“No, I quite approve of terror, arson, murder, any tool that serves the revolution.†– Nicholas and Alexandria
The clock hasn’t moved this month. We remain at a 7 out of 10. The scale is from the first issue (LINK). And generally The Mrs. is ready to go before I am.
- Those who have an opposing ideology are considered evil.
- People actively avoid being near those of opposing ideology. Might move from communities or states just because of ideology.
- Common violence. Organized violence is occurring monthly.
- Opposing sides develop governing/war structures. Just in case.
In this issue: Front Matter – Violence and Censorship Update – It’s All About The Benjamins – Updated Civil War II Index – Who Benefits, Part III? – Links
Front Matter
Welcome to Issue Four of the Civil War II Weather Report. These posts are a bit different than the other material at Wilder Wealthy and Wise and consist of smaller segments covering multiple topics around the single focus of Civil War II, on the first Monday of every month. Issue One is here (Civil War II Weather Report: Spicy Time Coming), Issue Two is here (Civil War Weather Report #2, Censorship, Stalin, and a Bunch of Links), and Issue Three is here (Civil War Weather Report #3: Violence, China, and Lots of Links).
Violence and Censorship Update
Last month when I wrote the Weather Report, the El Paso and Dayton shootings had just happened. I believe I predicted in the comments that El Paso would have legs, while Dayton would quickly be forgotten. It didn’t take Nostradamus to predict that – El Paso was attributed to the Right. Dayton, where a confirmed Satanist Antifa™ member killed bunch of people? We can ignore Dayton. That was just random violence by a good boy who just went a little wrong.
Red Flag laws have been the focus of this month’s activity. I noted in this post (Red Flag Laws, or, How To Repeal The Second Amendment Soviet-Style Without A Pesky Vote) that they would be used inappropriately. Again, I didn’t need to have psychic powers to predict this. I landed on a clickbait story from the Puffington Host (I won’t link to them) about 40 “potential mass shooters†having been arrested since El Paso. Not Dayton, but El Paso. Odessa happened this weekend. Assume if the killer’s ideology doesn’t match the required narrative, it will be forgotten.
Or ever read about it, either.
Most of the arrests have to do with typing things on the Internet or text messages – 28 to be precise. Making a direct threat of violence is illegal. Threatening people is illegal. Making statements in anger is illegal. At this stage as violence escalates, everything that can be interpreted as a threat will be taken as a threat, so don’t type silly things that you don’t mean online. Don’t make threats or anything that could be interpreted as one. Assume that the FBI™ is watching, well, everything.
And if the FBI® isn’t watching something, it’s starting something. At least one of the arrests last month was an FBI© sting. I must assume that some FBI™ sting operations are legitimate, but here’s an example of them doing everything but commit the crime (LINK).
From the story:
“The FBI came and picked him up from our home, they gave him a vehicle, gave him a fake bomb, and every means to make this happen none of which he had access to on his own.â€
The FBI would never, ever . . . never EVER be anything less than filled with integrity, right?
Violence was, sadly, the theme of August. But a secondary theme was censorship. Several large YouTube® channels were deleted without any warning, without having violated any of YouTube’s© rules. I had only heard of one of the deleted channels, and, although the others were reinstated, the one that stayed deleted was the one I watched: James Allsup.
I had listened to a few of his videos on YouTube® – he’s a talented, engaging speaker, and he seemed to have no real controversial views. He had half a million subscribers. After doing some research, I found out he is about 23 years old – I don’t have a full background report on him but it looks like when he was between the ages of 19-21 he was more radical, because we know that 21 year-old kids are the most logical beings. He certainly didn’t get banned for his current videos, which were far from extreme in every sense.
Okay, I’ll admit watching beach volleyball. But only for the articles.
Is a 23 year-old kid getting banned from YouTube™ the end of the world? No, but I think that’s how he was paying the bills. But by staying within YouTube’s® rules, he had to research the other side, had to understand the alternatives, and his continued participation in YouTube©, following their rules, no doubt moderated a more youthful radical message. Allsup will keep pushing a message out – he’s articulate and relatable, but now the message will untethered by rules. The message will cease to be moderated.
Censorship and alienation is a great way to manufacture radicals. Radicals are a great way to increase polarization.
It’s All About The Benjamins
Prosperity has been the real religion of the United States for at least five decades. As commenters have noted, as long as people have rivers of Ruffles®, prodigious PEZ™ and never-ending Netflix©, people won’t join the FaceBook® “Let’s Overthrow America†page. There have been times and places where people have risen up because of principle (think: 1776) but the biggest drivers are empty bellies. Or being French. They appear to have a revolution because the Internet was out for two hours last Thursday. And don’t ever try to keep the French away from cigarettes.
As Matt Bracken pointed out, EBT cards ceasing to function will bring conflict in short order. But that’s not the only path – financial destitution of the middle class would manage in short order as well.
The current levels of debt in the country have increased significantly since 2008, and the types of debt have changed as well. Student loan debt and auto loan debt has now become three times larger than credit card debt. In a downturn, when people can’t pay back for the $72,000 in student loans they took out for the B.Sc. degree in Backhair Management of Starbucks© Customers? When the $68,340 MSRP 2019 4×4 Ram® pickup with Megacabâ„¢ and the Cummins© diesel engine gets repossessed and they can’t drive to the job they have making PowerPoints® for Uberâ„¢? Yeah, that’s bad. Soon enough, they can’t afford the apartment. Then? With bad credit there are tons of jobs they won’t ever qualify for.
They also have a medal for having to deal with bearded hipsters who want more soy and will send a wicked text with mean emojis if it’s not PERFECT.Â
As long as there is physical food, the Federal government can distribute it, EBT cards or not. But once the middle class gets forced into destitution, and middle class mothers tell middle class fathers that they need to stock up on ammunition as well as canned soup?
People will put up with a lot as long as they have food. People will put up with a lot as long as they have hope. As Janis Joplin said in the second most insightful line in rock history: “Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose.â€Â I guess my version of “No Netflix® is just another word for nothin’ left to lose†sounds a bit silly by comparison.
Given our current polarization, and with violence springing up regularly when times are good, I tend to think that the younger generation doesn’t see a way forward, doesn’t see prosperity as an option. They feel that they have nothing left to lose.
Updated Civil War II Index
Economic: +1.78 last month, +4.43 this month. Plus is good. Unemployment is slightly up (my proxy number, since the official number isn’t out yet) – interest rates were significantly down, and the Dow was only slightly down. Despite my prediction that we had seen the market top three months ago, it keeps going up, and overall economic conditions keep improving. So, yay? We can have prosperity forever?
Political Instability: +10% last month, -13% this month. As we get closer to the election, I would anticipate that political instability will continue to decrease as focus goes on to the candidates and away from tearing down the systems.
Interest in Violence: +13% this month, compared to +8% last month. This is a smaller increase than I expected. A related metric showed a big peak after El Paso, dropping nearly immediately.
Illegal Aliens: Down 26% last month to 82,000. That sounds great, but two months ago was the highest ever at 144,000. Down is good. For perspective, last year it was 40,000. There is no good news in this category.
There is the possibility of graphs next month, since we’ve gotten some data over time now. And with graphs come girls in bikinis, right?
Who cares what’s on the graph, right?
Who Benefits, Part III?
The far Left. Any situation that creates chaos is a benefit to the Left – it did during the French Revolution. It did during the Russian Revolution. The Left thrives on chaos. In the words of The Mrs., no people has ever said, “Political repression, food lines, and random secret police raids at 3AM? Sign me up for that!â€Â Leftism can show up slowly, through corrosion of society, but for Leftism to stick? Nothing beats the chaos of a war.
Never let a crisis go to waste, right?
Links
This is a fairly video-heavy set of links, so make sure that your VCR is ready to go:
From Thinker: a multi-part video documentary on the Yugoslavian breakup. I’ve started, but not finished this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDADy9b2IBM
From Ricky: What have we learned about Dayton? Oh, yeah, Satanist Antifa Sanders supporter. (LINK) (LINK)
And also from Quora (LINK), and Forward Observer (LINK), and Prospect (LINK), and an unusually sober idea from Vox ().
From 173dVietVet:
The Hunt, a movie specifically about Leftists killing people on the Right – 173 was the first place I heard this from – and they have delayed the release of the movie, probably until November, 2020? (LINK)
From Average Joe, With Memes:
A batch about increasing violence, and how technology might be employed in novel ways for objectives.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qe4-7IgMbsg
https://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/65tc12/sargons_this_week_in_stupid_16042017_with_main/
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z0MaGON-gQg
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=50UACEQOe4E
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vw9zyxm860Q
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3aZuj_SDqDo
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=O_ldHq3NzC0
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=muoR8Td44UE
From readers over at The Burning Platform:
TC adds this from John Mark – I have started listening to it.
Martel’s Hammer suggests Radio Free Redoubt (LINK).
Shinmen Takezo is the person who first suggested John Mark back at Issue 1, adds this video to the list (LINK).
https://youtu.be/HofChFv_MKc
Civil war, political front: In next year’s presidential election, each voter will have to make a choice.
A) Trump – delaying tactic to give us more time to prep as the Left grows ever more powerful and millions more illegals flood across the border.
B) The craziest Democrat possible – turn up the heat as fast as possible so the frog jumps out of the pot before it cooks.
It is a sign of the times that these are the logical choices.
Yeah, right? If anyone would have made a movie about 2019 in 1989, it would have been labeled as a parody. So, at least we get amusement.
“People will put up with a lot as long as they food.”
Like Soylent Green?
I fixed the typo. Grr.
And Soylent Green is people. Tasty, crispy people.
A barometer I use is interest in attending local government meetings. Most are not riveting. When they become exciting, that’s probably a bad thing.
I went to a local one a few weeks back. Snoozefest. You’re right – a good thing.
“It rubs the lotion on it’s skin or it gets the Chemo again” FUNNY! I want the T Shirt. But that’s not Doctor school. That’s Nursing school. The Md.’s just wright the orders. The Nursing staff delivers the pain. I don’t understand what you mean in this installment. Are you saying that it is time to go underground? Or have we been so defeated that we should just stop using , or defending our civil rights, and peacefully surrender? Because if you cannot use your civil rights openly, and without fear. You no longer have any. Is that the point? Because if none of the young and healthy are going to fight to defend our GOD GIVEN freedoms. Then the rest is over. There is only one political party. Voting for ether “party” is not buying time. It is hiding under the bed waiting for someone to save you. Y’all might as well stop buying G&A and “prepping” The government can take your stash at will. You will do nothing to resist. So why bother?, and why waist time and money you could lavish on your kids in the few month left until you are disarmed and forced to get on the train to the camps? This is not how you win. It is not even how you survive. It is how you wind up behind a wall Fighting to save the last two or three children that haven’t already been taken to the gas. (See Warsaw Poland 1943 and 1944. That’s what happens when “red flag” is allowed to happen without violent resistance.)
I’m thinking about t-shirts! We’ll see.
Yes, the erosion of rights is scary, and continuing. But I’m going to keep typing. And surrender isn’t how I’m wired. Words can change the world – look at the Declaration.
Sigh. I am sure that by researching this stuff I am getting on some kind of Google / NSA watchlist. Oh, well…
When it comes to SHTF, I still think that Bartertown / Mad Max, maybe initially under National / State level martial law, is more likely than a true Civil War once the electricity / gasoline / food network crashes. I just can’t see how revolutionary left vs. right military armed resistance can get organized on a national level when Twitter goes down. But if it does happen, it seems like gonna start with Oath Keepers / 3 %…
https://www.revealnews.org/article/inside-hate-groups-on-facebook-police-officers-trade-racist-memes-conspiracy-theories-and-islamophobia/
https://www.revealnews.org/article/the-american-militia-movement-a-breeding-ground-for-hate-is-pulling-in-cops-on-facebook/
https://www.revealnews.org/article/american-cops-have-openly-engaged-in-islamophobia-on-facebook-with-no-penalties/
Yeah, The Mrs. said that to me a decade ago. But then again she’s a fiction writer and her search history probably has more scary things than either of us have.