How do America's white evangelicals deify a sociopathic hedonist as their Lord and Savior? Why are so many self-proclaimed Christians parading Trump Messiah artwork on bumper stickers, posters, and T-shirts?
Timothy Snyder in his book The Road to Unfreedom traces this cultish worship to Russian fascism authored by Ivan Ilyin. Snyder writes:
"Ilyin placed a human being in the role of the true Christ, required to break the laws of love in the name of God. In doing so, he blurred the line between what is human and what is not, and between what is possible and what is not. The fantasy of an eternally innocent Russia includes the fantasy of an eternally innocent redeemer, who does no wrong and therefore will not die."
Xenophobia, the hatred of The Other, and warmongering are two symptoms of this man-worship. Snyder writes:
"The very dread of what comes next generates a sense of threat than can be projected upon others as foreign policy. Totalitarianism is its own enemy, and that is the secret it keeps from itself by attacking others."
A third symptom is upholding the kleptocracy by using propaganda to manipulate the masses into believing that siphoning all a nation's wealth to the kleptocrats is in the nation's best interests.
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