Not so much opium for the masses, more like venom for the foul...
One of the reasons that the horror that is the republican party gets away with their hypocritical, ethic free, glory be, religious nasty is that for those saps who fall at the feet of the new republican ‘messiah’ (at this point Trump) the religious right uses their wrapped in a flag of false patriotism, coupled with the narrative of gods own country, to sell tickets to a white supremacist heaven… Oh my, spot the obviously obvious social construct to keep their followers in line. For the leaders that surround the throne of the false god in the white house, they, through intended misinterpretation of scripture and wilful and blind arrogance, do terrible things in their eagerness to secure themselves power in this world, and an afterlife of splendour. They need their warped interpretation of the fundamentals of Christian theology to excuse their worst excesses of behaviour, and in this way, the bastardisation of the ideals of a faith and the promise of rewards in the afterlife is not just used as a way to control behaviour that is outside societal norms for their base, but actively encourages it…
If there is a judgement day, they are in for a world of pain… burn baby burn.