I've noticed that the fanatics and cranks at both ends of the spectrum like picking a fight with someone of the opposite persuasion ...because the anger... they provoke is... essential to thier existence. Without opposition they lose their passion and raison d'etre."

Without opposition they also lose the chance to be "right" and make someone else "wrong", and that is the strongest desire motivating the average arguing ego. He wants to win, and to be proven "right" in so doing. Without any opposition, he can't do that, so he searches about diligently for an opposition to argue with.

And that's also the key to America's more disastrous foreign policy moves in the last 60 years... ;-) (as well as similar blunders by other aggressive military/political powers along the same line) They NEED enemies to fight with or they lose their primary motivation in life.

If a real enemy does not exist, then one has to be created somehow. It's a quick and easy mental trick. Anyone can do it.