In a mass hysteria, people reinforce and escalate extreme ideas with each other. The fear increases and otherwise intelligent people cease to be able to think rationally. At that point anyone who questions the extreme position is attacked as a heretic. Any doubt creates anger.
As the extreme predictions fail, the True Believers move from anger to despondency. Rationalizations of the failed prophecy soon follow. Of course, they never consider that they were wrong. It is that their prediction *would* have happened, but their true faith saved the day.
And the doomsday prophets just move on to a new end of the world scenario and a new date. For example, if the world does not end on the day predicted, it just means God has shown us grace. But the end is coming on the new date.
Could threats such as Climate Change and COVID-19 be exaggerated because people are hoping for a drastic change in the existing order? Elections never seem to change anything. So people secretly yearn for an apocalyptic scenario.
While America's official GDP may be good, the nation is spiritually sick. There seems to be no purpose for life in America except to consume product and find novel ways to have an orgasm. The sense of exploration, expansion and destiny is gone.
The passion people have for Bernie and Trump represent the desire to fundamentally change the system. Of course, they are an illusion. Trump has embraced mainstream conservatism. And, if elected, Bernie's proposals would be blocked by his own party and Goldman Sachs.
This is why the Progressive Right is wed to Israel and The Holocaust. To this group, the soul of conservatism is the fate of the Jewish people. All other matters are secondary.
“for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?”