Thread by @RadioFreeTom

The people who talk about a "civil war" and independence from the USA have no real idea what it would mean and don't really want it. They want their lives as they live them now, but with some sense that they've settled scores with people who look down on them. /1

They don't really want to know what life would be like without the US infrastructure. They want everything they have now, but with some sort of authority figure who says "It's okay to be terrible. We went and hurt those other folks. Oh, and here's some cash for your pain."
/2

Now, I suppose there are people who are just too stupid to understand that "secession" means "You have to fix all the highways that have that blue shield on them," and "you'll have to use MAGA Bucks instead of the dollar," but most of them really aren't that stupid. /3

They mean "Civil War" as "I want approval to advocate terrorizing people I think are judging me."
These same people, of course, *relentlessly* judge their own fellow citizens and think of them as monsters. Their "equality" is limited to "equality for people like me." /4

Their anger is especially hot now because they've found - as the rest of us warned them - that winning in 2016 wouldn't fix anything, and would only show them later that a majority of their fellow citizens do not agree with them and find them...deplorable. /5

At some point, maybe there will be enough broken families and friendships that some of these folks will get off the ledge. Most won't. They will, like their predecessors in 1865 and 1965, go to their graves thinking they were wronged. /6

There is nothing you can do about this except to lower the temperature by not engaging with the same rancor. Be calm, civil, and outvote them.
I wish there were better answers. But this isn't going to change via rational argument or appeals to conscience. /7x