This post was originally written about a week before George Floyd’s death and was, in fact, in response to the ultra conservative marches on government buildings–and armed to the teeth to boot–to object to being forced to wear masks for COVID-19. I’ve added some thoughts on the Floyd protests at the end.

A couple of things on the riots going on:

I’m gonna get a lot of flack for this, from both sides, but I’m beginning to wonder if we just need civil war.

Relations between Americans have deteriorated to the point where one side cannot say anything, no matter how reasonable, without being attacked simply because it was the opposing side saying it. People refuse to believe what the opposition says. The media is hated and mistrusted by both sides, more than ever. (And let’s remember that a free press is one of the founding principles of democracy. If the free press goes, so does democracy follow.) We are in the middle of a pandemic according to one side, and either a hoax or hysteria according to the other. Yes, even a disease is now politicized.

There are many reasons behind these things, which are not really important to this post. But I would point the finger to a couple of obvious culprits. The Internet (the Age of Information) and social media are two problems. Man has more information available than ever before, but we have not as a society learned to sift through and vet facts (i.e. current, or true, or in context). Social media has given everyone a platform, a voice, but as a society we have not learned how to use it responsibly, and instead pass on anything we agree or disagree with, without either vetting the info or even being clear why we are passing it on. Trump is the other main reason. He stokes the flames wherever possible. As is true of most authoritarians, he wants a divided people; he wants “his” voters to have someone to hate. And in turn, though not necessarily because of, they are hated back.

After 9/11, this country came together (yes, I’m simplifying and yes, it is just different). While there were fringe elements on both sides who didn’t, they were nearly a mostly silent voice. That attack happened only months after one of the most divisive elections in our history. But we came together. It wasn’t red vs blue. It was American vs threats to our existence. We remained a largely single voice for a while. It took Iraq to really drive the divide again, though many liberals supported that action (I’m not one of them).

I do not think one side winning out over another is the answer. At least, I’ve fought against that. First, tyranny whether by majority or minority is still tyranny. Second, progress is measured only by those who support said progress, and the voting public is split roughly equally down the middle. [Taking out centrist views for the moment, it is always a help to think that for every person who thinks as you do, there is a person who thinks the exact opposite. It also helps to think that there are always those on your side who are either much less enthusiastic about a specific policy than you are, or much more enthusiastic than you.] And eventually it swings the other way. We’ve rarely been in the type of situation where each side’s raison d’être is almost literally just to undo everything the other side has done, and/or to pack the courts. We’ve rarely been so enamored of the opposition as the enemy.

So, maybe we need a reset. The national version of taking it out to the parking lot or the playground. Because I’m sick of people who claim to love America, but hate Americans (movie quote). I hate that too many from both sides turn their back on the tens of millions who are different from them; nay, not just turn their back, but think of them as traitors.

Addendum to the original post:

I don’t necessarily mean literally another civil war, with tens of thousands dead. The Civil War killed more Americans than any other war. Plus, such a war would fall most heavily on minorities, those who have the least power to make such decisions or to reap any rewards from it. That said, when is enough enough? The situation seems to get ever more fraught and for multiple reasons, as the Floyd protests show. Can change only occur at this point by violence? I felt nothing but irritation when right-wingers refused to wear masks. Disgust and fear when they began attacking those who do choose to wear them. It was my own desire to take retribution against those marching, armed, that made me wonder if violence is the (imperfect) answer. I still don’t know. But after Floyd and the protests, it certainly seems that those very people we would protect against war may end up being the ones who most want it.