The Audacious Epigone on American disunity:
This nation no longer makes sense. Inertia, economic convenience, and a large enough tax base to run a global empire are the only things holding this carcass of a country together. […] How the political dissolution will occur is anyone’s guess — probably along currently existing state boundaries, though that needn’t necessarily be the case. What seems clear, though, is that it’s time — past time — for secession.
ADDED: UK version.
This again:
Shockingly large decline (cohort) in Americans who think democracy is essential https://t.co/bPwHPVwGAq Plus rise in liking authoritarianism pic.twitter.com/9kXW0pOSIu
— Nicholas Christakis (@NAChristakis) July 21, 2017
David French at NRO (wait, it’s good):
Our national political polarization is by now so well established that the only real debate is over the nature of our cultural, political, and religious conflict. Are we in the midst of a more or less conventional culture war? Are we, as Dennis Prager and others argue, fighting a kind of “cold” civil war? Or are we facing something else entirely? […] I’d argue that we face “something else,” and that something else is more akin to the beginning stages of a national divorce than it is to a civil war.
Also this:
The Internet brings all of human knowledge to our smartphones, but rather than using it as a tool for outreach and understanding, we’re using it to find and live with people just like us. In other words, we’re sorting.
And:
A civil war results when the desire for unification and domination overrides the desire for separation and self-determination. …] … I don’t believe a civil-war mentality will save America. There are simply too many differences and too many profound disagreements for one side or the other to exercise true political dominance. Red won’t beat blue in the same way that blue beat gray. Adopt the civil-war mentality and you’ll only hasten a potential divorce.
We’re getting there.
There’s a gold-mine here.
There’s simply no way on earth that Silicon Valley is in the right place. Something has to give.
Yes, the United States is undergoing a triple-pronged dysgenic process.
The only serious questions are about speed.
The venerable Linda Gottfredson on intelligence & socioeconomic success & why its important to pay attention to this https://t.co/3jZ62Q3vCL pic.twitter.com/sOdAg6dk64
— Brian Boutwell (@fsnole1) April 27, 2017
Post-smug politics:
One of the most arresting aspects of the start of the Trump era is that nearly everyone, regardless of their political persuasion, seems convinced that their side is losing.
Perhaps because the thing that’s winning is unrecognizable? Partly its the rise of China, partly its Capital phase-transition, and partly its the messy stage of collapse. In any case, it looks like the signature of the Outside.
More game theory from Fernandez:
It will inevitably occur to someone that the advantage in an escalation trap belongs to the side which cares about America less since there is no point at which it will desist for pity’s sake.
This is how things get cold.
(I’ve adjusted the emphasis from the original, since it looked glitched to me. Apologies if I made a bad call.)
Here‘s the public (Twitter) record, compiled in chronological order from May 2013. Not much indication of ambiguity.
If a nose-dive back into neoconservative meddling follows from this, it’s hard to see what could ever count as a credible commitment again. Anything not on a blockchain will be senseless noise.
ADDED: Things are getting stupid quickly.