[Jack Black]

I missed this when ti came out a month ago, not being a regular Times reader. Friedman is sort of the "King of the Obvious", he got rich writing about globalization, and he's still a big fan of the "flat Earth" as he described it, I am sure.

So this is a sort of signpost. it's not just the keenly attuned who are sensing it, it's the run-of-the-mill types who feel the chill in the air, too.

[M Kehoe]

Bttt.

5.56mm

[Politically Correct]

The man is an idiot.
Anyone quoting Jeff Flake has confirmed that he is an idiot.
Still even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

[MountainWalker]

They sense it because they’re still the elected minority party. If they regain the WH and the Senate, such talk will be considered treasonous again.

[Brilliant]

The NYT played a major role in getting us here.

[Borges]

Across the land, before dinner parties or block parties, the refrain “I hope none of them will be there” is uttered with increasing frequency, referring no longer to people of another race or religion — bad enough — but to people from a different political party.

Isn't reasonable discrimination on the basis of political beliefs willingly undertaken sensible? Is it really worse than discrimination on the basis of race or religion.

[Tench_Coxe]

If it is a civil war, the first shots were fired by James Hodgekinson.

[GOPJ]

Liberal elite democrats have been pushing tribalism for decades... every identity group with a grudge and hatred of traditional Americans...

Its the democrat ‘calling card’...

What this New York Times jerkoff is worried about is that our side is going to do the same... is doing the same... and that jerk doesn't want HIS side hurt. Well, ‘game on’ Friedman... AND I want new 'hate crimes' to be on the books when YOU libs trash traditional Americans...

[HombreSecreto]

BS article.

Here’s the Cliff’s Notes summary:

People don’t get along anymore and it’s the Republicans fault!

[Charlemagne on the Fox]

Even for a hack like Friedman this paragraph is amazing:

It would be easy to blame both sides equally for this shift, noted Ornstein, but it is just not true. After the end of the Cold War, he said, “tribal politics were introduced by Newt Gingrich when he came to Congress 40 years ago,” and then perfected by Mitch McConnell during the Barack Obama presidency, when McConnell declared his intention to use his G.O.P. Senate caucus to make Obama fail as a strategy for getting Republicans back in power.

Yes, only the truly enlightened, such a Friedman, can discern that the left has had no part in this division.

[BenLurkin]

Dear Mr. Friedman,

Aggressive Bolshevism is the cause of the current strife. Bolshevism which the New York Times newspaper largely supports.

That Bolshevism has pushed the American people before it for many decades, and it should come as no surprise that the result is a spring-like compression which has stored energy pending the release of its rebound.

Want an end to the tensions? Convince the multitude of Bolsheviks in academia to leave our schools and universities.

Want an end to the tensions? Convince the multitude of Bolsheviks in the so-called “news” media to quit their positions as anti-American propogandists and find honest jobs.

Want an end to the tensions? Shut off the flow of money from Bolshevik “philanthropists” to anti-American “activists” and their front groups.

[lp boonie]

And he blames it all on Republicans. He’s still a douche bag.

[falcon99]

This guy is wrong. Yes, we are headed toward a new civil war, but it is not Repubs vs Dems. It is real Americans who believe in the Constitution against the Dems, RHINOs, Deep State, corrupt Leftist Judges, Black anti-Americans, Leftist media and Leftist academia. It is much deeper and involved than this idiot Friedman thinks.

[Flintlock]

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuh...........................

Try: TREASONUS AND ILLEGAL BEHAVIOR AND LAW-BREAKING BY THE LEFT.

[Cincinnatus.45-70]

But Tommie Boy, the only way there will be a civil war is if someone stands in the way of someone else seceding. Are you planning to do that? Sure sounds like it to me.

If you don’t want a war, don’t make a war.

[gspurlock]

Oh hogwash - they’ve been trying to start a civil war for 50 years. That is the whole idea of socialism, you need to completely destroy the current government and in the chaos that follows, simply fill in the vacuum with socialism/communism. So far the only people fighting are Soros’ goons, and they aren’t good enough at it to attract opponents.

[Tzimisce]

The country is ruined and somehow it’s all the fault of me and people like me.

Nice.

[Jack Black]

A couple weeks ago a member of the CWII Ping List berated me. He said he'd been on my list for more than a decade, and there is no impending Civil War in America, and therefore, I am a kook. And of course, I followed his request and took him off the list.

So is it kooky to pay attention to the references made to a new civil war in the media?

I've had some time to think about it, and no, I don't think it is. I believe the references themselves serve as a barometer for cultural health. The more people saying "we're going to have a second civil war" the worse the division in the country, even if there is no imminent actual war coming.

Another factor that has been written about at length by some others on the list is the idea of a "cold civil war". The original Cold War never did erupt into a full on shooting WW3, as some were sure it would . Most people would say that's a good thing. But few would deny that there was a war on for the Cold War period.

It had a few major proxy-war phases (Vietnam being the most notorious), it had lots of covert action the sort of spy-vs-spy stuff that John LeCarre writes about. It had heroes, villains and traitors Some traitors were even caught and executed, it was a high stakes war, but it wasn't a mass casualty event.

I don't see that as so different as where we are now, not at all.

Some of the CQ=WII Ping List member's anger was at my stance on Q. He was also critical of my use on once occasion of the CW2 ping list to ping about a Q-related article (a critical one.)

For that I apologize, and will work to ensure that I keep this ping list pretty pure, along with the stated theme.

Still: I think watching a media topic and reporting on it to a group is quite different from the Q phenomena. I do not feel there is any hypocrisy simultaneously running the list about CWII, which hasn't happened, for more than a decade, and at the same time calling out Q and Q supporters for their failed predictions..

It has never been my position that CWII is imminent, much less that it needs to happen, or should happen.

In fact I've guarded against that by posting the disclaimer on most articles I ping on. I've been posting that for at least 10 years too, so I feel I'm free of the charge of being an advocate or predictor of civil war.

And while my handle is a form on anonymity, I'm not claiming to have any insider information, or top secret military clearances, or anything like that. And I'm not predicting specific events will happen, based on my supposed insider knowledge.

So, while I have take the criticism to heart, and removed the offended Freeper from the ping list, I am not discouraged from continuing (with help from a couple great Freepers, including Duncan Waring who is the new young heart of the team) to continue with the mission.

I still do find the topic interesting on several levels. I hope you do too. But if you are bored or disgusted with it please FreepMail me and I will get you removed.

Cheers, - JB.

[raybbr]

So this assclown, who’s been fomenting the societal divide for decades, is now lamenting what he and his cronies have created?

[hadaclueonce]

Tribalism = Gerrymandering,
We were taught well.

[detective]

Freidman is correct when he says America is in the midst of what could be called a Civil War. I would say large scale treason is a more accurate description than Civil War but there is definitely a struggle going on.

Almost everything else in the article is wrong.

Freidman says tribalism is the problem. This is simply a stupid comment. Tribalism is an almost meaningless term that is used dishonestly by the left to attack anyone who disagrees with them in any way. The left is supposedly forward thinking and enlightened. Those who disagree are supposedly backward and “tribal.”

Freidman says “We can’t find common ground on which to respectfully disagree; the other side is “the enemy.” We shout at each other on television, unfollow each other on Facebook and fire verbal mortars at each other on Twitter — and now everyone is on the digital battlefield, not just politicians.”

Who is this “we” that Freidman is supposedly talking about. I don’t know any conservatives who act that way. Freidman is simply lying. He is making it up.

Next Freidman delivers a total lie.

“Brett Kavanaugh defended himself the other day with the kind of nasty partisan attacks and ugly conspiracy theories that you’d expect only from a talk radio host — never from a would-be justice of the Supreme Court. Who can expect fairness from him now?”

Brett Kavanaugh was falsely accused of being a rapist and a gang rapist. Freidman pretends that those who lied and made false accusations are virtuous.

Next Freidman says, “in the early 2000s, most high-wage, middle-skilled jobs disappeared”

This is another lie. Jobs don’t just disappear. All kinds of American jobs from engineers to programmers to skilled trades to unskilled were deliberately and purposefully moved overseas. Businesses were shut down and forced to close.

Freidman’s next lie is “a generation of leaders has come along, led by Donald Trump, who have made fueling our divisions their business model”

This could not be further from the truth. President Trump is working to help the American people not divide them. It is the left that wants to create divisiveness and violence.

Freidman is simply a paid liar. He is a disinformation agent for the Democrat Party. He has nothing useful or worthwhile to say.