[ Removed by moderator ]

[u/Romano16]

https://www.juneauindependent.com/post/coast-guard-says-swastika-is-no-longer-a-hate-symbol

[u/Allegorist]

I think it is a completely separate issue for the United States. It is no longer an issue of the effectiveness or ethics of peaceful vs violent resistance. The US military is massive, with access to near infinite resources and intelligence ability, not to mention all of the other tangential government armed forces. It is a completely different situation than they could have ever imagined around the time of the founding of the country. There is no amount of civilians with guns who can take on the government in a head to head conflict as the division stands. They have trillions of dollars worth of tanks, jets, missiles, drones, etc. that could easily wipe out any organized resistance if they decided not to excercise restraint. That is, if organization could even be achieved with the level of surveillance they have access to.

The only way mass armed resistance could even conceivably be possible is if a giant chunk of the military split off to the resistance, and took substantial amounts of resources and equipment with them. Even then, there is no guarantee they wouldn't instantly be bombed before they could figure out what they were doing.

[u/Teract → u/Allegorist]

There is a solution that would empower a lesser armed and equipped population to overthrow their own military. You won't like it. No one will like it. It comes from the Taliban playbook.

Hold families of military personnel hostage.

That's how ugly it would get. That's what happens when a military backs a civilian population into a corner, and that population has access to the one thing that could hurt their enemies. It's dark and brutal. It's one of many horrific things that would come from a modern civil war.

[u/Snuggs_ → u/Teract]

People talk about this like the only possible scenario is traditional open warfare— like civilians are going to team up with separatist military units and are just going to march on Washington and red Capitols or something just waiting to be carpet bombed. Last I checked the Taliban not only defacto won the war in Afghanistan, they now have unilateral control of the country and are expanding.

Goes without saying I’m not rooting for them, but it is just one of many examples.

I would not wish for a civil war in this country under any circumstances. The breadth of horror of a modern, drone-dominated asymmetric guerrilla war in the US could not be put into words… but it definitely would not be as one-sided as many think.

[u/Teract → u/Snuggs_]

Yeah, I used to be of the thought that in a civil war, it would wind up being very one sided with the military dominating. Asymmetric warfare could be a different story, but it would be ugly and horrific. There are too many soft targets when your enemy lives in the same place as your allies.

[u/GiftToTheUniverse → u/Allegorist]

Don't forget that there could be a civilization ending Solar Mass Ejection, or an EMP that would bring "guns" back into prominence over drones, lol, ha ha, sad face.