A civil war is a battle for control over the centralized authority by competing parties. In this way, no real civil war takes place "in the streets." A civil war takes place at the highest levels of military, bureaucratic, and symbolic power.
https://twitter.com/TheAntiPCProf/status/1304553297529974784
What we're seeing today in the streets of Portland etc. is quite nasty, and might last a long time, even after the election. But the nature of social media leads us to, falsely, believe that the whole country is descending into violence and chaos. It's not.
More important, both the central and local governments are allowing the chaos to occur, for their own reasons. Both entities could snuff out Antifa, the Proud Boys, OathKeepers, et al. at a moment's notice, if they wanted to. But again, they clearly do not.
The bold talk we hear about "revolution," "civil war," and "chaos" is just that—*bold talk*, pronounced by entities that have no capability of holding power. Antifa and the Proud Boys alike are LARPing revolution, LARPing 20th-century imagery and language they barely understand.
A truly postmodern revolution is the revolution that takes place in social-media space, which is allowed (maybe even administered to a degree) by an existing power structure, and which generates shock and outrage in an audience of content consumers.
Civil War 2.0 *n'existe pas*.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
