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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   18670 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 19, 2025

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A somewhat interesting Orson Scott Card (cowritten) book on a hypothetical civil war had some ideas (but is mostly just a thriller, notable for (major plot spoiler) >!the main character dying halfway and replaced by a promoted side character!<). Basically the President and VP were assassinated (using leaked military red team plans intended to strengthen security - a mortar team and a dump truck into a limo respectively), followed by a revolt in a few densely populated cities essentially led by a high tech private militia backed by a super billionaire or two. It doesn’t end up working, really. Although at the end they pull a “it was a plot all along” by some other cabinet member to take power and become a strongman after elected President. It’s not entirely convincing that the military would actually be infiltrated as much as it was, or the militia grow that powerful without a check, but the core idea of a motivated billionaire with at least some demographic support seems more likely as a civil war case than some of the other ideas I’ve seen. I guess I could see a state national guard get into a minor standoff or skirmish, but hard to see that ballooning. Either way, I agree that civil war concerns are like, 3 decades too soon at the minimum.

Reddit format spoilers don't work on this site as far as I know. You need to put two vertical bars on either side, like this: spoiler

Your spoiler didn't work, which is pretty bad if it's as big a spoiler as you say. Not sure why it didn't work. >!spoiler!<

Thankfully, I don't care about Orson Scott Card.

Spoiler

You need a double bar on each side. |

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