Today’s conflict in Iran is a case study in how radical beliefs can convince people that they are right and everyone else is wrong. The hardline mullahs who have terrorized their own people and the world for 47 years are strangely certain they can create friends by launching missiles and drones into neighboring nations—while destroying their own country from within. Here we see the difference between natural patriotism and a bizarre attraction to martyrdom that seems sensible to the misguided. The main problem we will face with negotiations in the weeks and months ahead as the battles with Iran continue is as clear as day: It is impossible to have productive conversations with zealots who are convinced that God is on their side—and no one else’s.

Fanatics are immune to reason and reality, so their defeats are often bloody and ugly affairs that, sadly enough, require a bullet or bomb to resolve. Students of history surely remember Japanese Kamikaze pilots deliberately crashing their airplanes into American ships during World War II because they were sure a ticket to paradise would be their reward; meanwhile, in the European theater of that same war, allied forces had to contend with German infantry hyped up on methamphetamine and willing to die to the last man for Der Fuhrer. During recent decades we have witnessed suicide bombers willingly sacrifice themselves to kill scores of people around the globe, and we can never forget the terror attacks of 9/11 that killed thousands of innocent Americans who started their workdays unaware they would be murdered by Islamic extremists before lunch even rolled around.

As we well know—and should strive to remember during these perilous and challenging times—Americans did not choose to simply give up when faced with fanatics in the past. The fearful and fragile, because they are talkers and not doers, will always desperately want to believe it is possible to negotiate with the grimly delusional—particularly when the deal has to be closed with deadly military force. Swift and forceful action just does not make sense to the sensitive swathe of our population that believes testosterone is toxic (and are, therefore, supremely puzzled by our many deadly female warriors), so continuing to offer aid and comfort to the enemies of America with their words and actions while voting for leaders who have no idea how to protect our nation will continue to be their default strategy.

The harsh and often unwelcome news is that every freedom we today enjoy was paid for by past generations who fought and died. Today’s well-insulated Leftist elites, who prefer the safety of snarking from the sidelines and shilling for surrender because of their supposed moral superiority, insult Americans every day with their open cowardice. Moreover, these Chicken Littles of appeasement always ensure their own carefully coddled children are safely tucked away at a cozy college—far, far away from any battlefield danger—because they smugly believe that fighting and and dying for America is surely someone else’s job.

Thankfully, fanaticism tends to be an affliction that impacts the few. However, and this is truly horrid, the fanaticism of the few can be very readily multiplied to destroy the many. The hardcore Marxists who overthrew the governments of Russia and China in the 20th century are a perfect example. They caused death and misery for, quite literally, hundreds upon hundreds of millions of people thanks to the concerted efforts of a relatively small group of true believers who leveraged the tools of the modern state into webs of paranoia, pain, and persecution that allowed them to exercise absolute power—producing decade upon decade of utopian misery built on a foundation of insanity.

Needless to say, big tyrants tend to need lots of petty tyrants in the educational systems, mass media, and judicial systems of their countries to make their demented dreams come true, which turns out to be remarkably easy when you can create lucrative career paths that align with your political, cultural, and social agenda by using the government treasury to start the wheels spinning in the necessary direction. It turns out many people are willing to say anything if there is a lovely paycheck and fat pension involved, so manipulating the masses into being partners in their own destruction can be shockingly (and disturbingly) easy. The “useful idiots” that Russian Communist Vladimir Lenin so loved are for sale all around us, and they are more than pleased to deceive their ways to comfortable lives while blaring the lies that are needed to spread hatred and confusion around the globe.

We live in a world today where technology has made tyranny far too easy, and elections (even those that are apparently fair and free) can be easily manipulated by those who are tech-savvy or simply believe in the righteousness of their causes without reservation—and hate those who believe otherwise with equal fervor. Learning to distinguish between the truth and plausible-sounding nonsense is the foundational challenge now before us on both a national and international level because the mechanisms for spreading self-serving propaganda have never been so powerful and pervasive. Dr. Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda for the Third Reich, turned an entire nation into murdering monsters with vacuum-tubed radios, print newspapers, and 16 mm film stock; one shudders to imagine what he could do today with podcasts, Substack, and Netflix.

The logical disconnections caused by indoctrination impede clear thinking, and this is the fertile soil where extremist lies can easily take root—and inflame the most well-meaning among us. Nor is religious belief the only precursor of fanatical thought. We now, for example, live in a country where amazing numbers of well-educated individuals no longer believe DNA determines our gender and are certain crime is actually caused by police arresting criminals.

Fanaticism can readily appear wherever reasonable doubt is replaced by bug-eyed certainty, and we must take particular care to protect the young and impressionable from its damage—which we are, unfortunately, failing to do at the present time. Determined extremists flourish in a free nation where the media and cultural environment thrives on conflict, so our most dangerous problems are not likely to remain well outside our borders for very much longer.