Index

The Inevitable Second Civil War

The same forces are at play

The new Taliban, now ruling Florida, Texas, and many other places, think they have a chance at real power. The theocrats believe that because they have cheated their way into a place where they can pass laws enslaving the female half of the populace, they can do anything. I can’t help but laugh at that idiocy, but they have reached the point where they are on the verge of destroying the democracy we live in. All theocrats do is destroy - they have proven this throughout history, and this latest crop is no better.

Since at least Ronnie Raygun, they have been destroying the Constitution piecemeal. This is part of the problem but not the biggest part. We fix bad laws and dump stupid politicians regularly - that is the advantage of a functioning democracy. Even with his orange idiots voting full strength and a bloody attempted coup when that failed, the orange toddler couldn’t stay in office.

The bad part is that they are destroying democracy. The system that has kept the country running for over 200 years is being destroyed from within by these American Taliban. The right-wing lunatics think that the ends justify the means. Like Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and every other autocrat ever, they intend to exercise those means. If they take over the country, there won’t be an economy or society left to talk about, so that is not something worth discussing. All would be chaos.

They might fail to completely destroy the country, but what they leave will be a toxic mess. The divisions they have created and the incredible insanity they have spread will haunt us for decades. Since Raygun, they have destroyed public education in every way they could. From defunding the schools to the culture wars to book banning, every educational structure has come under attack.

The places where these Taliban have power are already the places with the worst education. This is not a coincidence. Theocrats and their propaganda feed on the ignorance and poverty created by the lack of a functioning education system. The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has destroyed any chance of the country having a legitimate economy. The American Taliban are doing the same here where they can.

Theocrats cannot coexist with a productive, creative intellectual class. Europe learned this with the end of the Dark Ages and the beginning of the Enlightenment. The people that power a modern economy will not survive under the fruitcakes - they will leave or die. The rest will be (at best) semi-slaves to whoever manages to have a little money. The places where the American theocrats are in power will never have a real economy in the modern sense. They will be a drain on the rest of the nation if it stays a nation.

This instability will destroy the functioning of whatever nation we have left as long as the Taliban keep their power. While we may never have a second Civil War, the same forces are at play. The Taliban will not let go of their control, and no amount of truth or reality will convince them of anything. They are the modern-day version of the slaveholders before the Civil War, and their only goal is hanging on to their ill-gotten power at any cost. There will be no peace as long as these predators roam.