# "Half of Americans anticipate a U.S. civil war soon, survey finds" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 21, 2022, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-americans-anticipate-a-u-s-civil-war-soon-survey-finds/968314 "2022-07-21T12:49:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Jay\_Z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Jay\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay_Z)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2022, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-americans-anticipate-a-u-s-civil-war-soon-survey-finds/968314/161 "2022-07-25T21:35:08Z")
There may be a problem with a terror campaign. “Wow, someone shot up a school, it’s time to crack down.” The school and other shootings aren’t getting any government reaction because of 2A issues. So that crackdown never happens, what then? ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2022, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-americans-anticipate-a-u-s-civil-war-soon-survey-finds/968314/162 "2022-07-25T21:50:04Z")
> [@Jay\_Z](#): > > someone shot up a school We are failing to respond by making systemic changes that decrease the risk of mass shootings. When mass shootings occur, we _do_ respond by going after the perpetrator. If “a large group of Proud Boys” or whoever commit a terrorist act, they will be pursued, unless those in power are condoning the action. Our proactive responses tend to be authoritarian things like making everybody take their shoes off to get on a plane. So, if there is a huge rise in organized terrorism, I expect a violent response by any in power that are not aligned with the terrorists, and regardless of who is in power, a limiting of rights and freedoms in the name of safety. The limitation of rights and freedoms will also be a big power grab by whoever happens to be in power. See the Patriot Act for an example. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2022, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-americans-anticipate-a-u-s-civil-war-soon-survey-finds/968314/163 "2022-07-25T23:44:58Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > That could devolve into martial law, and suspension of rights, which upsets more people, leading to an even bigger crackdown. If it gets bad enough, it will mean Apache helicopters and attack drones responding to events, even if not in real time. … > > It’s these differences in responses that I see moving a terror campaign into civil war territory. Armed and organized government groups deciding to follow different instructions, eventually leading to direct confrontations. Yep, that’s kind of how I think it will evolve. By the time the military gets involved full-scale, American civil society will have pretty much collapsed, and it will just be a mess. No clear sides, no clear goals, just one atrocity after another. And no one knows how it will end, even if a lot of people think they do. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2022, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-americans-anticipate-a-u-s-civil-war-soon-survey-finds/968314/164 "2022-07-25T23:49:58Z")
> [@Jay\_Z](#): > > There may be a problem with a terror campaign. “Wow, someone shot up a school, it’s time to crack down.” The school and other shootings aren’t getting any government reaction because of 2A issues. So that crackdown never happens, what then? Such a crackdown hasn’t happened yet, because we’re still in the “Lone gunman, mental health problems, no one could have foreseen this” stage. When it stops being one isolated racist asshole, and becomes organized groups of racist assholes, or really any other organized groups, things will change. We’ve already seen groups of men with guns occupying State legislatures, with the stated intent of intimidating politicians into doing their bidding. How would things have gone if some of those guys had decided to actually start shooting, instead of just acting tough? That’s the kind of thing we’re likely to see in the next few years, unless something really dramatic happens to change the narrative for a whole lot of people in the US. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2022, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-americans-anticipate-a-u-s-civil-war-soon-survey-finds/968314/165 "2022-07-26T01:46:27Z")
And when Americans are distracted fighting each other for little reason or benefit, then **mighty Canada** is waiting to pounce. Unfortunately, that might just involve a lot of apologizing and (inaccurate, due to different units) comments about weak beer. Someone might get called a hoser, eh? ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2022, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-americans-anticipate-a-u-s-civil-war-soon-survey-finds/968314/166 "2022-07-26T02:05:09Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Unfortunately, that might just involve a lot of apologizing and (inaccurate, due to different units) comments about weak beer. Someone might get called a hoser, eh? Good, good, you’re already falling for our trickery. ---
**Author:** ![Ssounder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@Ssounder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ssounder)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2022, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-americans-anticipate-a-u-s-civil-war-soon-survey-finds/968314/167 "2022-07-26T02:31:38Z")
Could get interesting. “_Let the Rockets Red Glare_” in the land of the severe drought and home of the cult. There won’t be enough Firefighters (especially in small .gov enclaves) to stop the inferno that awaits once a hostile firefight lights the tinder. Cities and urban areas will have the upper hand on containment. They also have the edge in ports and distribution centers, so re-supply is somewhat more available. -Things might not play out the way the current narrative suggests… ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2022, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-americans-anticipate-a-u-s-civil-war-soon-survey-finds/968314/168 "2022-07-26T02:42:49Z")
> [@Ssounder](#): > > -Things might not play out the way the current narrative suggests… This is almost certainly true. My money is that the weeny left will be prepared to hunker down more than credited and the patriotic right will lose their will to oppose faced by somebody with better armaments is prepared to fire back. ---
**Author:** ![Ssounder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@Ssounder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ssounder)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2022, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-americans-anticipate-a-u-s-civil-war-soon-survey-finds/968314/169 "2022-07-26T03:22:18Z")
Proud boys hero will need to abandon his combat post and get back to his bug out location (BOL) to rescue his girlfriend and kids from the fire. I’ve been following survival forums for years. They mostly plan to Bug out to remote locations with no people. Low density rural country is a lower priority for resources than urban populations. Their resources are inferior due to their mistrust of .gov, Sometime you reap what you sow… ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2022, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-americans-anticipate-a-u-s-civil-war-soon-survey-finds/968314/170 "2022-07-26T03:29:58Z")
> [@Ssounder](#): > > hey mostly plan to Bug out to remote locations with no people. This should be encouraged. Logistically complicated to conduct a guerilla war against the state using your personal cache of small arms if you are in a region with no people. ---
**Author:** ![Ssounder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@Ssounder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ssounder)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2022, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-americans-anticipate-a-u-s-civil-war-soon-survey-finds/968314/171 "2022-07-26T04:01:27Z")
Yep. So your 10K+ rounds help feed the fire. And nobody can get safely close enough to stop it. I don’t know. People are way out there, including family, friends and neighbors. We live in interesting times. History is being written. I feel thankful to be alive to witness it, but cringing at the low bar of humanity. I’ve always told my friends and family: “There’s only one earth. So we gotta learn to get along globally or we are doomed as a species”. I’m not seeing any progress toward towards a shared global vision between influential countries. On the contrary, it seems that we value profit over humanity. “_While My Guitar Gently Weeps_”… ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2022, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-americans-anticipate-a-u-s-civil-war-soon-survey-finds/968314/172 "2022-07-26T11:11:54Z")
Too add more grist for the mill some are quite publicly calling for violence: > **[Steve Bannon Calls On '4,000 Shock Troops' To 'Deconstruct' Government 'Brick...](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/steve-bannon-shock-troops-deconstructing-government-brick-by-brick_n_62df1131e4b0aad58d1e13ca)** > > He's back with more incendiary rhetoric against the nation just days after his contempt of Congress conviction. From that article: > Fresh from a [double contempt of Congress conviction](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jury-reaches-verdict-steve-bannon-jan-6_n_62dac530e4b000da23ffb404) linked to his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, [Steve Bannon](https://www.huffpost.com/news/topic/steve-bannon) is now calling on “4,000 shock troops” to [“deconstruct” the federal government “brick by brick.”](https://listen.warroom.org/episode-2026-trumps-revenge-the-deconstruction-of-administrative-state-action-plan-recession-is-here-the-math-lavrov-says-zelensky-must-go) FWIW his is not a small podcast at all. [Twitter and YouTube Banned Steve Bannon. Apple Still Gives Him Millions of Listeners.](https://www.propublica.org/article/twitter-and-youtube-banned-steve-bannon-apple-still-gives-him-millions-of-listeners) According to [this](https://www.newsweek.com/steve-bannon-trial-podcast-boost-peter-navarro-1726360) his podcast has been ranked as high as the 44th most popular in the country and it has comfortably stayed in the top 100. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2022, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-americans-anticipate-a-u-s-civil-war-soon-survey-finds/968314/173 "2022-07-26T13:08:45Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Too add more grist for the mill some are quite publicly calling for violence: I hope it adds more grist to the mill for him to get 2 years instead of 2 months. ---
**Author:** ![Ssounder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@Ssounder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ssounder)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2022, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-americans-anticipate-a-u-s-civil-war-soon-survey-finds/968314/174 "2022-07-27T00:51:58Z")
-Should have said BOL with few people. Having said that, My point was that cities will be easier to defend than rural. And one other thing: If foreign country’s decide to back their favorite cause, arms will be pouring into the US similar to other skirmishes around the world in recent memory. If you haven’t purchased your AR/AK yet, don’t fret. Pick a side and they will buy one for you… ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2022, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-americans-anticipate-a-u-s-civil-war-soon-survey-finds/968314/175 "2022-07-27T01:16:42Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > Let’s say Biden (or some other Dem) pulls off a win in 2024. And then a large group of Proud Boys decide to re-enact something like the [Tulsa Massacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_massacre). They find some relatively isolated community with a large population of people they hate, and arrange for an armed mob of racists to storm the community, kill as many people as they can in an hour or two, and then disperse into the surrounding areas. How exactly would the US military respond to that? I don’t see that happening. The 1960s Civil Rights era saw the once-feared power of the Ku Klux Klan emasculated. The armed radical right dwindled to a tiny handful of nuts like the self-styled Posse Comitatus and “survivalists” building bunkers in the woods; or even more pathetically, prison gangs like the Aryan Brotherhood. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies have become very good at planting informants into such groups, and on the rare occasion they do start to plan something they get busted pronto. Occasionally similar groups have public rallies or other demonstrations which invariably reveal that they are scorned by the populace at large and that the “faithful” will just have to crawl back in their holes and wait longer. The only way I see conservative and rightist people taking up arms in a big way would be in reaction to a perceived assault on them. ---
**Author:** ![Ssounder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@Ssounder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ssounder)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2022, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-americans-anticipate-a-u-s-civil-war-soon-survey-finds/968314/176 "2022-07-27T01:31:24Z")
“T_he only way I see conservative and rightist people taking up arms in a big way would be in reaction to a perceived assault on them_”. Oh, the thing they accuse the left of everyday? Joe: _Come on Man!_ ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2022, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-americans-anticipate-a-u-s-civil-war-soon-survey-finds/968314/177 "2022-07-27T02:20:23Z")
> [@Ssounder](#): > > Proud boys hero will need to abandon his combat post and get back to his bug out location (BOL) to rescue his girlfriend and kids from the fire. I’ve been following survival forums for years. They mostly plan to Bug out to remote locations with no people. Yeah. I had Survival training, and I have watched all of Alone. They ain’t gonna make it. Survival training teaches you to stay alive and mostly healthy- until the rescue comes. ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2022, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-americans-anticipate-a-u-s-civil-war-soon-survey-finds/968314/178 "2022-07-27T02:33:30Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > The FBI and other law enforcement agencies have become very good at planting informants into such groups, and on the rare occasion they do start to plan something they get busted pronto I follow your logic and am comforted by it … with one codicil: > [@Morris Tolliver - West Wing](#): > > In the event of a military coup, Sir, what makes you think the Secret Service is going to be on your side? > [@President Josiah Bartlet](#): > > [pause] Now that’s a thought that’s going to fester. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2022, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-americans-anticipate-a-u-s-civil-war-soon-survey-finds/968314/179 "2022-07-27T12:26:04Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > The only way I see conservative and rightist people taking up arms in a big way would be in reaction to a perceived assault on them. The conservatives and rightist people are really big at perceiving assaults upon them for everything. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2022, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-americans-anticipate-a-u-s-civil-war-soon-survey-finds/968314/180 "2022-07-27T14:02:33Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > The conservatives and rightist people are really big at perceiving assaults upon them for everything. What though. What assaults on them do they perceive? That same sex people can marry? Doesn’t affect them. That woman have the right to choose? Doesn’t affect them. That people want to feel safe in schools and when out of their house? As a gun owner, I’ll say it may affect certain fetishes of the right. Nobody, no how is going to take all their guns away. Can’t be done. Ironic really. It’s the ‘left’ that are having their rights taken away. The right is welcome to use those rights or not as they please. But, nooooo, we can’t have anyone doing anything that their screwed up philosophies perceive as wrong. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-americans-anticipate-a-u-s-civil-war-soon-survey-finds/968314.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-americans-anticipate-a-u-s-civil-war-soon-survey-finds/968314.md?page=10)