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ZorbaTHut  1yr ago (text post)   44988 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 5, 2022

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how are these divisions worse than those during the civil war? or reconstruction? or the gilded age? prohibition? this? Active, violent conflict between unions and bosses?

Divisions have been here for ages, and the current divisions seem much less bad than the past ones. All the trump and dems still do their jobs, and the economy still advances rapidly. it's not going anywhere!

In terms of racial and sectarian and ideological composition, the US was a much more homogenous nation back then, even during the active years of the Weather Underground. In the 19th century, even more so. Plus, enforced Christian monogamy and the creed of civic nationalism / American exceptionalism were still the norm, which had a huge stabilizing effect on society.

I don't think they're worse. I do think they're just about as bad. We have had people literally shooting at each other over ideological divisions within the past couple of years. I genuinely think it wouldn't take that much to push the country into open civil war at this point, and that scares the heck out of me.

The divisions are not worse than those during the Civil War, but that is only because the Civil War is as bad as it can get. Because then you have a civil war. Being better than the absolute worst possible does not mean you're good.

just for the sake of being a pedantic fuck, i find it hard to believe that the civil war is as bad as political division could get. Shermans march was pretty hardcore but it stopped when it could have done some victory laps just killin routed confederates.

IMO a lot of folks view divisive politics very pessimistically. I'd compare that to telling a married couple having an argument that they're destined for divorce: maybe, but not always. To get on my soapbox, unity takes effort: it's work, and it often feels unfair, but it can be worth it.

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