The New Civil War Has Already Begun
For all the yammering about a new civil war, Americans don’t seem to realize it’s already begun. It’s not a strictly sectional war like the first one. It’s a modern war, which means it’s being fought by guerrilla and terrorist tactics, and it’s been going on for several years now. Self-styled militias are the guerrilla forces — substitute Idaho for the mountains of Cuba — and these “lone wolf” gun massacres are the equivalent of terrorist bombings the very tactics they condemn Palestinians and other Muslims for. It’s more like The Troubles in Ireland, a constant irritant that right now is spreading and intensifying.
“You don’t want to start a civil war with them, because they have all the guns,” I’m told. I think they believe exactly that, which is why greater numbers of them have decided to start shooting gays, or Hispanics, or Jews or anyone else who isn’t White Like Them. These massacres are mostly not random — gay nightclubs, liberal churches and synagogues, a heavily Latinx festival and a shopping mall in a majority-Latinx city have been among the targets. In some states, mostly in the Northwest, law enforcement personnel are sympathetic to the rebels. That’s why the federal government must be mobilized against this threat from within, and it has to take a firmer stance with than it has with outlaws like the Bundys.
The El Paso killer’s manifesto makes plain his desire to engage in a war to defend the country against immigrants and “race mixing,” and he advocates hitting soft targets — meaning innocent civilians in low-security situations — to further this end. He even tries to preemptively claim that “the media” will identify him as a white supremacist and blame Trump’s rhetoric for radicalizing him. As Josh Marshall says, “The gaslighting is actually baked into the attack itself. He wants to be both the assailant and part of the post-massacre spin and pro-Trump defense.” But except for some garbled passages about genetics, the screed is all too familiar from previous attacks. Given the rhetoric espoused across conservative media, one anti-terrorism expert pointed out that this is precisely how the mullahs inspire suicide attacks in the Middle East.
This isn’t a gun-control issue as much as it is an extremist-control issue, though the two go hand-in-hand. The only use for military-style rifles is shooting people, and how many times have you heard such folks explain that they own them in case they have to overthrow the government? They’re not even hiding their intent.
It’s time not just to ban the sale of these guns but to buy back those in circulation and to ban the sale of ammunition for them. People who need personal security can still buy handguns or shotguns, hunters can still buy rifles and shotguns. Anti-personnel rifles need to be in no hands other than police or military carriers if we hope to avert a lot more blood being spilled in this ongoing, low-grade civil war.
Republicans have a lot to lose in turning the “culture war” into a shooting war. If you are a white supremacist, you’d have to be a very short-sighted idiot to think that this the kind of war you want right now.
The unfortunate truth of Alby’s words is becoming more clear every day, after each incident. So far I can identify four major strands in the far right (and, sad for me to say, “libertarian”) response:
1) This is a “false flag” attack perpetrated by (insert antifa or the deep state here) to draw attention away from (a) large-scale Democrat involvement in Epstein (pizza gate) child sexual abuse; (b) the “missing” $16 billion send to Representative Cummings’ district in Baltimore; or (c) the supposedly mounting evidence against Comey and Mueller.
2) That this is not a false flag, but is the predictable response to progressive-liberal “racism” of the homosexual agenda, attacks on the 2nd Amendment, destruction of the Constitution, and war against the Bible, and—as a local 9-12 Delaware commenter put it today, “In the face of all these attacks on our country, who could wonder that it’s driving some patriots crazy?” The inference to be drawn—clearly intended—is that some patriots like this one just couldn’t wait for the general “molon lane” moment to take direct action.
3) The crisis actor narrative—they are already posting look-alike photos of people from other mass shootings, and raising “questions” about the people who have survived more than one such event.
4) The heavy intimation that the time will come—probably when the illegal immigrant vote is used to steal the election from Donald Trump—to take action, and that it is necessary to stock up, train, and join the correct organizations. Overt recruiting for the 3%-ers and other alt-right associated groups is advancing rapidly.
It is the kind of scenario usually restricted to bad alternate history books sold through Kindle Prime, and it is also notable that there, on Amazon, “new American Civil War” fiction is beginning to rival and even replace more traditional “post-apocalyptic” fiction in which ISIS et al destroy the power grid or kill 3/4 of the population with bio-weapons.
Well, THAT makes me feel a whole lot better.
No buy backs. Just take the guns.
That Ashley Madison woman is looking at me, I had to avert my gaze
Hope Mother doesn’t find out, hope you averted before impure thoughts occurred. Too damn late for me.