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Comment by nonrandomstring | Hacker News Reader

Nothing recent about it.

Deathwish politics is at least as old as the mid 1950's when impending nuclear Armageddon was on the cards.

Out of that came a sect of American evangelical fundamentalists who believe in "The Rapture". Many prominent US political figures were and remain associated with it.

Right now many of these types are rubbing their hands with glee over the middle-East conflict, hoping it will escalate as prophesied.

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Who's having deathwish? Status quo politicians or those who realize the problems we're facing. I'd call that lifewish

> Who's having deathwish? Status quo politicians or those who realize the problems we're facing

A subset of the latter. There are those who begin with the premise that the world is going to hell and then seek out (and amplify) any evidence they find that resonates with their bias. Doomers, if you will. It's not even that difficult to identify these folks, but as soon as one does the retort is invariably some form of "you have your head in the sand".

What do you mean by "begin with the premise that the world is going to hell"? Can you name a person who does that? In the context of this particular blog post I think the authors argue quite coherently in favor of their perspective, whether you think it right or not, it's hardly "beginning from the premise".

I’d lump that group in with preppers, given their conservative political leanings. These seem to hew closer to New Age cults that rose to prominence in the ‘60s and ‘70, except with a more secular bent.

Aren’t they mostly coming from the lest though? Preppers mostly come from the political right, I believe.

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