Trumpism is Christianity without the love and an abundance of tribalistic hatred of others. We learn that this perversion of Christianity takes root in the Russian fascist philosopher Ivan Ilyn. Putin has embraced this fascist, and Trump has embraced Putin, so to understand the fascism of Putin and Trump we must understand Ivan Ilyin.
Snyder observes that Ilyn took the love out of Christianity for a perverted form of Russian tribalism with a similar narrative found in Hitler's Mein Kampf. For Hitler, redemption was killing the Jews. For Ilyin, Russian redemption was hatred of the outsider. Snyder writes:
"The men who redeemed God's flawed world had to ignore what God said about love." This includes loving your neighbor. But Snyder writes, "For Ilyin there were no neighbors. Individuality is corrupt and transient, and the only meaningful connection is the lost divine totality. So long as the world is fractured, loving God means a constant struggle 'against the enemies of divine order on earth.' To do anything but to join this war was to enact evil: "He who opposes the chivalrous struggle against the devil is himself the devil.' Faith meant war: 'May your prayer be a sword and your sword be a prayer!'"
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