Have a plan, and a backup plan
Don't wait for the violence to break out
If you think there is some sort of magic keeping the USA in the same place it has been since World War II, you’d be incorrect. If you think the USA is a great country, you’d be mistaken. America has never been great, but it has had glimmers here and there. If you’re confident that the American government is stable and democracy cannot fail, you’d be foolhardy. It can fail, and the data suggests there is a strong possibility.
People who study civil wars as a profession are concerned the United States is on the cusp of a civil war, or perhaps already in one. This has happened already, and it will happen again. Because human nature.
The US democracy has been downgraded three times since 2016.
What happens when you get downgraded from a democracy three times? Your country becomes an anocracy. What’s that? It is a country somewhere between democracy and dictatorship. Welcome to your new condition. Understand that anocracies violate human rights far more than democracies. And the US already had the highest per capita rate of incarceration in the world as a democracy!
Worried yet? You should be. I am.
When the looting starts, the shooting starts comes to mind. Except the proper translation of that is: learn to obey. Your lack of basic human equity does not mean a thing. Bend the knee, or pay the price. You are not important. At all. That is exactly the opposite of the way things should be. Because psychology demands healthy individuals to create a healthy society. You cannot create an enduring system when you break the backs of others to build your monuments and mansions.
One of the highest risk factors for civil war is when a country is backsliding from democracy into anocracy. Do not take my word for it. Watch the below video from a person who makes a living studying what causes civil wars.
Worried yet? I am. It is those in political decline who are most likely to start a civil war. Hint: rich old white men are the demographic. And they are propped up by middle-aged, middle-class, white people scared to lose their dominance over people who aren’t them. Which means everyone who isn’t the product of God, guns, and guts middle America. John Wayne might be dead, but his lemmings live on.
Have a backup plan. I don’t prophesy, but fear leads to ugliness. And the pale faces of middle America are frightened and angry. You won’t want to get caught in the next mob.
Ask anyone who has survived full-blown civil war. There is nothing civil about it.
Thank you for the blunt assessment.
I started warning people in 2017 that Trump and the GOP were active threats to our freedoms.
Just blank stares and denial...which persists even now.
The media is already accommodating a further erosion of press freedoms...why else would MSNBC elevate an empty vessel like Kristin Welker, while firing Mehdi Hasan? Why would Business Insider allow an investigation into the accurately reported story of Bill Ackman's wife plagiarism?
Jack Smith's home was swatted, as was Judge Chutkan...with radio silence from the perpetually mute Attorney General.
The gaslighting necessary to pretend that this is a fight to maintain a democracy is absurd. At best, it's a fight to prevent further backsliding. If there's a 10-year plan to reestablish our democracy, I've yet to hear it.
I'll vote for Biden because there's no other option to avoid an apocalyptic dystopia. I can only hope that new leadership arises because there's no return to what passed for 'normal' pre-Trump.
How do you think it would happen? Yes. I am worried. I live in deep red IN. Once this was a blue pocket, but I’m seeing the telltale signs of hatred. Far more gun fire than ever in my life. Do you think voter rolls are secure? Where will they concentrate their efforts? There’s so much security for all the judges and prosecutors in his cases, do we still have enough investigative staff to figure out where these militant groups are? If we start fighting among ourselves, how long before another country joins the fray? This is why I try not to spend too much time thinking down this path… I don’t know and I don’t know where to find out. It’s a recipe for panic.