We need everyone to stop feeding into it

you have too much faith in the FBI. it's easy to stop some a lone moron like cesar sayoc (even though he managed to send 15 devices before they caught him). but it'll be impossible if you dozens or hundreds of even halfway competent people doing it.

I don't believe they can stop everyone, but they are working to stop what they can

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Marathon_bombing> these two guys shut down a major city for days.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing I know

i don't think we're past the point of no return quite yet, but we can very easily tip into a self-sustaining cycle of retributive violence that outstrips the ability of authorities to control.

Agreed

I'm not denying that

I'm just maintaining the winner of such a conflict, regardless of which side "wins", will be China

and like the man said, never let a crisis go to waste. i expect every post-modernist political operative to try to exploit the violence of others for their own political gain *exactly like we're seeing right now*

some nutbar who didn't even like trump shoots up a synagogue and it is **immediately** used as ammunition to attack trump

The thing is, there are 400 million guns in the US and most of them are owned by one side. If it turned into a conflict rather than random acts of terror it would be over very quickly. It won't be Gov vs the people it will be civy on civy.

like spooky said, it depends. since there will not be any large scale conventional military action, the destruction of capital and infrastructure will be minimal. the political victors would solidify power and the overall industrial output of the nation would not diminish much at first.

Yes, Spooky, but again, what would be left?

whichever side is willing to be the most ruthless and brutal the fastest will eliminate the majority of the other side's leadership and seize power.

And the subjugated would just acquiesce and keep producing happily?

The US without Cali

Do you really think the US would just keep chugging along?

yep

Or are we talking enslaving half the country?

people want to keep their heads down and avoid violence. the regular people in afghanistan wouldn't say a damned thing to us when the taliban was squatting in their village because they knew they'd be horrifically murdered.

Britain did while it was having bombs dropped on it from space. Worlers went on strike, women protested.

This isn't Afghanistan

yet

Who would want it to be?

Cat, I honestly think that if it went hot like you think the Right would show up armed to the teeth, the Left would get their asses handed to them and would very quickly stop. Their wouldn't be any planes in the sky, bombing factories.

The Left are running on mob rule right now. Might makes right style. If the Right decided to do the same they would win very quickly.

For utopians, the ends justify the means. If the end is a perfect utopia where none suffer and everyone is equal, and that utopia will last *for ever* for all the billions of people to come, then utopians will think themselves not only justified but righteous to make any sacrifice in the present. See the hundred million bodies laid at the altar of Marx.

But what of those on the left who have reason to believe it would be an existential fight? There's half the country who feel strongly about *something* to be voting Democrat.

The right will never 'show up armed to the teeth'

Okay, let's step back here a bit. What exactly would the "armed to the teeth right" be imposing? What would they all universally agree to be fighting for and against?

but nowhere near half that would be willing to die for it.

Never. First of all they're generally staunch individualists, and the more heavily armed they are the more individualist. So they'll never, ever organize or work together. You'll have a hundred thousand men sitting in a hundred thousand tiny ammo forts waiting for death never once thinking they could fight together.

Second of all, what would they do, even if they did fight together? The scenario I've put forth is an insurgency. How do you fight that?

Most on the left are not Utopians

The only thing they could conceivably do is reciprocal assassinations, bombings, arson, etc. Which doesn't help them restore any sort of order. It just brings about a different flavor of dictatorship.

Exactly. Left or right. A conflict would result in a dictatorship.

Civil War would be the end of everything all sides hold dear.

Atkins. I envision something like what happened up at that land dispute a few year back. A group of men arm themselves and gaurd what they think is theirs.

Likely, yes. I'm not advocating conflict. I'm just trying to say what it would look like.

That was not far from where I live, Spooky