As I talk to people in these strange times, not knowing who among friends or strangers will turn out to be a Pod Person screeching like Donald Sutherland, I have mentioned John Robb's theory that America is losing its "fictive kinship," that is, its traditional shared mores. Robb writes:
Over the last several weeks we've seen a rapid diminishment in the fictive kinship that unites us as Americans. In fact, many of us don't just disagree with other Americans. We see them as existential threats.
Here are the existential threat narratives:
"crypto-fascist science deniers demanding a return to the racism and misogyny of the 1950's, while stripping away the rights of immigrants, on the way to sending brown people, LGBTs, and muslims to concentration camps"
"crypto-Stalinist thought police demanding compliance with fake science and virtue-signaling identity performance from all, on the way to Gulag World with straight white males at the bottom. Ideally killing millions along the way"
Robb thinks this means civil war but it's not clear how that's supposed to play out with A and B above living right next to each other. Will it be like Rwanda, where suddenly one day people pick up machetes and start hacking their neighbors? More likely A or B above will gain control of the military and use it to quell civil disturbances on a more or less permanent basis (the Jack Womack "Dryco" scenario). The above divisions will make it easier to "support" or "not support" the military.
