When I read stories like this, I wonder if we have reached the end of the American democratic experiment, as such. We have a sizable portion of the population that is simply batshit insane, and there is no other way to describe them. They are unmoored from reality.
The thing is, that's nothing new. We have had the Klan running state governments. We have had John Birchers and Branch Davidians and militias before. The bombing of the Murrah building in Oklahoma City is still historically fresh.
I do wonder if the new interconnectivity of the Internet age has acted as a force multiplier for the craziness. I read an article where someone in Upstate NY was getting death threats from Louisiana, because he had a mask mandate in his business or some nonsense. Basically, someone does something like have a mask mandate, it get picked up by a local crazy person and then it becomes an underground cause celebre in the Fever Swamps. I doubt very much that these Internet Tough Guys ever actually do anything, but I can also see a spiraling set of violent acts that makes it impossible to live with this crazy fuckers any more.
As the piece above notes, there's a certain fervent craziness in the bluest states. It's there that evangelical, racist white people feel legitimately under threat. I think it dawned on them first that they are no longer a majority in this country. If we do see a descent into violence, how do we separate out the violently insane from the conservative who has simply soaked too long in the nightmarish swamps of Fox, OANN and NewsMax?
I would frankly love it, at this point, if they all decided to move to the Idaho or Wyoming and declare independence. Good riddance.
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