There is no difference. I've heard that Islam and Christianity, as religions, are good and forgiving. I've also witnessed the behavior of actual muslims and christians. I would not call these people good. I certainly wouldn't call them forgiving.

My feeling is that the poster is on the right track. Ideological groups, (not trying to pick on politics, but they are usually political ideologues), have become the new pseudo-religions. As people in the West have fallen away from church, we've witnessed the rise of ideologue communities on the right and left.

You can't argue with them. You can't question them. Some want to kill off half the people in the country. Others want draconian control over the other half.

And people are surprised that the only option available to a reasonable person is to opt-out?

If anything, I think people are being shortsighted in viewing the threat. For some people in the US, this ideology war is not only about a right to speech, it can come down to a right to live. Those people have to oppose the ideologues, or die.

I don't claim to know the solution, I do know that it's a tough, tough problem.