The Traditionalists in my family are enraged about a whole host of issues that have been fed them by either Fox News or Right wing podcasts. As a someone who is by nature a center-Left person to varying degrees, I am alarmed at this development.
The situation is so dire, with my Traditionalist relatives assuming that all center-Left people are “groomers” and members of the “woke cancel culture mob” that wants to turn everyone gay that it’s beginning to sink in that maybe this marriage, this Union, can no longer be saved.
As such, I continue to have the idea of the practical nature of a National Divorce rolling around in my mind. It seems, on paper, at least, that if all the Reds in Blue States left for Red States and vis versa, that Blues would definitely be in a better position to thrive than Red States.
The key issue is, if all the highly educated, well trained Blues simply no longer live in Red States, those very Red States are going to have to figure out to pick up the slack. And there are plenty of very smart Reds who could be trained to help that very thing happen.
But. And this is a very big but — the whole reason why Reds hate Blues is they hate taxes that are…often used to train people. So, Reds would find themselves in a position where they could finally gut the tax system so only the Poors paid taxes….but they would also have to find some way for a massive re-training effort of all the good ol boys who are no longer driving trucks cross country, but are ready to “learn to code.” (I’m not picking on good ol boys, a lot of them really are very smart, but I use the term as a shorthand for your average Red State person, even though that may not be entirely fair.)
Add to this that the natural inclination of Red States with the power to do whatever they want on race relations is to go to extreme and you have a very unstable situation. Say what you will about corporate sensitivity training, it’s a lot better than having a race war in Deep South states.
Meanwhile, the case can be made that Blue States shorn from Red States would thrive. You would have California as your economic hub. And, the absence of all those center-Right truckers will eliminate the friction when it comes to Elon Musk flipping the switch on automation of the trucking industry. I’m not suggesting the a Blue Republic would be some sort of utopia, but I do believe it that once things were stabilized that it would thrive.
Of course the “once things stabilize” phrase is doing a lot of work.
It’s very possible that after their initial joy that Blue States are leaving the Union, Red States would freak the fuck out and start to bomb Blue States into submission, which would cause them, in turn, to return fire. Then you have the two sides bombing the most stable, most powerful, wealthiest democracy to ever exist….into the Stone Age.
Just figuring out what constitutes a Red or Blue State would likely be the source of severe political violence. Throw in WW3 happening at the same time because the United States is out of commission and…oh boy.
Anyway, hopefully we won’t have to worry about that. Hopefully, something other than civil war, autocracy or military junta will happen and all my hysterical predictions on the issues before us will be just that. But, who knows at this point?
The thing about JK Rowling’s extremist TERF views is on one hand you have to give her credit for being willing to suffer for her opinions on a controversial subject but on the other hand there is the issue of what she believes in the first place.
One thing that helps is I’m neither particularly invested in the trans rights issue nor am I a fan of Rowling. I honestly just don’t care one way or another one either issue. For me, the issue of Trans Rights, while admirable, is so controversial and gives fucking MAGA fascists something to bludgeon the center-Left with that it’s extremely problematic — so much so that I honestly can’t even come up with an opinion.
It’s because of trans rights — and especially the whole “protect trans children” issue that the Traditionalists in my family think that the “woke cancel culture mob” wants to “groom” children and turn everyone gay.
Now, obviously, there is a lot going on for them to think this way. From what I can tell, my Traditionalists relatives simply parrot a combination of Fox News and Right Wing podcast talking points. They don’t really care about how real these talking points are — they’re so enraged by how fast American culture is changing that they are willing to use hard power of a MAGA controlled government to crush the soft power of the “woke cancel culture mob.”
I continue to struggle with the implications of this. America has a fascism problem and I honestly don’t have any answer as to how to fix it. We definitely seem to be beyond the historical Even Horizon for Something Bad happening, really, really bad.
I say this because by ANY Republican who becomes POTUS is going to be an autocrat sooner or later. To be a Republican in good standing is to be someone itching to be an autocrat. Add to this the fact that Trump has shown no indication that he’s going to retire — in fact, he seems just about to start officially running at any moment — and it seems to me that Trump, unto himself, continues to be a potential reason why we have a civil war starting at some point between late 2024 – early 2025.
Anyway, back to the point of this post — Rowling does herself no favors by being such a rhetorical pugilist with the very people who would otherwise be her biggest fans. But what’s the point of having opinions — however unpopular — if you’re not willing to suffer for them?
The usual caveats apply. It’s not like she’s a Nazi. There are a lot of good people who essentially agree with her view. And that’s what makes the whole issue so difficult to untangle in the first place.
As I keep saying, the old adage about how someone goes bankrupt gradually then all at once can definitely apply to the prospect of the United States imploading into something akin to civil war between now and spring 2025. Now, there is so much I simply can’t game out.
I’m wrong all the time, so I suppose it’s at least possible that somehow, someway we’ll escape the existential choice of autocracy, civil war or military junta and drift through another presidential election cycle without addressing the serious structural problems within the American political system.
And, yet, I can’t help going to the grocery store and looking around and seeing all the different types of people walking around and imagining a time in the not-too-distant future when what you believe politically will become existential — over and above the other problems that will explode into the foreground like potential Qanon-inspired genocide and race wars.
I know that sounds hysterical, like I’m thinking up some sort of liberal-progressive version of The Turner Diaries, but I have a great unease about what’s going on to happen to the United States over the course of the next few years. There is every reason to believe that it’s possible that the otherwise wealthiest, most powerful democracy the world has ever seen could very well implode into civil war and general chaos.
And the very diversity that makes us so strong could be the thing that destroys us as Qanon flavored MAGA fascists attempt to found a white Christian ethno state in the rubble of the country I love. The cities might be emptied and there could be American Killing Fields. The political map of North America could be completely redrawn as Canada is consumed by the blackhole that the United States has turned into.
Again, I’m probably being hysterical. But the United States keeps lurching towards a darker and darker future. What that dark future ultimately is, remains to be seen.
So, tonight we learned that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was prepared to punch the fuck out of Donald Trump had he gone to Capitol Hill on January 6th. I don’t know about you, but just the idea of her doing that is quite cathartic.
Everyone needs to hear Nancy Pelosis response to hearing the news that hearing Trump might march to the Capitol on Janury 6th. pic.twitter.com/PhiM045IDp
Now, obviously, it’s better for all concerned that Speaker Pelosi didn’t get her chance to live up to that treat. And, in a way, had such an event happened and it be recorded — it would have been one of the darker, yet zany events in modern American history.
It would have been a real life parody of something you might seen in a zany Coen Brothers movie like Burn After Reading. But it definitely gives you some sense of how dire the Trump Era was and how much worse it will become whenever dingus Trump becomes president again.
The problem with defining “woke” is it’s such a hodge-podge of different concepts that are framed relative to the needs of the Far Right. So, it’s difficult to come up with any clear sense of what it means in any practical basis.
But I guess another attempt to define it would be:
Woke, to be:Having a heightened awareness of past and current structural problems in regards to racial and gender inequality, with a particular emphasis on LGBQT+ rights.
Yet, that is not the whole picture.
Perception is a very powerful thing. And, at the moment, the perception among a lot of white conservative men is that they risk, at the hands of the “woke cancel culture mob” being “canceled” simply for being conservative and or believing in traditional heteronormative values.
This is where the idea of being “Red Pilled” comes from. For a lot of white conservative (Christian) men, there is a real fear that they are something of an endangered species with the “woke cancel culture mob” demanding that everyone become gay.
The problem is, this is a situation generated, in part, from a combination of technology and generational changes in societal expectations. It’s all happening so quick that your typical middle age CIS white man, as they say, simply can’t process or “grok” what the fuck is going on.
There is a book from the 1970s, called The Forever War, which probably is ripe for Chris Pratt to star in the big budget Hollywood adaptation. As I understand it, part of the plot is some dude coming back to earth from some sort of space war and everyone on the planet is a gay hippie. Seems like the type of subject matter a conservative like Chris Pratt might really like.
Here’s what Wikipedia has to say, in part, about The Forever War.
Almost entirely through luck, Mandella survives four years of military service, while several centuries elapse in real time. He soon becomes the objectively oldest surviving soldier in the war, attaining high rank through seniority rather than ambition. He and Potter (who has remained his last link with the Earth of his youth) are eventually given different assignments, meaning that even if they both survive the war they will likely never meet again due to time dilation. After briefly contemplating suicide, Mandella assumes the post of commanding officer of a “strike force”, commanding soldiers who speak a language largely unrecognizable to him, whose ethnicity is now nearly uniform (‘vaguely Polynesian‘ in appearance) and who are exclusively homosexual. He is disliked by his soldiers and he assumes this is because they had to learn 21st century English to communicate with him and other senior staff and because he is heterosexual.
Engaging in combat thousands of light years away from Earth, Mandella and his soldiers need to resort to medieval weapons to fight inside a stasis field which neutralizes all electromagnetic radiation in anything not covered with a protective coating. Upon return, the strike force learns this is the last battle of the war. Humanity has begun to clone itself, resulting in a new, collective species calling itself simply Man. Man is able to communicate with the Taurans, who are also clones. It is discovered that the war started due to a misunderstanding; the colony ships were lost to accidents and those on Earth with a vested interest in a new war used these disappearances as an excuse to begin the conflict. The futile, meaningless war, which had lasted for more than a thousand years, ends.
Man has established several colonies of old-style, heterosexual humans, just in case the evolutionary change proves to be a mistake. Mandella travels to one of these colonies (named “Middle Finger” in the definitive version of the novel) where he is reunited with Potter, who had been discharged much earlier and had taken trips in space to use time dilation to age at a much slower rate, hoping for Mandella’s return. The epilogue is a news item from the year 3143 announcing the birth of a “fine baby boy” to Marygay Potter-Mandella.
Anyway, as I keep saying, we’re past the event horizon for something really, really bad happening at some point between now and, say, spring 2025. I don’t know what it will be, but it’s going to be bad. It could be civil war, autocracy or military junta.
All I know is — barring something I can’t predict — MAGA is going to try to steal the 2024 election in a very brazen manner and Blues either bend a knee or demand a National Divorce.
I don’t profess to know the ins and outs of the mysterious world of MAGA-themed “comedy” but I know that there is one MAGA account that can get something trending and that’s Catturd. I know nothing else about Catturd and don’t want to know.
But imagine this scenario — it’s some point just after Election Day 2024 and Catturd decides to weaponize its account’s ability to get things trending on Twitter. As it grows more and more clear that MAGA is going to brazen steal the 2024 the country begins to fall apart.
So, just as the bolts are popping of the country and we face an existential choice of autocracy, civil war or military junta, Catturd starts getting various forms of MAGA disinformation trending, which helps subtly set the framing of democracy’s final collapse.
I probably overthinking all of this, but I really worry about this possibility.
I had a really great, interesting conversation with a center-Right person today and as a center-Left person, it was very illunative. My biggest problem these days is when people come at me from the Left and I’m aghast, saying, “But I’m on YOUR side.”
So, it was a refreshing change to talk to someone from the center-Right who wasn’t MAGA and, as such, wasn’t completely bonkers. My chief take away is America is in a lot of trouble, mainly because the Left’s “woke cancel culture mob” continues to drive conservatives straight into the arms of MAGA fascism. It’s very alarming.
And, to me, the crux of MAGA is how much of it is performative done in the service of using bad faith arguments to “own the libs” and how much of it is actually hardcore wilful ignorance that wallows in the “cruelty is the point” aspect of MAGA.
I continue to be at a loss on which end of the spectrum MAGA inhabits. There is a cult-like element to MAGA, yes, but some of it is so over-the-top and dumb that it makes you wonder who’s zooming whom as the old song goes. Are the dumb hero worshiping theatrics of MAGA just one big troll? Is it not so much that MAGA believes that Trump is some sort of god-like figure sent to save America from the “woke cancel culture mob,” but rather because of extreme negative polarization it’s all something of a joke that MAGA people don’t REALLY believe?
I don’t know. I honestly don’t know.
I keep reading a great book about the rise of the Nazis and while MAGA and the Nazis share a lot — and I mean A LOT — of traits, Hitler was an actual Great Man who bent history to his will as he felt necessary, while Trump is just a lazy idiot who is an avatar, a vessel for white Christian rage over how the “woke cancel culture mob” wants to turn everyone gay.
Maybe MAGA is both things at once? Maybe some people are MAGA because it gives them a sense of belonging, while others want to just “own the libs” with bad faith arguments while still others are so alarmed by the “woke cancel culture mob” that they are willing to embrace regular old fascism.
But I will note one thing — the Right’s echo chamber is far, far more developed and all consuming than the Left’s. A combination of Fox News and Right wing podcasts give Traditionalists (white Christian men) easy to understand talking points that make them able to sleep at night as the country continues to slide into fascist MAGA autocracy.
It’s because of all of this that, at the moment, I just don’t think Blues have it in them as a movement to do the one thing that otherwise they should do — demand a National Divorce. I think, in the end, when MAGA autocratic fascist steal the 2024 election in broad daylight….Blues will bend a knee. And those Blues who can’t handled living in a MAGA-themed autocracy will simply leave the country.
I suppose it’s for the best. I don’t want a civil war.
First, let me be clear — at the moment, I just do not believe the United States is going to have a second civil war. If any sort of “fourth turning” happens in the United States around 2025, it will be that we slip peacefully into autocracy. Millions of wealthy Twitter liberals will flee the country and that will be that.
But there IS a greater-than-zero -sum chance that instead of a peaceful transition into a MAGA themed autocracy, the United States buckles and we have battle to the death between Blues and Reds to see who gets the USA “brand.”
As such, there are a few people I think would be forced into leadership roles as the Second American Civil War progressed. One is Liz Cheney, which would be extremely ironic, given she’s more conservative than dirt. And the other is Jon Stewart.
If Blues suddenly break away from a MAGA dominated USA to start their own nation, then there really would be something akin to a revolution because people who are obvious leaders — like Stewart — would be shanghaied by the Hand of God (fate) into doing things that they might otherwise never do.
And there is an almost eerie one-to-one between Stewart and Ukrainian President Zelensky. It would be very amusing and apropo if American democracy was saved by Stewart, just as Ukrainian democracy was saved by Zelensky.
But all of this is very, very speculative. This particular dark fate is still too far out for me to have any confidence what will happen one way or another.
Here are some reasons why we will have a civil war.
Republicans have come to glorify political violence Something you see a lot these days within the bullshit echo chamber of the MAGA New Right is the belief that because “liberals won’t leave us alone” that they are being “driven” to extremism. There’s a lot of leading not-so-vague talk as to what all this would ultimately mean. But it’s clear that for a number of “thought leaders” within the MAGA New Right that they have accepted that at some point in the future, they’re going to have to resort to violence to get what they want.
Republicans no longer believe in democracy It is now clear that like any good fascists, Republicans no longer believe in democracy unless it’s for the specific purpose of gaining and keeping power. This view of the system they’re supposed to a part of leads them do extremely destabilizing things that help push the country to the brink.
Trump 2024 Just Trump being the 2024 nominee would, in itself, be enough to cause a civil war at some point in late 2024 – early 2025. He just has a special knack for “owning the libs” in such a way that if he stole in 2024 election and said the “quiet part outloud” that Blue States would grow so enraged that it would be they, not Red States, that left the Union and caused a Second Civil War. But Ron DeSantis is polling exceptionally well at the moment, so either Trump politically shivs him at some point, or he co-ops him, making him his VP, opening the door to DeSantis becoming America’s Putin at some point down the road a little bit.
Steve K Bannon. Bannon and his toadies are actively working to destroy the framework that weuse to administer free and fair elections. So, it’s very easy to imagine a situation where this gambit works in ways that Trump himself is too idiotic to pull off personally and it will be so egregious that, again, Blue States leave the Union and we have a Second American Civil War.
Extreme negative polarization We’re in for a bump four or so years, no matter what, because negative polarization, on a systemic level, has reached a critical mass. When one of your political parties is fascist and would rather crash the global economy instead of even appear to work for the good of the nation — you got a problem.
A lack of shared values As the big blow up on Twitter in the last 24 hours about a Stephen Colbert song and dance gag about getting vaccinated proves — we can’t even agree on what’s funny. A combination of this and negative polarization is leading to the United States being two nations, one Red, one Blue and when we get around to attempting to elect the next president, the system simply won’t be prepared for the passions it will stir up.
A potentially historic miscalculation on the part of Republicans It’s possible that, much like European powers in the lead up to WW1, when the time comes and Republicans have a choice between peacefully transitioning us into autocracy or fucking with us all so we want to take up arms, they will choose the latter not because they have to, but because they want to. It’s possible that by the 2024 — 2025 period, Republicans will see a civil war as their only choice to consolidate power, even if it’s clear that they could get everything they ever wanted within the system they so obviously loath.
And, honestly, the only thing standing in the way of an autocrat becoming president in 2025 and seizing “total control” pretty quick is any potential cleaving between MAGA and the Republican Party that takes place between now and then.
Given what I’m seeing right now, it definitely doesn’t seem as though that’s going to be a problem. At this point, it seems as though Republicans will first win power in Congress in 2022, then win the presidency (one way or anther) in 2024 and that will be that.
The autocracy we feared during the Trump Era will come, just four years later than we all expected. But…
There’s a real chance that our transition from liberal democracy to autocracy won’t be as smooth as I think — there could be a civil war. One side — or the other — won’t accept the results of the election and the country will finally buckle. All the nightmare scenarios that I came up with in 2020-2021, will just happen in 2024-2025.
If what happened in 2020 is any indication, the first sign that we would have that something was amiss would be on the local level. Instead of people who simply do their job as Americans and do the rather perfunctory duty of certifying the win of A Democrat, this doesn’t happen. In crucial voting districts all across swing states, Bannon’s “spiritual shock troops” either refuse to certify the win of A Democrat, or they go so far as to YOLO things and switch the win to Trump.
As this happens, the tension in United States escalates day by day. The very rallying cry of MAGA in 2020 — “Stop The Steal” will be adopted by the center-Left when it becomes clear that the MAGA New Right is hell bent on brazenly stealing the 2024 election in broad daylight.
But remember, the center-Left has a very different personality than the MAGA New Right. The center-Left, for all it’s problems with “cancel culture” and being “woke” is still actually connected to reality. So, there would be a struggle between the natural inclination of centrist Liberals to let the “process work” and Leftists who would want to burn everything to the ground given how corrupted everything had become.
All of this turmoil on the local level would find elections in crucial states thrown into the political realm where MAGA state legislatures and Secretary’s of State would begin to actively ensure that A Democrat is prevented from winning. Every day between Election Day 2024 and Certification Day 2025 things would grow more and more unstable in the United States as it became clear that Bannon’s long-planned “administrative coup” was actually going to work.
There would be mass confusion. Lots of lawsuits
And, remember, if Trump is involved, as all of this is going on, he would do everything in his personal power to rile up both sides. If his ongoing, progressive cognitive decline has gotten bad enough, he might even go transactional.
It would be around this point that I could see Blue governors begin to make serious plans to leave the Union. A lot would depend on what California was willing to do. But it would definitely make sense that California would be the first state to call a Secessionist Convention in preparation of leaving the Union if the 2024 election is, in fact, stolen.
But by some point between Thanksgiving and Christmas, you could see some sort of summit of Blue Governors where they debate their plans to leave the Union if the very thing that the MAGA New Right wants — to turn the United States into an autocracy — actually happens.
And as we approached Certification Day in January 2025, the last step in the crisis would happen. If you thought Certification Day 2021 was bad, just wait until Republicans are actively going over and above what they did then when it rolls around in 2025. So, the system will have been corrupted at both the local and state level. And then if that doesn’t work, Republicans will again try to throw the election into the House and Senate to buy time, if nothing else.
So, let me be clear — anyone who thinks we’re going to have some sort of MAGA New Right revolution a la The Turner Diaries — is a fool. Any Second American Civil War we have is probably going to be started by Blue States leaving the Union out of disgust that the fix is in.
Therefore, by the time Certification Day 2025 rolls around, it could very well be a foregone conclusion that we’re going to have a pretty organized civil war. Republicans have no shame and don’t apparently care about the consequences of their actions, so, lulz, we could find ourselves in the absolute worst of worlds because not only are states actively thinking about leaving the Union around this time, but the whole process of figuring out who is POTUS will be languishing in Congress. Republicans, because they are politically blood thirsty and will cheat, will win the power struggle, but there’s a chance states will begin leaving the Union.
It won’t be deranged, individual MAGA New Right blowing stuff up in some sort of rearguard action. It’s going to be a Blue Nation verses a Red Nation. A lot of the same things that happened in the First American Civil War will happen in the second. The U.S. Military will implode as people from Blue States leave it to establish a new Blue State military.
But one thing we have to expect in late 2024 to early 2025 is a mass migration of people across the country as people no longer feel safe living in an area of the country that doesn’t fit their politics. It could be rather frightening.
If it were, God forbid, to happen, I would guess that a Second American Civil War will begin between Certification Day 2025 and Inauguration Day 2025. In other words, as Trump is being sworn in, mass chaos will have erupted across the United States.
Once the hollowed out American military turns it attention to the Blue rebellion at the behest of Trump, it won’t be too long before WMD are sized and used by both sides. Not only would America bomb itself into oblivion with its eyes wide open, but it will be done in the context of WW3 definitely breaking out across the globe because the US will be too busy imploding to ensure the continuation of the post WW2 global order.
How’s that for a New World Order.
Macro trends are not on America’s side. As I keep saying, 2024 is going to be it. It’s the year when either the United States turns into a Russian-style “managed democracy” or there’s a civil war. Now, this isn’t going to be a complete list of the 50 states, but I am going to highlight some of the states that may be more problematic should a Second American Civil War erupt.
Oregon The state is really two states and, as such, is probably going to be a major flashpoint in any Second Civil War. What’s likely to happen is Portland will buck any attempt at a putsch on the part of bonkers Right wing nutjobs in the rest of the state and, as such, either there’s a really blood struggle in the state or there are a massive amount of political refugees from the Portland area as the rest of the state sides with MAGA.
Virginia Again, this is really two states. There’s the NOVA-Richmond-Hampton Roads urban corridor and everything else. It’s very easy to imagine a situation — especially with Virginia’s historic ties to the first Civil War — where the state implodes as we grow closer and closer to a Second Civil War. Too many good old boys in the rural areas of Virginia might get wrapped up in the “Lost Cause” mythos and decide to seize places like Danville (the last capitol of the Confederacy) or Richmond (another Confederate capitol.) If nothing else, simply because of the larger population of the “Blue” parts of the state, there will be significant violence and political refugees as the Blues consolidate power.
Michigan I don’t know as much about this state, but it definitely seems as though once the pre-war process of coups and political consolation begins that there will be at least a coup attempt on the part of the Far Right. Again, don’t underestimate how once you actually start murdering people that the dynamics of things change significantly. It’s very possible that there would be a coup in the state, it would fail, and there would be significant political violence as the state’s Blue population fought back and put the state firmly on the Blue side.
New York Yet again, we have a situation where once politics fails us that the otherwise banal regional differences in a state tears it apart. New York City is far more progressive than the rest of New York State and, depending on how things work out, it’s possible that New York City could become a revolutionary hotbed to the point that is tears itself away from the rest of the state and proclaims itself a Free City. This almost happen during the first Civil War. If nothing else, there will be a serious jiggling of the relationship between NYC and the rest of the state to the point where it aligns itself in any Second Civil War with New Jersey and Connecticut in a way that update New York does not. Or, again, there could be significant political consolidation as Blues from all over the northeast flee to New York and the MAGA-friendly natives of the state flee elsewhere.
Maine I really don’t know that much about this state other than a vague belief that the northern part of the state is far different than the southern part. It’s very easy to imagine significant consolation in the state one way or another as people flee to it as the rest of the country buckles. The state is big — if sparsely populated — and it’s strategic location near the Canadian border might be enough for it to be the home to large refugee camps.
Texas Texas would be in an odd situation as the country fell into civil war because its long-term political trend is shifting Blue, but it’s part of the South and a lot of people consider themselves Southern and MAGA. So either it simply buckles into its own intra-civil war or the MAGA cocksucker fucktards push out all the Blues who flee to Blue States nearby. The end result would be a lot of pissed off former Texans who would be of great benefit to the Blue cause.
California In a sense, the whole fate of the United States rests on what California does. If it simply bolts from the Union, then that significantly hobbles the Blue cause on the ground. California sitting on its hands and become its own nation in the event of a Second Civil War makes it far more likely that either Red states win or there is some sort of half-ass balkanization of the United States. But if California stays and fights, then they could provide not only the necessary economy and population for a Blue state victory — after many, many dead — but also something of a vision for what America would look like after we’re finished bombing ourselves into oblivion.
The Deep South It’s very easy to imagine at the onset of a Second American Civil War most of the old Confederacy on a political level getting extremely excited and having a massive amount of momentum to either leave the Union outright or support the Republican controlled Congress’ attempt to brazenly steal the election. Then reality would sink in — all of the Southern states have significant African American populations and once politics is no longer a viable method of solving problems then the far more brutal dynamics of realpolitik would kick in. I just can’t imagine millions of African Americans lulzing a return to the Confederacy, no matter how badly the white political establishment of those states may want it. So, even though the South has a lot of people and a big economy, it would be, on a regional basis, too busy fighting a race war to really help the Red cause all that much. If things really grew as radical as I fear they will — probably because WMD are stolen and cities start to get vaporized — it’s the Deep South where you’re most likely to see some WW2 level atrocities as radicalized whites begin to murder blacks en mass.
As for the rest of the states, their ability to pick one side or the other is probably far easier and their biggest problem would be dealing with political refugees.
Or, put another way, we’re fucked. We’re totally, completely fucked one way or another. Either we turn into an autocracy or Red and Blue begin to murder each other in cold political blood. The usual outcome of all this bullshit that we have come to expect — simply muddling along until we come to some solution one way or another — is not longer a valid option.
Antisemitism has always been a part of America’s modern fascist movement, it’s just been lurking in the shadows in the guise of “Qanon.” But lately, especially with the tweets of Ye….the sentiment has grown more conspicuous. Now, let me be clear – I’m not Jewish and I’m just pointing out the obvious: if your country has a fascism problem, you’ve got an antisemitism problem just around the corner.
Now, in an ideal world, the rise of such antisemitic hate would cause a lot of prominent MAGA people to wash their hands of MAGA and that would be that. I mean, fucking Stephen Miller is MAGA ‘s Joseph Goebbels and you’d think being Jewish he might pause to reflect on the rise of antisemitism within MAGA ranks.
But, no, he’s a vile, nasty bigot who won’t stop being a true believer until it’s too late for him — and everyone else for that matter.
The thing I would suggest you keep an eye on Qanon as well as MAGA’s interpretation of Jared and Ivanka’s Jewishness. If Qanon completely consumed MAGA — as it’s on track to do at the moment, then it’s obvious antisemitism basis may grow more and more a feature and not a bug. I still am very concerned that should we become a MAGA-themed autocracy that it will be because of Qanon that we zoom past being a political clone of Hungary and end up circling the drain somewhere around being a Nazi clone. (Of course, America’s Fourth Reich won’t be expansition in nature, but more like something Pol Pot might think up.)
Also, if Jared and Ivanka’s position in MAGA grows untenable then…yeah, something really bad is about to happen for American Jews. Something we were all told Never Again and Never Forget.
I wish American Jews — even conservative American Jews — would be more at the forefront of the anti-MAGA movement. But I suppose — hopefully — that time will come.
As I’ve said many times before, I have a lot of respect for tech people of Silicon Valley. Sometimes I wonder why they’re kind of sitting on their hands these days when it comes to changing the lives of everyday people, but, in general they have been the cause of a shocking amount of improvement in human life.
Fucking MAGA.
Then there are moments like this when the continue to be tone deaf about not just the rise of MAGA but Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
It’s all very odd. Here are these really smart guys who are just totally on the wrong side of not just history but common sense when it comes to the evils of both MAGA and Russian’s war of aggression on Ukraine. It makes you wonder what is going on. Why are they like this?
I really struggle with this particular situation. There is something about the mentality of Tech Bros that I just can’t understand. The fact that so many noteworthy Tech Bros hate democracy and are actively rooting for fascist MAGA to turn the United States into an autocracy is…unsettling, to say the least. And the idea that Tech Bros would be appeasers and apologists for a fascist thug like Putin is also not great.
The only explanation I might be able to say is Tech Bros are so busy thinking about cold hard metrics and nerd stuff like coding and its associated math that they totally miss the obvious moral implications of MAGA and Putin, even if they’re clear to the mass of other people.
Or something. I think that’s what’s going on. It’s all a mystery to me. I think if I were to talk to someone from Silicon Valley and they were willing to have a good faith conversation with me on the subject, I could probably figure it out. Then I would alternate between being mad and angry that people who should know better are no better than 1930s German Industrialists.
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