Things have certainly gotten worse under Trump. But I have clear memories of pre-Trump times. I had debates, on these very forums with other members who argued that altruism is wrong, and argued emphatically that altruism is contrary to Christian morality; these members were also, at the time, arguing strongly in favor of Ayn Rand's views when Rand was in vogue among conservative circles not all that long ago. I can remember having discussions with members, on these very forums, who argued that the poor are parasites, based on rhetoric they heard on Fox News, which referred to the impoverished people of America as parasites because they depended on social welfare programs.
Things have gotten worse under Trump; in part because before Trump there was, at the very least, an attempt to put on a mask to at least pretend there is some kind of moral presentation; but with Trump the mask is gone. The moral bankruptcy of the American Right-wing which holds to no moral principle of any kind, which abhors all Christian ethics, and which thrives on nothing but naked hate and fear is simply more obvious than it used to be. But it's been this way for a long time, it's just that before the Trump era it was under the surface, and now it's crawled out of the cave and now lumbers on the surface. It is a malevolent and cancerous growth that has been festering and growing for decades. Being fed by the worst and darkest elements of human nature, it is sinful and grotesque, an abomination. But it's here now, naked, and flaunting itself. It hates everything and everyone, it regards all things decent and morally good repugnant to itself, and if I may put on my theologian's hat for a moment: It is a spiritual darkness that is straight from the deepest, darkest recesses of hell. This is spiritual darkness, this is what it looks like when Satan gets his claws in the churches, and scratches his way into the hearts of those with power and influence.
-CryptoLutheran
