual, science-hating, rage-driven right wing is the culmination of sustained efforts by right wing organizations coinciding with multi-systemic failures in the domains of journalism, education, and politics. The right wing is dragging the world to doom and furiously blocking all attempts by good people to stop it. We are witnessing the suicide of human civilization and the closing of all opportunities to intervene effectively. We need a wake-up call, a proper diagnosis of our condition, and decisive action.Our situation has become so extreme that the proper terms for it – the president is a psychopath; his followers are delusional fanatics locked in a genocidal cult – sound like hyperbolic and childish name calling. The very words required to diagnose our condition have been banished from mainstream public discourse by decorum, disbelief, and a misbegotten sense of fairness. While we debate whether such terminology is appropriate, right-wing pathologies have grown more malignant and engrained in our society. We are at an impasse.

Date Created

September 2020

https://works.bepress.com/barry-mauer/18/download/

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