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The Next Civil War
The Next Civil War: Dispatches from the American Future | Stephen Marche
29 posts | 2 read | 2 to read
The United States is coming to an end. The only question is how. Should be required reading for anyone interested in preserving our 246-year experiment in self-government. The New York Times Book Review * Well researched and eloquently presented. The Atlantic * Its not a matter of if but when: A civil war is on the way...In a time of torment, this is a book well worth reading. Kirkus Reviews In this deeply researched work of speculative nonfiction that reads like Ezra Kleins Why Were Polarized crossed with David Wallace-Wellss The Uninhabitable Earth, a celebrated journalist takes a fiercely divided America and imagines five chilling scenarios that lead to its collapse, based on in-depth interviews with experts of all kinds. On a small two-lane bridge in a rural county that loathes the federal government, the US Army uses lethal force to end a standoff with hard-right anti-government patriots. Inside an ordinary diner, a disaffected young man with a handgun takes aim at the American president stepping in for an impromptu photo-op, and a bullet splits the hyper-partisan country into violently opposed mourners and revelers. In New York City, a Category 2 hurricane plunges entire neighborhoods underwater and creates millions of refugees overnighta blow that comes on the heels of a financial crash and years of catastrophic droughts and tips America over the edge into ruin. These nightmarish scenarios are just three of the five possibilities most likely to spark devastating chaos in the United States that are brought to life in The Next Civil War, a chilling and deeply researched work of speculative nonfiction. Drawing upon sophisticated predictive models and nearly two hundred interviews with expertscivil war scholars, military leaders, law enforcement officials, secret service agents, agricultural specialists, environmentalists, war historians, and political scientistsjournalist Stephen Marche predicts the terrifying future collapse that so many of us do not want to see unfolding in front of our eyes. Marche has spoken with soldiers and counterinsurgency experts about what it would take to control the population of the United States, and the battle plans for the next civil war have already been drawn up. Not by novelists, but by colonels. No matter your political leaning, most of us can sense that America is barreling toward catastropheof one kind or another. Relevant and revelatory, The Next Civil War plainly breaks down the looming threats to America and is a must-read for anyone concerned about the future of its people, its land, and its government.
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JenniferEgnor
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Pickpick

As I dive deeper into understanding American politics, books like this one are very helpful. This book does not imagine a future that may come to pass if our projected path doesn‘t shift; it shows that we are already there. It discusses the flaws in the system that led us to this point. America will fall; its ‘democracy‘ will not last. It is falling right now, as we speak. The question is, what will you do? Highly recommended read.

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JenniferEgnor
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At this point in history, 240 years after its composition, much of the US Constitution simply does not apply to reality. Democrats and Republicans alike worship the document as a sacred text, indulging a delirious sentimentality that was the precise opposite of what the framers envisioned as the necessary basis for responsible government. There is no way to govern rationally when your foundational document is effectively dead and you worship⬇️

JenniferEgnor it anyway. 2d
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JenniferEgnor
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The problem is not who is in power, but the structures of power. The US system is an archaic mode of government totally unsuited to the realities of the 21st century. It needs reforms to its foundational systems, not just new faces.

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keithmalek
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Outstanding! One of the best books I read this year!

Readers who enjoyed this book might also enjoy "How Civil Wars Start" by Barbara F. Walter.

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keithmalek
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This bothers me to no end. I live in NYC and I can't stand the fact that my tax dollars go to a bunch of backwards rednecks that I have nothing in common with.

Lynnsoprano I hear you. Living in Florida, we deal a governor and senators who decry government spending and then try to squeeze every federal dollar they can get. 2y
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keithmalek
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keithmalek

The Union, as it stands, is preventing both sides from becoming the people they want to be. And wasn't that always the point of the United States of America? Wasn't it set up to allow people to become who they want to be?

--This is an overly simple argument for secession. In fact, the author disagrees with the idea of secession. But this is a fairly interesting point that he makes here.

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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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(Continued)...die at that job. The mortality rate of troops in combat is 82 per 100,000.

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keithmalek
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Suet624 Horrendous. 2y
keithmalek @Suet624 I know. It's embarrassing. 2y
Suet624 Actually I was going to say I was embarrassed to say I live here and then decided not to. (No need to start a fight with anyone.) I don‘t know what to do - in Vermont we want to pass gun laws to prevent suicides and domestic violence deaths. These mass shootings are awful. I wish we could remove all guns from people‘s homes. 2y
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keithmalek
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keithmalek

The line between criminality and revolution blurred in Mexico, in Cuba, in Northern Ireland, in Algeria--everywhere. What if America is already in the middle of an armed uprising and we just haven't noticed?

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