In terms of healthy democracy you have three main categories. While the terminology of who operates under these categories changes depending on the country, the main basis of where extremism begins does not. You have liberals who are supporters of policies that are socially progressive and promote social welfare. The key components here are civil liberties, democracy, free enterprise, and equality before the law. Then you have conservatives who are the upholders of traditional values. They stand for preserving organized religion, limited small government, prudence on government spending, and an aversion to change when it comes into conflict with socially traditional ideas. Lastly, you have moderates who can be center or just to the right or left of center.

When it comes to the areas in democratic politics that represent an unhealthy change in a political party you have radical left and reactionary right. Let’s talk about the qualifiers for each of the categories. A key qualifier for an idea that is radical left involves dispensing with the free enterprise aspect of liberalism and instead favoring workers distributing profits rather than private ownership of free enterprise. Why is this a qualifier? Well to get to true socialism, the means of production, distribution, and exchange need to be owned and regulated by the community as a whole. For communism you need the government to take control of the means of production and distribute according to people’s needs. No Democratic official no matter how left they have been deemed, has called for anything that steps out of the confines of liberalism. Yes, you have some interpretations of liberalism that are farther left than others but the fundamental tenants in particular free enterprise are not violated.

Now let’s talk about the reactionary right. Reactionary politics are defined by being so opposed to a perceived societal decadence that you seek to use the power of government to return to an idolized or imaginary view of the past. No longer just averse to change, these policies seek enforced social transformation using the power of government. This is undoubtedly where the majority of the GOP and Republicans exist today. Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan was a swan song to this idolized and imaginary view of the USA’s past. One where a lot of the horrors of racism, slavery, and struggle did not exist. Now why is this a qualifier? Well to get to fascism and other far right forms of authoritarianism you need some shared perception of societal ruin and an ends justify the means mentality to rectify it. In some cases, all it took was convincing people that society had become weak and that a strong personality was required if anything was to be saved. Sometimes throughout history, an other such as an ethnic or other minority group would be given the blame for societal corruption and be persecuted accordingly.

Republican’s now have dropped most of the fundamental aspects of conservatism in favor of the far reactionary right built around a cult of personality. One individual, who is strong enough to eradicate societal degeneracy and restore a lost place in the world. That person was Trump and it’s why despite his buffoonery, hypocrisy, and incompetence he remains firmly in control of the party. Though society is changing and evolving, ignorance and indeed malfeasance is encouraged and even fundraised upon. Teaching about America’s history with racism becomes leftist propaganda even though there’s nothing leftist about it. Being asked to wear a mask is fascism on par with the holocaust according to Marjorie Taylor Greene. These statements are deliberately made for the response they provoke and the more attention that is given to this stupid stuff, the more the base loves it even though it makes absolutely no sense to most of us. The point here is the middle finger to decadent society and nothing else. Society is wrong, and tearing it down for something better is a fundamental aspect reactionary authoritarians the world over aspire to.

January 6th was the warning siren, an attack on the capitol by Trump supporters with the express purpose of stopping democracy. The GOP after first acknowledging the seriousness of the insurrection, are now attempting to distort and cover up that brazen attack on democracy. As a whole, Republican politics are moving in a direction where the ends justify the means in terms of maintaining power and reality is distorted or ignored along the way. I hear you Republican’s saying in response to all of this, “But, but, Democrat’s support radical left ideas like universal healthcare, and other ridiculous ideas about welfare, and Black Lives Matter is a Marxist organization.” Well first BLM was created to support civil rights which is a fundamental tenet of liberalism. Secondly, universal healthcare and welfare in general is compatible with liberalism as Social Democratic parties in Scandinavia have shown. There are no qualifiers there that take it one step away from authoritarianism. Republican’s on the other hand support many ideas that lead to authoritarianism. Voter suppression, gerrymandering, undermining rights for ethnic and political minorities, stacking the courts, giving state legislatures the power to overturn election results, and their numerous direct and indirect ties to extremist groups such as QAnon and Patriot Prayer. While the US Democratic Party places normally on a world spectrum of politics for their liberalism, the GOP is out there with Victor Orban’s Hungary or Poland’s Law and Justice Party which has generated condemnation for its creation of LGBT exclusionary zones. In fact, LGBT rights were called an ideology more dangerous than communism by President Andrzej Duda.

In history, some of the worst fascist dictators like Hitler and Mussolini took power when concern with communist sentiment following the Russian Revolution took precedence over emerging ultranationalist fascism. In Cuba, Fidel Castro was only able to seize power due to Fulgencio Batista’s far right government which abused the working class, leaving them with nothing to lose in fighting back and ultimately embracing communism out of desperation. I worry a similar catastrophe can happen right here in the USA with an increasingly aggravated minority refusing progress to a greater majority and willing to undermine democracy itself much to the frustration of the rest of the nation.

There is hope though, even in the worst of circumstances. The free press stood against Trump and the greater international community refused to give Trump the recognition and credibility he so desperately craved in lording over the reactionary right. As long as those fundamental components of democracy remain intact it will be much more difficult to enter an authoritarian state, which is why Trump and the reactionary right have spent so much time denigrating the press.

To real conservative Republican’s the best you can do is not support the party at all. I know it’s difficult in a two party system not having an option that works, but the reactionary right must not be allowed to take hold in this country. Allowing them to do so fully opens the already ajar door to far right authoritarianism. To my fellow liberals and others, please stop referring to Republican’s and the GOP as conservative. There is nothing conservative about them anymore. Call them the reactionary right. It’s what they are and they need to be reminded how close they are to falling off the democratic spectrum into authoritarianism.

I recently had a conversation with a very good friend of mine that went along the lines of how could they let this happen, Republican’s have no standards if they think the country is running well. This got me thinking and for certain politicians like Mitch McConnell who have made every decision in life based on personal enrichment that statement may be partially right. However having worked with and talked to a lot of Republican’s I think that statement is wrong for two reasons.

The first is that Republican’s do in fact have standards. They portray them as readily as a pastor does the ten commandments. The issue is that the standards they have set never apply to them and they are more than happy to bend or break the system to make sure they don’t.

Take for example Joe Biden’s recent cringeworthy mistake of telling voters they ain’t black if they have to think about whether or not to vote for him or Trump. A horrible thing to say and also a great betrayal to the many voters who advanced him toward his position to contend with Trump. Speaking of Trump though, if we were to apply those standards to Biden we would have to deny he said it and then once the evidence was presented say the statement wasn’t understood and then when pressed would say even if it was understood that way it’s not the worst thing he could say and if all that fails the finger would be pointed at someone or something to project or distract. In this case though the judgement was swift and decisive, Biden was a racist.

Meanwhile Trump has an exhausting history of racism and has plenty of trouble with his Twitter where you can find anything from call to arms for neonazis and ultra conservatives, racist dog whistles, horribly offensive statements, and baseless conspiracy theories. His most recent statement “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” was despite his insistence he didn’t remember where the phrase came from lifted from the rhetoric of two very racist men. The first usage was from a police chief Walter Headey and the second use came from racist segregationist George Wallace. Predictably after the statement was made came the familiar pattern of denial and obfuscation. They would not dare allow the same standards they used against their opponents to be applied to Trump even though his offenses are far more numbered and occuring far more frequently. Not to mention here was the leader of the country pouring gasoline on the fire in an already tense and riotous situation.

It’s the same with his political defenders as well who never provided any substantive argument against why the standard applied to Richard Nixon would not work for Trump during his impeachment trial. No matter what political party you belong to, extortion of a foreign ally to dig up dirt on a political opponent should be wrong. Yet Republican’s who went after Bill Clinton for far less refuse to practice what they preach or apply their standards to members of their own party. This cognitive dissonance could hurt them later if Democrats decide they want to break standards and rules blaming Republican’s for removing the guard rails.

Which brings me to my next point which is the divergent artificial reality Trump supporters construct for themselves. Stephen Colbert once said reality has a well known liberal bias in reference to conservatives intractable demeanor toward facts, science, and social progress. Such denial of reality even after being presented with facts formed the cornerstone of climate change denial. The difference now is that with many of Trump’s actions and statements considered regressive or repugnant, conservatives have invented a new reality that rejects everything but the defense and deference to Trump who is the center of their new universe.

The issue now is that Coronavirus shoves one “yuge” splash of cold water to anyone stuck in this alternate reality where Trump can do no wrong. This isn’t something like climate denial or a stupid statement that can be talked away with alternate facts. The consequences of Coronavirus come rapidly and without regard for political party or societal convenience. Unemployment heading toward worse numbers than great depression, lack of preparation and testing, contradictory and demonstrably false statements and narratives all provide stark contrast between our reality and the virtual one being fed to Trump’s drones. It wasn’t just one person coming in from China, the virus didn’t disappear like magic, and congratulating yourself on a job well done doesn’t work when the rest of the world sees 100,000 dead as a demonstration of gross incompetence.

Trump’s alternate reality existed well before his presidency during his time starring on The Apprentice. He was never a successful businessman and in fact would have gone broke were he not considered too big to fail by banks. Yet throughout the show he was portrayed as a confident, larger than life individual, who was one of the smartest in the real estate business despite the fact that he had ripped off contractors through endless court proceedings and undergone six bankruptcies for trusting his own instincts over the advice of more well seasoned investors and project managers. Trump of course would always blame others for his own mistakes and as a result never really grew up on a personal or professional level.

There was a great analogy made in The Atlantic by Tom Nichols where Trump was compared to a destructive school boy who set fires in the hallway while his parents tried to explain what a good boy he was. That description is very accurate to me because it portrays the two main qualities of Trump supporters and defenders that I have written about here. The manufactured reality and the double standard that only applies to outside parties. Every teacher and parent is familiar with the type of parent that finds they and their child can do no wrong no matter what evidence says otherwise. If someone is harassed in school by their child then it has to be the other child’s fault, bad grades are the fault of the teacher, getting sent to the principal’s office for trying to commit arson is the entire schools fault for failing to provide structure in the child’s life. In other words anything and everything to avoid accepting personal responsibility for themselves and their child. In many ways it is the same relationship between Trump, his supporters, and his political defenders. Anything Trump can do wrong is never his responsibility but the fault of just about anything or anyone else in the world around him and reality isn’t allowed to get in the way of that.

In our reality though Trump does a lot of things wrong and freely admits he accepts no responsibility for his wrong doing. His supporters are with him “straight down to the end of the line” a quote I deliberately chose as an apt metaphor from Double Indemnity where the main characters who aim to commit accident insurance fraud through murder also find themselves dead by the end of the film. In the end if you surrender your morals for whatever purpose there isn’t any non-fictionalized version of reality where consequences aren’t suffered. I don’t want to find out what “the end of the line” means for Trump supporters but I don’t suggest anyone living in our reality roll those dice to find out.

Contrary to conservative dogma that liberals are all misled by the media or brainwashed by CNN my journey toward progressive causes began bridge by bridge. Like many kids in high school I did not fit in very well and I quickly learned that those that didn’t fit the standard mold were called out and relentlessly bullied for simply being different. I got around this with my sense of humor and trying to make people laugh. Growing up surrounded by this level of rigid intolerance for difference led me to spend most of my life building bridges and trying to understand people who came from different backgrounds and cultures.

I began questioning everything. Many family members and professionals would have to endure my many how and why questions. I would later place a great deal of emphasis on assembling what I had learned into a moral and ethical worldview and doing my best to find out the answers to the meaning of life stuff. Many of the answers I got back hurt because I quickly realized that many aspects of culture and society threw away moral principles and ethical concerns when it contrasted with the status quo. Those revelations led me to develop a solid foundation of moral and ethical principles and my desire to continue to learn about the world led to an open mindedness that I carry with me today. I attribute this open mindedness to my evolving political views which would eventually lead me to become more Democratic as issues of compassion and morality seemed to be more of a central concern for Democrats then Republicans.

Before Trump, I could have an agree to disagree discussion with Republicans and conservatives but after his election there seemed to be a seething hatred for the other that boiled over. There are many examples of persecution, contempt, violence, and murder toward the other in American and world history. During the early days of the United States it was the Native American who was smeared as a savage less than human inhabitant of land that rightfully belonged to colonists. Then it was people of color and African American’s who were treated as less than human because of the color of their skin. Women also became targets and were denied the right to vote. Later, the other became the Jew who was persecuted, sent to labor camps, and exterminated under the Nazi Fascist regime. The other would later become the LGBT community who would come under intense discrimination during the AIDS crisis which was rewritten by conservatives as a fitting curse to that community sent by God himself. In today’s world the other has become the Latino immigrant who is now blamed for just about every problem in modern United States society.

It’s worth noting that many elements of hatred toward the other have never gone away and there are still many other examples not mentioned in this article. Today, while woman have achieved more representation, they are still in many cases denied equal pay to their male counterparts. The African American community still faces numerous examples of discrimination and hatred some of the most egregious examples coming from law enforcement charged with protecting our communities. Nazi’s are still present in fringe groups throughout the United States (many swastikas can be spotted at Trump rallies) and other countries. The LGBT community still continues to fight for basic rights throughout the world and many homophobic discrimination and attacks still occur.

The demonization of the immigrant has always been there but has most certainly been catalyzed by Trump. It was Trump who even before he entered the 2016 election as a Republican had started the rumor that Obama was a Muslim immigrant from Kenya and demanded his birth certificate be revealed. This rumor was seized by many Republican’s at the time including Mark Meadows of North Carolina who told a crowd in a now infamous video that Obama should go back to Kenya or wherever the hell he came from and then had the audacity to throw a temper tantrum upon being called a racist at the Michael Cohen House of Representatives hearing in 2019.

Aside from the Access Hollywood tape Trump has been accused of sexual assault and impropriety by many woman and he has had many demeaning responses lined up for all them. In one case he suggested at a rally that the women coming forward accusing him of sexual assault were too ugly to be raped. When E. Jean Carroll came forward his retort was “she’s not my type”. You would think someone who respected women would have a denial more along the lines of “That type of behavior is unacceptable and I would never do that.” Instead with Trump, he never denies that he would sexually assault or rape just that the victims are too ugly to get that type of treatment from him.

Trump’s racism too is well documented. Probably the most interesting case in terms of context is him telling three congresswomen of color to go back and fix the crime infested places from which they came. He didn’t stop there and continued assaulting Elijah Cumming’s until his death in October of 2019 calling his home of Baltimore a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.” This is interesting because Trump was incensed at the “liberal elite” who dared to call his supporters “deplorables” but wasted no time in actively rallying the Republicans toward demeaning entire cities and impoverished areas he disliked. He had made a similarly inflammatory statement the previous year by calling Haiti and African nations “shithole countries” during a bipartisan meeting of senators at the White House. Yet when his own supporters of the “Unite the Right” 2017 rally donned swastikas and Nazi paraphernalia, then ran over Heather Heyer in a car attack against counter protesters he infamously referred to “very fine people on both sides”. To say this double standard reeks of hypocrisy would be an understatement.

I could go on and list all of the hows of Trump’s repugnant behavior but it wouldn’t be worth it. We all know the events and stories about what a horrible person he is. Or at least most of us do. The more important question is why his supporters tolerate such unprincipled inconsistency.

The answer is in part otherism. The Republican Party had through Richard Nixon and Barry Goldwater utilized the southern strategy to win over many of the racist conservatives who left the Democratic Party in earnest after Lyndon Johnson’s signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. They found much comfort in their new political realignment to a party capable of aggressively attacking the other as Republican’s had done during the age of McCarthyism and felt that they were well positioned to oppose civil rights under their new allegiance. Confederate flags which should be considered a flag of treason and slavery, as it represented breaking apart the union toward that goal, are a staple of Republican events and have grown in popularity as the party has moved further to the right. This momentum never really stopped and Trumpism, a radical right wing offshoot of Republicanism, is replete with examples of otherism. Otherism which has been an ideological worldview for centuries relies on a strategy of divide and conquer. If you can convince followers that one type of people are inferior or corrupt they will place the blame of all the world’s problems on that group of people and ignore those exploiting the divide to gain power. While you can go back and find elements of this ideology throughout America’s history the most modern iteration in terms of partisan divide comes from Newt Gingrich.

Denialism, projectionism, conspiracy theories, and obstructionism as a political strategy all began with Newt who began much of the reality television partisan vitriol we have become so accustomed to in Congress. No longer were people serving on the other side patriots of differing opinions but instead derided as mischievous scum seeking to destroy the country. Otherism can be a slippery slope and history has taught us that it can spread like a virus if not thoroughly condemned. In Republicans case they used it to exhilarate their base. The horrid tactic worked and in many ways contributes to the unyielding, angry, and brittle Fox news base of voters we see today. However, in deriding the opposing viewpoint as an other to be vilified he also opened the gates of hell to a broader version of otherism and the Republican party would become a gathering of grievances against those who dared to be different from a definition of normal defined from within. Many of these groups of people vilified throughout history would all be equally discriminated against in a new agenda made for the Trump era.

Aside from the hateful commentary you can verify Republican’s marriage to otherism both in their policy decisions and their representation. Much of the western world especially Europe has become more progressive and has included rights afforded to all citizens such as Universal Healthcare and easier access to voting for the common citizen. Republican’s unlike the rest of the world, oppose such measures which hurt urban and minority communities as well as sparsely populated rural communities which aren’t considered profitable enough to see hospitals or medical resources near their areas. Republicans compensate for the unpopular position that comes with opposing these ideas by pitting these communities against one another and in so doing maintain their grip on power. Anyone who disagrees with the Grand Old Party on this divide is branded a socialist which is yet another otherism directed to silence differing progressive viewpoints. The result of this is that rural communities blame urban communities for taking and wasting all their tax money while urban communities blame rural areas for regressive social positions that prevent them from moving forward with the rest of the world. Neither side can agree and as such no gains are made in either community while those that exploit the divide remain in power.

In terms of GOP representation there is very little diversity and when you consider how minorities and women are treated this is of very little surprise. The strongest of outbursts from GOP against statements made in the newly elected congress of 2019 are usually directed at Nancy Pelosi and even more so at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other younger congresswoman. Many of the retorts instead of generating helpful discourse have sounded instead more like an attempt to send a message that women should stay in their place and not speak out on issues they care about. This aspect of disdain toward women was recently compounded when Trump chose to launch a real time character attack against Marie Yavanovitch during the impeachment trial even though many white men had spoken out without such intimidation attempts in the trial before her. When you look further at some of the prominent conservative drawn caricatures (especially in places like the Washington Examiner) of Barack Obama and Maxine Waters with enlarged noses and exaggerated primate-like features the endorsement of racism in addition to sexism becomes unmistakable. No wonder GOP representation consists mainly of white men.

While Democrats are certainly not perfect it is becoming much clearer in recent days that both left of center and left candidates are rejecting the notion of otherism and are moving to bring diversity into the party. It would be wise for Republicans to do the same but regardless of political fortunes they will thanks to their recent history, remain intertwined with this dangerous ideology for quite some time. Many Republicans like John McCain knew the dangers of letting otherism pervade the party but now he and many other counterbalances to this worldview are gone or in a silent minority. Someday, maybe history will wonder whether it was really worth it for Newt Gingrich to open that Pandora’s Box and if the tide turns hard enough will maybe wish that he never had.

For me personally I believe that it is long past time that otherism was sent to the ash heaps of history. Everytime it has appeared it has brought destruction not only to those wielding it but also a heavy amount of collateral damage to society as a whole.

Most of the people here have already made up their minds up about me, one way or another. I myself don’t trust the words of most men, so I don’t expect you to believe me. In the end though, you may discover that I do have more than mere words to offer.

— Gehn

Watching the procedural vote on impeachment I was struck by the number of people who would so readily toss aside principle for a single person. In many ways it showed a reverence some would reserve for a god who in the eyes of his worshipers can do no wrong. Throughout history many individuals have undergone apotheosis or deification. Some have done so by virtue and glory, others by fame, and some by the power of their superiority complex and the strength through which followers place them beyond reproach.

That got me thinking as to how the current political situation is very similar to what can be considered my favorite video game of all time Riven, developed by Cyan Worlds. While I am loath to bring politics and Trump into something I enjoy so much the metaphorical similarities seemed too great for this writer to ignore.

Riven centers around a steadily decaying world barely being held together from imminent collapse. Much of the instability is due to the foundation put in place by Gehn, who misunderstands an ancient craft and falsely claims creation to worlds he is merely discovering. Unlike Trump however who refuses to accept the fundamental basics of science and climate change, Gehn acknowledges through scientific measurements, the instability of the world he claims ownership over. Though Gehn is a mortal man, he demands worship and is regarded as a god by the native Rivenese. He promises that following a period of restitution he will deliver them unto a new and better existence if they prove their devotion. Trump too has many Evangelical supporters who think he is the second coming of Christ brought to do the Lord’s divine will. He also demands loyalty and makes false promises toward deliverance into a grand destiny. MAGA rallies are replete with images of worship toward that end, and his own narcissism feeds into that behavior. Both Trump and Gehn maintain an unrelenting sense of self righteousness and an utter commitment to their mission, no matter the cost.

Gehn’s world The Fifth Age as he calls it (refusing to use it’s title Riven) is adorned by altars and numerous decorative references to his divinity that reinforce the idea that he has an ever-watchful hold over the world. Similarly Trump, decorates his golf resorts and hotels with gigantic self-portraiture and murals designed to portray his sometimes real, sometimes illusory, but always larger than life accomplishments. Gehn’s motivation is to bring back a warped version of the D’ni, the culture that raised him and from whom he learned his ability to link to new worlds, at that time thought to be extinct. Ironically it was pride, elitism and fear of outsiders that led to said destruction from within. Much like the pattern of societal behavior that led to the destruction of D’ni, Trump wants to bring back a myopic vision of American culture rank with overt pride, nationalism, and xenophobia. Critics of Trump’s political and cultural agenda, also contend that he is on a path toward destroying America from within.

While Gehn prefers a zero tolerance approach and kills any who dare to question his divinity (unless you catch him in a good mood in which case, he might just spare your life), Trump uses the carrot and stick method. Loyalty is richly rewarded while disloyalty is dealt with by implementing certain exile from the inner circle. Both have their own detractors to deal with. In Gehn’s case this is a group of people who bore witness to an event that forever shattered his image as a god and in Trump’s case the larger majority that despise him. While Gehn is trapped in the world he sees as being of his own creation and is unable to leave it, Trump locks away or sends back any outsiders who dare intrude upon his kingdom. They also differ in personality and intelligence, Gehn possesses a suave and charismatic persona which he uses to make an elegant speech in an attempt to convince you that he is the victim and not the oppressed native Rivenese who he derides as violent people by nature who are tempered by his presence. Trump in the meantime can barely form sentences and struggles to maintain a cohesive string of thought. Gehn also is much more direct with his violence, even keeping special pets to devour his victims. He maintains in his speech that violence is intensified by those who would oppose him. Trump is always indirectly violent and prefers cronies or followers to do his dirty work. He like Gehn, also accuses his opponents of inciting violence either lacking the self awareness or directly falsifying his incendiary role in spurring civil unrest, massacre, protest and conflict. Nonetheless, they both share the same apathetic sociopathy toward their respective worlds.

In Riven, if you make the right choices Gehn is eventually snared in a way that removes him from the world he torments and closes him up for history to judge. You can then go on to read his journal and discover that some of his monstrosity comes from losing his father, and his wife, and witnessing the destruction of the D’ni civilization that raised him. Nonetheless his godlike superiority complex is present in his writings much like it is in the rest of the game. From here you can go on and rescue his prisoner Catherine who is one of the primary protagonists in the game and it is here where it gets very interesting.

You have a brief conversation with Catherine who warns that she has to act fast to get everyone to safety before the oncoming apocalypse. Her speech can even be paraphrased to reference Trump “We have to move quickly, Trump’s people may already realize what’s happening… You did it. You captured Trump. We’re all free but there are still his followers I don’t know what they’ll do when they realize he’s gone.” Catherine herself is Rivenese and having been taught the same abilities of world linking that Gehn knows has created a new and stable world for the rebels. The question then becomes will Gehn’s primary worshipers join the small group of rebels in this new world or stay behind in their old one and face certain destruction? Ironically it is that very same question that faces Republican’s right now.

They can stay behind in Trump’s world while the sky goes dark and the sites once frequented by worshipers collapse in the oncoming destruction or they can see their god for the mortal man that he is and choose to go to a new world. I don’t know about you but given what happens to Riven I wouldn’t want to stick around for its collapse.

Of course, it is not all smooth sailing to the end of the game. The player has to solve plenty of very difficult puzzles and can also make several missteps that lead to your demise. You can do nothing when faced with the choice of whether or not to remove Gehn in which case you will be shot for daring to test the patience of a God. You can free Gehn after capturing him at which point he bids you farewell and remarks on your secured place in history as you face his planned punishment of eternal imprisonment. Or you can ensnare yourself at which point Gehn frees and then shoots you after realizing you truly have nothing of value to offer. All of which I think underscore what could happen to Trump’s defenders. People who think they are above everyone else have no problems sacrificing those beneath them. Yet the GOP continues to encircle this man who treats them so harshly just as the villagers continued to worship Gehn. Eventually of course if you make it to the good ending, the Rivenese people are shown that their God is just a mortal man who has been entrapped and once they are assured he can no longer harm them they decide to leave their world and join with the rebels (some of whom are separated family members) in their world to begin anew. Later on in the series some of the D’ni, (Gehn’s culture) also survive the collapse of their civilization and learn that they cannot simply rebuild their old society and risk the possibility of again being destroyed by hatred, prejudice, and greed. Instead they too must go to a new world, taking from the past only that which is good, while rejuvenating the heart and spirit of their people toward building a brighter future.

In this case of course Riven (a torn and divisive word itself) represents Trump’s America. Full of faithful defenders but also full of rebels who resent this regressive and divisive administration. In Riven, the world of the rebels becomes the refuge of those who would seek escape from an insufferable tyrant. Yet it is not until the very end that primary worshipers consider fleeing their on the verge of collapse home for a better world.

Republican’s too have this choice. Will they continue to worship a false God while nursing their fatally wounded world until the temple collapses on their heads? Or will they acknowledge that there is no morality in towing the line for an unrepentant brazenly corrupt sociopath who in the end will be revealed to the world as a finite Kleptocrat ensnared by his own foolish ambition.

I don’t know exactly why you released me. But you realize, of course, that this must be the end for you. I can’t take the chance that you will change your mind again. It may provide you with some solace, however, to know that with this act of self-sacrifice, you have secured your place in history. The D’ni culture will be reborn, and the lives of millions will be purified… thanks to you. Farewell.

Gehn (Bad Ending: Player releasing Gehn from imprisonment)