A lot of folks scream 2nd amendment when it comes to the gun issue and technically speaking a private citizen could have whatever the military had so ppl could unite and have a chance at overthrowing a tyrannical govt. At the time it was possible, now it is not. Period. All the daydreaming and posturing aside, if the US military turned on its people we would be totally screwed. Our military can kill millions of us without ever putting boots on the ground. This cold hard fact gives rise to fear which leads to nutty shit, think conspiracy theory, all of them. Throw in all the religious end times garbage on top of that. Presto, you have a frightened population and this is where the brain takes over.
Fight or flight has been with us perpetually as we've evolved and is present in many species on this planet. A sane fight response to the reality that our military could fucking end us could be something like paying attention to our military budget, weaponry, what they're doing for our troops. A person who protests the militarization of our police force is reacting with a fight response. A fight response by someone more extreme could be anything from hoarding weapons and ammo to blowing up govt buildings. Flight response doesn't mean they pack their shit and move to Canada eh. It means they put the responsibility for their protection in somebody else's hands. They leave keeping them safe from all the scary in the big world up to the (usually awful) politicians they elect. Extremism in politics/relgion rising with advances in technology and equal social integration is not a coincidence, its psychology. Flight response to death manifests itself in religion. The person leaves their salvation, ie the protection of their eternal consciousness/soul up to their clergy, prophet or deity. For some the need to flee reality is so great that they believe they will not die they will be raptured up cuz the end is now. They are so terrified of death they convince themselves it ins't going to happen to them. That's nutbag shit, but they believe it. Oh, and they vote republican in large numbers.
These things need to be taken into consideration when we are discussing the mental health of the country. We also need to stop dancing around the subject and call this bullshit out for what it is. We are riding a wave of very public male pattern violence in this country and I don't think we've crested yet. Some neighborhoods are akin to the wild wild west. Dudes start shooting each other at two in the afternoon in Syracuse. I believe we are living through a paradigm shift that will lead to equal human rights and civil protections to every person on the planet. Some cultures will handle this better then other. Patriarchy does not want equality they want control and when they see the loss of control their fight or flight response kicks in. We have primitive humans murdering women to satisfy some twisted delusion of honor they hold on to. We have men in power that actively work to legislate women's bodies, marriage, the definition of rape for crying out loud. The same sore losers that won't sign on to the violence against women act. When half of the population believes that not only are they superior to the other half but they deserve to lord over the other half, we have a fucking problem. I'm not optimistic enough to think this kind of bullshittery is going to disappear, but it is going to have to be reigned in and put in the back seat in a childproof car seat if we want to make it as a fucking species. We can start by not indoctrinating children.