“vastly overestimate the number of people who care as much as they do”
I’ve long been intrigued with the number of people who just go about their daily business regardless of how bad things are (at least, insofar as history will deem those times really bad). Tyrants need subjects; subjects need food/water/shelter ... so long as both are satiated, they’ll maintain the status quo. Very few will actually revolt, or facilitate revolution.
“You would think more would simply deign to vote before taking it to the streets or whatever.”
We’ve been voting, and merely yelling at each other, for a loooong time.
We’re still peaceful (on the whole). Violent incidents are brief & isolated, taking up little more than a few city blocks until breakfast.
I do expect there will be an incident which crosses the line. Little idea what, but something that will inspire “it’s time” for a critical mass. Current theory: consider how the DC Sniper and Boston Marathon Bombing incidents practically shut down the cities ... now combine the public hiding in the latter, with the military presence of the former, multiplied by (say) 2 per state. Not sure which side would really make the first move, but just 100 independent individuals entering open warfare would really start a conflagration (and I mean in a bad way). Most citizens would be merely onlookers, glued to their TVs and Cheetos.
BTW: the title of this thread/article is absurd. Talk has been about that subject for decades; we’re just reaching a level of conversational intolerance I’ve not seen (culminating in AOC’s “we’re in control”, “enemies list”, and “proposal to take over practically all aspects of society” - with lots of popular & political leadership support).
“We’ve been voting, and merely yelling at each other, for a loooong time.”
The people who care have been, or rather the people who care enough to deign to vote about it. But if you look at eligible voter turnout for the last 100 years you realize that not as many people care as one might think. I mean look at the midterms, all this media hype and frenzy. Only around 50% of eligible voters deigned to vote. Which was a really good turnout for midterm elections, it’s usually around 40% or so if I recall.
I think the 24 hour news cycle combined with social media/smartphones is definitely an accelerant to the current political acrimony. But there’s a heck of a lot of people out there just watching cat video crap, not political or social commentary crap.
I almost think the global elite leftists probably don’t want any flash points, so no one thing happens that’s bad enough for folks to risk what they have to stop it. The safest bet is probably to just keep us drifting steadily down the cultural slope.
Freegards
AOC - SPJNK.