Live data from Hacker News

Half of Americans anticipate a U.S. civil war soon

science.org

131–140 of 445 posts

Re: Half of Americans anticipate a U.S. civil war soon

#131
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A large fraction of people will shoot if someone they deem an authority figure says they have to and gives them a good reason to justify it.

Reference please?

Can you lay out the conditions under which you'll accept references? I've had a lot of issues before where I provide this sort of evidence and the counterparty relentlessly and tediously explains why every single source is either wrong or doesn't meet their arbitrary standards, so I want to be sure this won't be turned into one of those situations.

Re: Half of Americans anticipate a U.S. civil war soon

#132

more than half of americans are unfit for a bar fight let alone a war. I hate to say it but these kinds of surveys are pretty weak. I recall a friend who's a history buff telling me something along the lines of non-professional soldiers often refuse to shoot their firearms, or intentionally miss, because people often don't truly want to kill. A quick google suggests some credibility to this claim[1]. I always try to…

Could be a cyberwar though.

Re: Half of Americans anticipate a U.S. civil war soon

#133
post #56

Source is apparently a preprint (that is, not peer-reviewed) uploaded here: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.15.22277693v... > Participants: Cross-sectional nationwide survey conducted May 13 to June 2, 2022; participants were adult members of the Ipsos KnowledgePanel. 8,620 respondents, but I don't see how they were recruited or how potential bias was accounted for. Given how weird some of the interne…

Hasn't 60% of the population of Texas expected a civil war soon for the last 100 years? And what are those rebel flags all about? It's posturing. Just like all of those surveys that say 50% of tech workers anticipate quitting this year. Nearly all the places that talk about secession are the same states that generate less federal tax revenue than they spend. Which is both why it would be a terrible idea, and why peop…

the whole secession thing blows me away.

I live in Texas and had a couple friends who were on that bandwagon. I asked them had they thought about going toe to toe with the US Marines while bombers are over Austin and drones over everywhere else. All i got back was silence. The union will be preserved at any cost, there's precedent for that. No state will secede without defeating the US military first.

Re: Half of Americans anticipate a U.S. civil war soon

#135
post #109

I dunno about civil war, but I'm increasingly convinced the US is a failing state. Capital owners in a variety of sectors are siphoning off public money while paying next to no taxes. The introduction of unlimited money in political campaigns, the minoritarian rule by conservatives. Increasing theocracy and dissolution of church and state separation... Just to name a few things. As a Canadian all of these things are…

>Increasing theocracy and dissolution of church and state separation

Can you give an example of this?

Re: Half of Americans anticipate a U.S. civil war soon

#136

Not convinced at all that civil war is likely to happen. But then again, I probably would've said the same about Russia invading Ukraine at the start of the year. Part of me thinks this is the result of countless foreign adverserial brainworms slowly trying to push Americans over the edge. Do you have plans if civil war were to break out? The dark part of me thinks it would be interesting to see how a modern civil wa…

Russia invaded Ukraine under the table back in 2014 and full on invaded Georgia in 2008. There was actual clear precedence for that scenario being realistic.

Re: Half of Americans anticipate a U.S. civil war soon

#138

Civil war, for what? Every time I see this mentioned, I think, "for what?"

A critically flawed vote tallying mechanism entrenching a catastrophically polarized two party machine.

A rise of fascism and a rural urban divide. A lack of trust in fundamental roles of government. A federal judiciary that abdicated their role to check legislatures against undemocratic structure. A potential ruling in Moore v. Harper that would allow state legislatures to literally, blatantly and without any check on power dispose of a representative government.

I don't want a civil war, I want radical reforms at every level of government which put faith back into the function of government and the will of the people. I'm ready for cities in fascist states like my home state of Texas to blatantly disregard immoral state regulations and become city-states. And in the face of right wing extremist protests and feckless law enforcement, I think the left wing should arm themselves.

Re: Half of Americans anticipate a U.S. civil war soon

#139
post #42

Civil war, for what? Every time I see this mentioned, I think, "for what?"

The voting system in the US (FPTP) is fundamentally unfair. Combine with post-red-map gerrymandering, it is becoming obvious even to the people "on the wings" that our election system fundamentally disenfranchises large swathes of the population. As a short hand, think "Democrats and Independents in red states" and "Republicans and Independants in blue states". Being disenfranchised sucks . The system is designed to…

[deleted]

Re: Half of Americans anticipate a U.S. civil war soon

#140
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was the last one for? “States’ rights”?

The civil war happened because the abolition of slavery threatened the wealth and power of Southern elites. It was about wealth. I just don't see a similar situation right now.

> I just don't see a similar situation right now

The flight of capital to the most productive and/or cosmopolitan locations (domestically and globally) and the increase in immigrant representation in positions of influence threatens the cultural centrality of the part of society that has traditionally occupied it, and they would like to have that status restored any way possible.

Does that outweigh the tremendous destruction (and loss to everyone) that would ensue? Perhaps not. Depends what enough people think they have to lose.

Post reply on HN