Posted by:
anybody
(
)
Date: July 26, 2021 04:27AM
Over the course of human history, more nations are torn apart by internal division than by external threats:
https://andrewmtanner.medium.com/fourth-america-is-almost-over-americans-want-a-divorce-9367a5d50df7Most of you are decades older than I am. My version of "normal" is probably very different than than yours. People born after 1980 have experienced several massive economic downturns in their lives, most have never worked for the same company for more than two to five years, do not own a home, constantly move for work or other economic reasons, have massive student debt loads, and consider themselves fortunate if they own their own vehicle. Many are unemployed or underemployed with advanced degrees in low wage jobs. Economic success today is driven by specific knowledge in technical fields. Gone are the days when when companies wanted eager, intelligent, well-rounded young people they could train for any given job. Nowadays, everyone is disposable.
Due to curmstance and life, I've lived most of my life in the zone between rural red state America and urban America -- first amongst Evangelicals and then Mormons. Cites were places I would visit, but not reside in. In my lifetime, I've seen the rise of multimillion-dollar megachuches and louder and louder calls for christian dominionist theocratic rule. Racist appeals once thought of as extremist nonsense out of books like "The Turner Diaries" or "The Camp Of The Saints" are now commonplace on "conservative" media outlets. Things are so bad now than many so-called "christans" take pride in not vaccinating themselves against a deadly airborne virus and continue deny its existence even as they lay dying on their deathbeds —- as many doctors and nurses have said recently. I won't even mention the absurdity of people who have lost their homes or had their lives destroyed by extreme weather events driven by anthropogenic climate change and still reject that it exists.
When you have a situation where many young people are well educated, can't get ahead, have no faith in the future or believe that it's being stolen from them or believe in things their elders deny, reject, or refuse to accept, that spells revolution. Things Change. You can't force people to live as they did fifty or sixty years ago just because you think that it's "godly" or "right." Bad things don't happen to you or anyone else because a black man is married a white woman, or a woman is married to a woman, or a man is married to a man. People born in the 21st century simply don't care about who sleeps with whom or what genitals they have or what colour they are. The 1950s ended a long time ago.
All of these very loud (and very noisy and theatrical) attempts to try and turn back time will fail. Attempts to install fascist, theocratic rule will not succeed either. America is not Iran or Afghanistan. But America is awash with guns, and there are lot of hot-headed people who simply can't see themselves living in a secular multiracial democracy as non-dominant equal citizens. White nationalist christofascist terrorism is the greatest internal security threat our nation has faced since the Civil War. Unlike 1861-65, the situation we face is more like 1990s Yugoslavia -- and that was very, very bloody indeed. If they keep amping up the extremist rhetoric, things are going to get out of control —— just as they did not so long ago in Rwanda.
So that's why I'm afraid.
Very afraid.
I read "The Handmaid's Tale" in high school, and it's a work of fiction.
I don't want to see it happen in real life.