Is the US heading towards another civil war?

[Time_Traveller]

Is the US heading towards another civil war?

[Jakob]

I doubt it. Nobody wants to sit in a trench and get shot at when they can stay inside with Netflix and Grubhub.

[Powers]

I doubt it. Nobody wants to sit in a trench and get shot at when they can stay inside with Netflix and Grubhub.

I would prepare just in case.

[Cyber_Rebel]

The Pentagon is far too powerful for a realistic "civil war" type scenario to take place within America. The only way it would logically happen is if there were a split within the U.S. military itself, and they really are the key factors in any such conflict. You also have to consider the geography of the country, which really doesn't lend itself well to battle lines being drawn.

A fat boomer riding with shotgun on a scooter versus a triggered multi-dyed haired liberal at Starbucks is not a civil war. That's just a domestic dispute. Even if every single armed militia banded together to form an American styled Isis, they'd still get bodied very hard by the Pentagon and deep pocketed defense contractors.

Not saying that there is no threat at all, but I'd say random domestic terrorism is much more likely than an all-out civil war.

[funkervogt]

The Pentagon is far too powerful for a realistic "civil war" type scenario to take place within America. The only way it would logically happen is if there were a split within the U.S. military itself, and they really are the key factors in any such conflict. You also have to consider the geography of the country, which really doesn't lend itself well to battle lines being drawn.

A fat boomer riding with shotgun on a scooter versus a triggered multi-dyed haired liberal at Starbucks is not a civil war. That's just a domestic dispute. Even if every single armed militia banded together to form an American styled Isis, they'd still get bodied very hard by the Pentagon and deep pocketed defense contractors.

Not saying that there is no threat at all, but I'd say random domestic terrorism is much more likely than an all-out civil war.

I agree. A civilian uprising would be quickly crushed by America's domestic spy apparatus, militarized police and regular military.

[Powers]

It's not ideal to return to the violence of 60's or earlier though.

[Nanotechandmorefuture]

The Pentagon is far too powerful for a realistic "civil war" type scenario to take place within America. The only way it would logically happen is if there were a split within the U.S. military itself, and they really are the key factors in any such conflict. You also have to consider the geography of the country, which really doesn't lend itself well to battle lines being drawn.

A fat boomer riding with shotgun on a scooter versus a triggered multi-dyed haired liberal at Starbucks is not a civil war. That's just a domestic dispute. Even if every single armed militia banded together to form an American styled Isis, they'd still get bodied very hard by the Pentagon and deep pocketed defense contractors.

Not saying that there is no threat at all, but I'd say random domestic terrorism is much more likely than an all-out civil war.

I agree. A civilian uprising would be quickly crushed by America's domestic spy apparatus, militarized police and regular military.

Not sure why they put a woman. I have been hearing this since 2000s and supposedly it started in the 1990s.

A real civil war involves the government too. You sound European so not a surprise. The civilian stuff will be an issue because if the situation is drastic enough government employees will join in. You already see the nonsense between different races of people with police and civilian not being so rough on each other or per ethnicity. So yeah it would be a mess for all. That will not end well and would probably be worse for government employees because Bob who no one likes in whatever agency they are in the Federal Government will be in danger when the people working there realize there are issues.

People are affected as it is by natural disasters and something like this is not cool so not a focus.

[erowind]

I don't think the US is close to a civil war by virtue that there are no civilian mass organizations capable of such a thing that can influence state power in the US at this time. It's much more likely that the next phase in America's disintegration, should it disintegrate, would be a continued eroding of institutional power and norms alongside a future military junta or a more explicitly obvious oligarchy. Eventually should consumerism continue to remain so potent that people are incapable of mass organization, you'd start to see a gradual organic withdraw of federal, then state, then local government and corporate institutions from strategically unimportant parts of the country leaving them in a condition of limbo where it is unclear how much laws do and don't apply within them in practical terms.

These places overtime would start to resemble stateless zones like in Latin American countries where they could be controlled by gangs, genuine communities, or disparate societies with a myriad of different organizational forms like a scaled up Slab City that isn't in the desert.

There are a few different scenarios going forward.

Either, the ecological crises starts to be addressed and America recovers institutionally and things go on as "normal." Life would still change drastically, but the oligarchy would remain in control and only practical life for everyday people would change. Consumerism still largely dies in this scenario as there simply isn't enough cheap energy to maintain it.

The ecological crises isn't addressed by this form of the American state and public unrest eventually forces a revolution which creates a government that does address it.

The ecological crises isn't addressed by this government and for whatever reason American culture can't form a revolution meaning that things just gradually keep getting worse until the government collapses entirely and the future looks like the ending of that old TV special 2100.

Personally I think scenarios 1 and 2 are more likely at this time. Scenario 3 could happen even if other countries do well and do improve the global situation. American culture during America's decline as a super power could just implode and enter a dark age for a time and other countries aren't exactly going to have the resources to do much about it given their own crises they'll be struggling with. Imagine what the collapse of the Soviet Union would have looked like if there were no other strong countries around it that influenced the formation of a new government and economic system.

I think the point over government institutions staving off revolt are secondary. The police can't control a civil population in revolt at a certain mass, and the army is made up of normal people who would be under pressure mostly like everyone else. Just like how the palace guards let the masses into the Winter Palace in 1917 American soldiers likewise wouldn't want to shoot their own friends and families if things got bad enough.

[Vakanai]

I kind of want the conservative states to try it just so we can finally declare the Republican party the terrorist organization it is and end Fox News and other propaganda networks pretending to be news.