@Phorm I think this is not an impossible outcome. I think backfiring horribly and spelling the end of Big Social Media is also very possible.

For what it's worth, I've been reading up frantically on what the Professional Worriers are saying about the prospect of violence in the US.

And I almost wish I *did* know something that would justify giving you a dismissive headpat and telling you everything's going to be fine. But I am at least getting the impression that experts don't think it's gonna go down like the "first" Civil War nor like Berlin 1932 -- more like isolated shenanigans from militias.

Which is still bad and scary and heartbreaking 'cause I don't see any way through it. I just keep trying to remind myself that I had myself *dead convinced* in October 2001 that random acts of terrorism were going to become part of daily life and that just... kinda didn't happen.

This is different. This is a real threat closer to home. I am genuinely very scared that we're about to go through the Stupid Lyin' Bigot Version of Rome's transition from Republic to Empire.

My honest prediction right now is that it's gonna be more like Brazil -- the movie, not the country -- than Red Dawn or something. A little incident now and then, thoughts and prayers and then back to normal. One more fucking thing for anxiety-prone people like you and me to fixate on and suffer, just because some asshole can't accept he lost an election.

It's funny. Most of us don't really even have a model for what this stuff would look like when it happens. When I was in college we read a book about the Russian Revolution and I remember being absolutely flabbergasted that the operas ran all through the violence and upheaval. I honestly thought living through a revolution was all violence, all the time.

I think it's gonna be a lot like COVID: another huge fucking drag on a society already stretched to its limits. I think we're all gonna lose a little bit more from it, but we can get through it.

This is a HARSH comfort, but remember: even the Actual Dang Third Reich only lasted twelve crummy years. Granted, they necessitated the whole "free" (heh) world coming to stop them, and the Trump cult is weirdly lacking in that kind of international ambition -- unless you count trying to buy Greenland. *sigh* 🙄​

I don't think it'll be the end. We're gonna see some of the Big History I have been braced for all my life because I KNEW it had to be coming, no generation is that lucky... And I will be here trying to help preserve a safe niche for genie foxes even if I have to don the Lady Humongous mask myself and come get you with an armored jeep. <3