The problem here is in differentiating the concept of Christian sense of spiritual delusion from the more common political problem of mass psychosis. These are not the same thing and do not necessarily manifest in the same way.
But isn't politics or at least the philosophical underpinnings of a political ideology not too disssimilar to religious belief as they are both about a worldview, assumptions and beliefs about how the world is and should be ordered and how people and society should behave.
There are some differences with psychosis as its more clinical but there are varying degrees of delusion. Much has to do with emotion, feelings over reality. Thats why peterson mentions disgust but there is also fear, guilt, shame and agression. The basic cognition is similar in that all delusions are the distortion of normal emotions and cognitions. Usually anxiety based where things are made worse or percieved as far worse than it really is.
Peoples perceptions of the world become distorted as a result and they form their beliefs on this distorted view of the world, other others and themselves. There are usually 4 core beliefs behind delusional and irrational thinking Demandingness, Frustration Intolerance, Awefulising and Self Downing. So there is a psychological basis for unreal thinking and beliefs even if thats about religious beliefs as we know with radical religious groups.
I think determining the differences is only a matter of how the deluded thinking is applied whether thats religious belief, a political ideology like Marxism or a belief in some cult or idea about how we should live life. Many of these ideas have a spiritual aspect except its based in some other metaphysics like mother nature, humanism, tech or some other constructed ideology about the world.
Moreover, one or both of these doesn't need totalitarianism to be present as a catalyst. In fact, in the case of the former, "business as usual" will do the job.
No but you would hope at least that Christianity would not lead to Totalitarianism. I don't think so. I mean the church became pretty controlling but I think thats when it became more political than spiritual. But Christian spirituality would be the antithesis of Totalitarianism.
I think its when we stray away from Gods order that we risk diverging down a path of human contructed ideas about reality and how to order relationships and society. If God is what maintains order and reality then obviously like the Isrealites when they strayed from God began to worship false idols so it is with modern society.
Primarily humans believe in the almighty power of humans and as humans a fallible creatures we are bound to believe in our own bull**** and pay for it later. I think as we have rejected God in recent decades from the public square we are now more volnuraable to agendas and ideologies and self delusion.
The strange thing though is it seems that its not just a rejection of God but a rejection of objective reality. I think this is due to Post Modernist influence which fits in with identity politics in that its about self referential reality rather than objective reality. THis makes a perfect storm for delusional thinking and why we are seeing this grow in society.
