I propose that the Republican Party change its name to Death Squad Hate Force

[King_Klonopin]

The self-proclaimed, self-righteous, "pro-life" members of the
republican party are simply merchants of death and are truly the
most dangerous organization in the entire world. Because they
are staunch in their defense of protecting the fetus, this somehow
reconciles and excuses the rest of their evil ideology.

This is what they represent and advocate:

Guns
Torture
The death penalty
Perpetuating the cycle of poverty
Demeaning and abandoning the poor
War and obscene defense spending
Preventing women the access to reproductive medical care of their choice
Depriving millions of people health care insurance and basic medical care
Poisoned food
Poisoned medicine
Poisoned air
Poisoned water
Ignoring the needs of immigrants and refugees who are trying to escape death and a hellish existence.
A labor force that will work themselves to death for scraps and crumbs
"Exercising 2nd Amendment rights" against Democratic presidents
Racial division, Apartheid law, and state-sanctioned murder

They are the four horsemen of The Apocalypse, destroying humanity in the name of god.

[MyshkinCommaPrince]

1. Seems fitting.

Their movement now seems to be one part tax protest and one part apocalyptic death cult. Formerly, only the fringe religious whackos on their side seemed genuinely to want the world to end. Now it seems like almost all their factions want to make the world worse on purpose, deliberately steering us toward hardship and disaster. When I'm feeling paranoid, I believe those shaping their movement truly want a massive die-off event, to reduce the global human population. At the very least, they want to hurt people on purpose. Their voters and true-believers must be really unhappy people, to support such things.

I do kind of wonder how many might be in it for the shock value or lulz. How much of what we're seeing (if any) is like the old punk rock celebration of hate, violence, or Nazi tokenism? Siouxsie Sioux and Sue Catwoman weren't actually promoting fascism when they wore swastikas. Joey Ramone wasn't advocating child abuse when he sang "Beat on the Brat". Is some of the death-cultish stuff, particularly online, like that? They think they're edgy punks and we're the despised hippies who don't get the joke? I suppose it doesn't matter why they support it. The movement they help prop up is up to no good.

All this hatred of modernity makes me think (perhaps ironically) of something from Tolkien (himself no lover of the modern world). His Fourth Age, the Age of Men, was outlined as seeing the rise of a New Shadow, even after Sauron and Morgoth had been driven from Arda. It's nicely summed up by a quote from a Tolkien forum discussion: "The New Shadow, consistent with what T said elsewhere about the Age of Men, is about Men's easy satiety with good and peace and comfort, all on their own without a Diabolus live and present." We are too easily bored and dissatisfied, when things are going well. I suppose we could build a perfectly utopian society, and there would still be greedy and ambitious types waiting to exploit those who are bored and dissatisfied, frustrated and unhappy. The bad buys are always out there.

Breaking things is easy. Evil is lazy.