I can't call something "therapeutic" if it deepens and prolongs a sickness.

The term "cathartic" informs us of the payoff for the fascist rightwingers. They feel a nice post-orgasmic glow when they shoot their wads of hate, but of course the effect is never permanent, and soon they need more.

Note too the role of fantasy: Their expressions of hate are usually impotent, but in the moment they can imagine that their words are bullets, and that the laser beams shooting out of their eyes are mowing down liberals by the thousands. The eruptions of hate are the virtual, in the technical sense, fulfillment of the hunger for revenge.

I'm reminded of the argument for pornography: Fantasy short circuits the expression of dark impulses in the real world.

Maybe we should be thankful for rightwing hateporn as the lesser evil?