Evil

Back in the day various scenarios were considered about the end of the world and these powers were attributed to God or some authority beyond humans. It was in the arena of religion where such topics were discussed but that has changed. In today's world this power, formerly assigned to God, is now assigned to politics. Humans can end the world with climate change, lab made viruses or nuclear war so politics has taken on a fervor previously left to religion so in essence politics is the new religion. Informed citizens today take political sides with the same fierce beliefs that historically led to wars based on religion. Religion is founded on faith and needs no explanation. Things become simple. There is good and evil and I know which side is which. This leads to statements like one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist. A good example of this can be seen in the Ukraine War situation. All of the pundits be they talking heads or generals or politicians all get on TV and say we cannot let Putin win. Some on the other side fear what would happen if Putin lost but no one says lets work toward a peace agreement. When dealing with good and evil there is no middle ground. Many people who dislike Trump refer to his followers as cultist which is another religious reference. The implication is they are being led astray by evil. If Trump is evil it is okay to use what ever means to destroy him regardless of legality. During WW 2 civilians were deliberately targeted and that was alright because the enemy was evil. Even today Hitler is often times referred to as evil.