'Half of Americans expect a second U.S. civil war within YEARS, more than 40% agree with 'great replacement theory' and nearly a fifth expect they will choose to bring a gun to a violent political row, alarming poll shows
- 50.1 percent expect to see a second American Civil War within years
- More than 40 percent favor a 'strong leader' over democracy and adhere to immigrant takeover belief
- One fifth expect to be gun-toting at a January 6 Capitol riot-style melee in the coming years
- California university researchers say results 'exceeded our worst expectations'
- Study follows mass shootings and comes amid controversial Washington hearings into January 6 insurrection
[...]
Researchers at University of California, Davis uncovered worrying levels of ‘alienation’, ‘mistrust’ and a growing tendency to turn to violence in their recently-conducted survey of 8,620 adults across the country.
More than two-thirds of respondents said they saw a ‘serious threat to our democracy’ and 50.1 percent agreed with the statement that ‘in the next few years, there will be civil war in the U.S.’
More than 40 percent said having a ‘strong leader’ was more important than democracy and that ‘native-born white people are being replaced by immigrants’ — a racist belief known as the ‘great replacement theory’.
Researchers also uncovered a growing inclination to settle political rows with violence.
Nearly a fifth of respondents said it was likely they would be ‘armed with a gun’ at a political flash point in the coming years, while 4 percent said it was likely they would ‘shoot someone with a gun’.
[...]
A third of former president Donald Trump's fans living in Republican states said they would be ‘better off’ if their state split and became an independent country. Another 29 percent of Trump fans said such a secession would leave them ‘worse off’.
[...]'
-James Reinl
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...avis-democracy-threat-civil-war-politics.html
'[...]
First is a striking rise in violence, and particularly in firearm violence. The 28% increase
in homicide from 2019 to 20201 was the largest single-year percentage increase ever recorded.2
Firearms accounted for 57.7% of violent deaths in 2019 but 62.1% in 2020, when 78.9% of
homicides (19,995 of 25,356) and 52.8% of suicides (24,292 of 45,979) involved firearms.
Second is an equally unprecedented increase in firearm purchasing that began with the
onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in January 2020 and, except for a brief respite late in 2021,
has continued through June 2022. 2,4 From January 2020 through June 2022, background checks
on firearm purchasers have averaged 46.6% above expected levels (Supplement Figure 1); an
estimated 14.5 million excess background checks have been conducted, of 45.7 million checks
altogether.
[...]'
-Garen J. Wintemute
https://www.riotimesonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/US-civil-war.pdf
'[...]
News of Floyd’s death sent shockwaves throughout the city and prompted demonstrations that, although peaceful by some, grew destructive in some cases. Fires erupted throughout parts of the city, including at a local Auto Zone, a Japanese restaurant, a Wells Fargo bank and an Office Depot. Looters ransacked an area Target store, among other shops.
At one point, rioters cheered as people set a Minneapolis police precinct headquarters on fire after the department was forced to abandon it.
[...]
Oregon’s largest city saw more than 100 consecutive nights of racial injustice protests marred by vandalism and chaos and, at times, violence.
The demonstrations that started in late May divided residents and flared even further in July when President Trump deployed federal law enforcement agents to stop attacks on a federal courthouse and other U.S. property.
Thousands of demonstrators turned out nightly, with some hurling fireworks, rocks, ball bearings and bottles at the agents. They responded with huge plumes of tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades that created chaotic, war zone-like scenes.
[...]
With tensions already heightened following the Floyd shooting, hundreds, if not thousands of people descended on downtown Chicago in August following a police shooting on the city’s South Side.
Vandals smashed the windows of a dozen businesses and made off with merchandise, cash machines and virtually anything else they could carry, police said.
[...]
Videos of the vandalism showed huge crowds of people smashing their way into businesses and streaming out of the broken windows and doors with clothes and other merchandise. They loaded up vehicles, some moving slowly and deliberately, apparently not worried about being caught by police or being recorded by scores of cellphone cameras.
Vehicles drove away slowly, some leaving behind boxes of rocks that they had apparently brought to shatter the windows. Cash register drawers and clothes hangers were strewn about the streets, along with ATMs that had been ripped from walls or pulled from inside businesses.
[...]
Crowds destroyed dozens of buildings and set more than 30 fires in downtown Kenosha. In one instance, a Kenosha car dealership reportedly sustained $1.5 million in damage during one night of riots.
[...]
Demonstrators took to the streets of Philadelphia following the October officer-involved shooting of Walter Wallace Jr., an armed Black man reportedly with a mental health history.
More than a thousand people took to the streets following the shooting, ransacking big-name stores, such as Walmart and Foot Locker, as well as smaller businesses. Hundreds were arrested, and dozens of police and law enforcement vehicles were damaged during the riots, officials said at the time.
Meanwhile, more than 50 police officers were injured, including a sergeant who was "intentionally run over" by a pick-up truck driver, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said.'
-Stephanie Pagones
https://www.foxnews.com/us/protests-riots-nationwide-america-2020
'Former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin Sentenced to More Than 20 Years in Prison for Depriving George Floyd and a Minor Victim of their Constitutional Rights
[...]'
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/form...uvin-sentenced-more-20-years-prison-depriving
'Third is growing uncertainty about the stability and value of democracy in the US. Most
Americans across the political spectrum now perceive a serious threat to democracy in the
US.5,6 At the same time, nearly 70% of adults—with very similar results for Democrats and
Republicans—agree that “American democracy only serves the interests of the wealthy and powerful.”
Approximately 20% of Republicans, conservatives, and voters for Donald Trump
(and 9% of Democrats, liberals, and voters for Joe Biden) disagree with the statement that
“democracy is [the] best form of government.”
Fourth is the expansion into the mainstream of American public opinion of extreme,
false beliefs about American society. Approximately 1 adult in 5 endorses the core elements of
the Q-Anon belief complex, that “government, media, and financial worlds in the US are
controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles” (16%) and that “there is a storm
coming soon that will sweep away the elites in power and restore the rightful leaders” (22%).9
Nearly 1 adult in 3 (32%) endorses the assertion that “a group of people in this country [is]
trying to replace native-born Americans with immigrants.”
Fifth is growing support for the use of violence to accomplish political or social
objectives. More than a third (36%) of American adults (56% of Republicans and 22% of
Democrats) agree that “the traditional American way of life is disappearing so fast that we may
have to use force to save it.”7 Nearly one-fifth of adults (18%) agree that “because things have
gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save
our country.”9'
https://www.riotimesonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/US-civil-war.pdf
'[...]
Part of what’s different in Allentown is its racial makeup. In the 1970s U.S. Census count, the city’s population was 97% White, but by 2020 the share of hon-Hispanic White residents had plunged to 31%.
The city is among many throughout the nation with changing demographics. Census data shows that the number of White Americans decreased over the last decade across 35 states and within 3 out of 4 counties. And according to projections from the U.S. Census, America is forecast to no longer have a White majority population by 2044.
[...]
In three separate studies with different methodologies, the belief that the rights of minorities will overtake that of whites, an unfounded conspiracy theory known as the “Great Replacement,” was one primary driver for “insurrectionists,” researchers found.
[...]
Allentown resident Emely Minaya, who came from the Dominican Republic as a child, says she thinks Allentown is an example of the future of America when it comes to diversifying communities.
“Even those states where there’s probably no Hispanics at all, no Black people, they will be seeing a lot of that in next few years,” she said.
Asked what she would say to those who may be troubled by that potential demographic shift, she says to “suck it up.”
[...]'
-Tori B. Powell
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/insurrectionist-movement-race-demographic/
