Ideology does not need to be affirmed or demonstrated as being “true” in order for a human being to pledge loyalty to it. One is loyal to an ideology in proportion to one’s intensity and zeal for it. No conviction about the truth of ideological claims is needed to ground one’s endorsement of the ideology. Ideology feeds on and thrives on, as an object of loyalty and exaltation, the intensity of feeling that its adherents feel and embody, not on the veracity of the claims that an ideology makes or takes as given. Ideology does not need verifiable, truthful reasons to command loyalty. The fact that people choose to be (or feel they want to be) loyal adherents of an ideology is sufficient for vindicating an ideology as valid. The “truth” of an ideology lies merely in the positive regard and sentiments of those who uphold or follow it. Ideology…