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A day or so ago, AustonT made the comment that he believes America's headed towards another civil war. At the time, I said that it was unlikely in the extreme, as most of America remains firmly in the center, but the more I've thought about it, the more I'm not so sure.

Our politicians and pundits speak to extremism, on both sides of the aisle; there are no true moderates left in either sphere, at the national level, that I can think of. It doesn't matter who fired the first shot in terms of going beyond the pale, what matters is that once one side did, the other did as well. Extremism begets extremism, if only because the idiocy of the other side gets you angry enough that your own response becomes more aggressive.

How long before the hatred the right has for the left, and the left for the right, boils over into an actual conflict, if it ever does? Having witnessed two separate political shouting matches that barely avoided getting physical this week, between people who did not know each other, and who were just buying groceries mere minutes before they started, I'm inclined to wonder if it might be sooner than we all think.

If gak hits the fan all of the dakkites should form a colony and wargame while all of the other maniacs blow themselves up and get shot.

It would be quite funny to see the country that is obsessed with freedom, democracy and peace tear itself apart in civil war.

If it does happen I'm going on a chick cruise in Tokyo to celebrate. Cuddles for all!


In seriousness, it would be baaaaaaaaaad news.

I wouldn't say it's out of the realm of possibility. I don't know how I would feel if another American wanted to kill me based solely on my beliefs, or ideas on policy. If it came down to it, I'm not sure I could pull the trigger.

I do know one thing though. Rich people are going to be fethed. There's a lot of animosity towards them, which I'd say is well-deserved.

 Bloodfrenzy187 wrote:
If gak hits the fan all of the dakkites should form a colony and wargame while all of the other maniacs blow themselves up and get shot.

I'd like to join, but in proper Southern gentleman tradition, I see myself captaining a blockade runner instead.

To be fair if this happened the death toll and damage would be so massive you could see a truce being made very quickly because it would live america very vunerable to other countries and crime sindicates also with all those troops overseas most likly being called back america would lose its power overnight which would effect the world quite alot especially the middle east.

you are not allowed to have a civil war until I have managed to get there, study and leave.

In all seriousness, I doubt it will ever come to a civil war, way too much riding on Americans remaining united.

Start training up for the "Hunger" Games.

Who are these extremists on both sides? There are quite a few extreme right wingers, the tea party, and the various bible belt crazies. But there are some moderate people in the Republican party, there are plenty moderate people in the Democrats. It says something about the skew in US politics and media that people perceive Obama and the Democrats as extreme in any way, they're not particularly left wing by European standards or many other western countries. They're pretty even actually. No doubt there are some extreme left wing people in the US, but they probably aren't frequently in positions of power like the extreme right, as very far left people don't seem so good at forming coherent political groups, unfortunately. Why you think you're on the brink of civil war is beyond me.

The fear is more-like Obama wins, some tea-nuts go crazy, start using guns to voice their fear and hatred and try/succeed in assainating him, leading to a crackdown which outrages those sympathetic to the tea-nuts and things spiral from there. True civil-war? Very unlikely. Violence or attempted rebellion? Much more likely. Think Wako

We would have to start seeing some political violence tied to one political party or another before we get to a civil war.

Political rhetoric is one thing. Right up until the 11th hour in the 2008 election, Republican and Conservative radio hosts were pleading with their listeners to drag every red blooded American to the polls to avoid socialism, communism, the end of American as we know it, a man with Muslim, black radicalism, church indoctrination, and leftist extremist ties, economic catastrophe, class warfare, social upheaval, and everything else short of the Apocalypse.

So far, very little of that has equated to a string of violence here in America. We still have the lone nutjobs out there, but nothing organized at the level of say what we saw in the '60s and '70s.

Perhaps rhetoric can turn into violence, but until I see that happen, that bridge has yet to be crossed on the path to civil war.

I also support a Dakka Dakka Colony, I mean if all of us got together it would be as big as a small country in europe. Would be funny to be honest.

Think we all be armed though......

Thinking the world (or the country) is coming to an end is an American tradition. We, as a people, tend toward paranoia more then many others in this regard.

I could see a violent Tea Party rebellion, but not a Civil War.

 Bloodfrenzy187 wrote:
If gak hits the fan all of the dakkites should form a colony and wargame while all of the other maniacs blow themselves up and get shot.

Frazzled is not concerned. Frazzled will just declare the Republic of Greater Texas. All enlightened self interested individuals will naturally flock to the banner of the Great Wienie. Soon the states will fall in line and Greater Texas will be born!

Extremist Americans only exist on tv. Actual Americans are decent, polite and good-natured.

Grow up.

 Testify wrote:
Extremist Americans only exist on tv. Actual Americans are decent, polite and good-natured.

Grow up.

Wait, no Greater Texas then? I was all set to redo the maps to change "NY City" to "Northern Abilene."

It's going to take a drastic and extreme event to even get the US close to civil war. The talk of civil war is nothing more than fearmongering.

A civil war would take a lot of effort. Fat people don't have revolutions. America won't revolt.

It only sounds like Extremists outnumber us normal folk because they are louder.

Well, they aren't actually louder- the media just loves to make them artificially important because the media wants the ratings, and talk show hosts keep it going because they love the same kind of attention.

There could be 200 decent people and one arsehole, and the 199 people will hear him/her yelling rhetoric and go "Ohh, somethin' shiny" and watch them. Squeaky wheel gets the grease even if there are 999 other wheels working just fine.

 Melissia wrote:
The talk of civil war is nothing more than fearmongering.

Fearmongering is a copyrighted tactic of the Republican establishment. Any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re-recording will constitute an infringement of copyright.

The last civil war was over an issue of immense importance, a moral conviction that man should not hold man in slavery, and against that was people's livelihoods, a fear of what freed slaves might unleash, and an outrage that people in some other part of the country might dictate laws on a state issue such as slavery.

That's the kind of thing people go to war over. Real, big, important stuff.

Compare that to the current range of key issues, most of which are things people like to think of as very important indeed, but are fairly minor, or downright irrelevant to how people live their lives. I mean yes, the deficit is a big deal, but only a handful of nutters are going to risk their lives over it. A strong safety net is important to people, but I can't see many people leaving their families to take up arms over preserving it.

All we're seeing is people responding to the culture war nonsense that the political parties are using to drive voting among their bases voters, and failing to put that in a sensible context.

 ShumaGorath wrote:
A civil war would take a lot of effort. Fat people don't have revolutions. America won't revolt.

I have to agree with Shuma. This hurts me greatly.

I can't have a proper civil war unless I am fully stocked with Debbie Swiss Cake rations!

 sebster wrote:
The last civil war was over an issue of immense importance, a moral conviction that man should not hold man in slavery, and against that was people's livelihoods, a fear of what freed slaves might unleash, and an outrage that people in some other part of the country might dictate laws on a state issue such as slavery.

That's the kind of thing people go to war over. Real, big, important stuff.

Compare that to the current range of key issues, most of which are things people like to think of as very important indeed, but are fairly minor, or downright irrelevant to how people live their lives. I mean yes, the deficit is a big deal, but only a handful of nutters are going to risk their lives over it. A strong safety net is important to people, but I can't see many people leaving their families to take up arms over preserving it.

All we're seeing is people responding to the culture war nonsense that the political parties are using to drive voting among their bases voters, and failing to put that in a sensible context.

It also doesn't help that there aren't clear territorial lines separating belief systems in the modern US. You can't organize a front when every street corner battles every other. The closest you could have are sectarian power struggles.

 ShumaGorath wrote:
A civil war would take a lot of effort. Fat people don't have revolutions. America won't revolt.

Things do revolve around fat people though.

Just so long as everyone stays off Frazzled's law, else:

A civil war would take a lot of effort. Fat people don't have revolutions. America won't revolt.

If it does happen. Won't take much effort to round them up

Can you please fix your Republican party?

-Signed, your neighbour to the north.

 Howard A Treesong wrote:
Who are these extremists on both sides? There are quite a few extreme right wingers, the tea party, and the various bible belt crazies. But there are some moderate people in the Republican party, there are plenty moderate people in the Democrats. It says something about the skew in US politics and media that people perceive Obama and the Democrats as extreme in any way, they're not particularly left wing by European standards or many other western countries. They're pretty even actually. No doubt there are some extreme left wing people in the US, but they probably aren't frequently in positions of power like the extreme right, as very far left people don't seem so good at forming coherent political groups, unfortunately. Why you think you're on the brink of civil war is beyond me.

This. Seriously people, I highly doubt we'll have a civil war. I think a few groups of crazies might band together and try to blow something up, but they will all get tried and sentenced just like always.