Is it true that many people think there will be a civil war in the United States?

31 comments

1. This is absurd to me.

2. No. Almost no one in the US believes there will be a civil war. But it makes for good television and unfortunately that’s all people outside the US really seem to get a sample of

3. No, this isn’t true.

   Sure some people think this, but with 330,000,000 people you can find representation for just about anything. Just even say a million people would be an insignificant percentage of the population.

4. Nope, not a thing that would ever happen. I could see why you’d ask the question though given the absurd nature of most discourse regarding the country on most television news networks and sites like Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

5. Anyone who realistically does is genuinely an idiot

6. No, this is only seems to be a topic of conversation for people outside of America.

7. [deleted]

8. No, the vast majority of citizens disregard such talk as absurdist sensationalism.

9. Nah, governors, congress and the President make it almost impossible for that level of organization to go unnoticed and not have things dealt with.

10. I don’t think so. 🤷🏽‍♀️

11. Few people think there will be legit civil war. Many people legitimately worry that we could see an increase in sporadic domestic terrorism or partisan violence ala Oklahoma City bombing or clashes between far-right militia groups and protesters.

12. I don’t think that’s going to happen.

13. No. Some people might be worried, but not because a war would happen but because it might encourage a spike in domestic terrorism. It’s mostly only gained media traction because a few public figures used it as a threat in politicking, not because it’s a possibility

14. No but I think we may have something similar to The Troubles.

15. It’s more a culture war

16. To highlight the difference between reality and what the media portrays, think about public portrayals of the KKK. If the Klan protests anything, it’s in the news. They must be a major concern, right?

    According to the Anti-Defamation League, “there are still approximately 3,000 Klan members nationwide.”

    As with most sensational things, the media greatly exaggerates. This holds true for people talking about a civil war.

17. Talk yes. Likely, no, not at all.

18. Depends on how we define “many”. In terms of flat numbers, probablyb decent size. In population percentage, the number probably doesn’t look as significant.

19. Both Reddit and the Media loves the idea of such a scenario and advisories have even wrote books on the balkanization of the United States, but the answer is really no. The issue is no real lines of areas where one side is clearly hostile to the other side. While the average Redditor calls every Republican they see as fascist, they are not actually radicalized to do anything than just talk a big game. The same for every religious conservative towards liberals, they prefer to annoy them as oppose to posse round-ups to reeducated them with God.

20. Most people don’t. My state was hit particularly hard in the last one.

21. No, the news entertainment media likes to highlight extremists to boosts ratings. Most normal and well rounded individuals with at least a high school education or equivalent education does not believe there will be any kind of revolution or civil war any time in the future.

22. As screwed up and split as the US is right now I don’t think we’re anywhere close to a civil war.

23. [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-poll-americans-democracy-is-under-threat-opinion-poll-2022-09-01/](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-poll-americans-democracy-is-under-threat-opinion-poll-2022-09-01/)

    72% of Americans feel democracy is under threat, and 69% cited the potential for political violence.

    I don’t know how many people think we may see a replay of the original Civil War, but clearly a lot of people are concerned about political violence. And I think most experts believe that another civil war would look more like The Troubles in Ireland rather than the American Civil War. Instead of two clearly defined, uniformed armies fighting each other it’ll be a series of terrorist events scattered around the country.

24. That seems to be the prevailing opinion of the US in Moscow and Beijing, not so much in reality

25. Only psychotics on the internet eager to watch a blood bath.

26. To have a real civil war you need armies with generals etc. For example, the Spanish Civil War and the Lebanese Civil War both had these.

    I just don’t see that happening in the US.

27. I don’t see us having a formal civil war with armies and generals and the like. I think at most, we’ll have a lot of political terrorism similar to The Troubles in Northern Ireland.

28. We’ve been a politically but-hurt country since elections started.

29. It *is* true that many people talk about a new Civil War.

    It is *not* true that many people think there will be one.

30. So far these Oath Keeper and Patriot Front types seem far too dumb and unsophisticated to do anything but possible sporadic violence

    The vast majority of Americans are many generations from any real struggle and are fat and soft internet warriors (referring to both sides).

    I simply can’t see what a civil war means in a country like the US in 2022? Can we define this with a scenario?

    The risk IMO in the US is just a slide into being more illiberal than we already are and people checking out.

31. No. That’s almost exclusively just a minority of political extremists from both sides claiming that. Far-right are claiming a race war and far-left are claiming a potential violent coup or attempted secession by red states. Both views are fueled by ignorance, misplaced fear, and tribalistic “us vs. them” tendencies they’re too dense to ignore.