dismantling

Weird.
I would think they’d want to break Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado into a separate Blue “nation”.

If Washoe County, Nevada, was placed in Pacifica there would be a civil war… haha

Does Alaska go to Russia or Canada?

Why on God’s earth would any American who claims to love this country want to break it up? If anyone doesn’t believe that Russians are absolutely stoking the wedge being driven between red and blue, perhaps we are fools and will get what we deserve. Right now stupidity is the greatest threat to America. And we can absolutely screw this up beyond repair.

Looks like that is our fundamental disagreement. Thanks for clarifying. If I were an admin I don’t think I’d let the board be used for sharing seditious material. Guess I’m posting for the others.

As if which side of the extreme matters. Anyone advocating destruction of the society is an enemy of everyone else. Emphasis on division is the threat here and an inability for Republicans and Democrats to find common cause in ensuring the nation is strong as possible is exactly why we are here today. There isn’t a competition over how to solve problems, it’s mostly one side saying the other is the problem. We are weaker than I have seen the country at any point in my lifetime because the commitment of the people to each other and country’s founding principles is fraying in so many directions.

Wedge and identity politics are how this election threatens the country most. No one was going to match the 2000s US military. Why spend a trillion to defeat the US if you can do it for a few million in troll farmers? The KGB tried for decades to foment this kind of division. Social media was like a political manipulation tool from the heavens. As seen with Cambridge Analytica, and individual targeted ads, there are databases now for you and your particular views on whatever. There is literally the technical ability to feed content to a specific person and deep fakes can make anyone say and do anything. Who needs shows like Black Mirror? We got rid of the gatekeepers and individuals now feel like their opinions are equal to all others. Now our enemies can sew chaos all directions at scale. Platforms like Facebook and this site contribute to the problem when they choose to profit from page views without regard to their social responsibility to others. They are privately held, the first amendment does not apply to users acting under their terms of service and they can edit what they want and they are responsible for the content they enable. They are republishing the s**t for money. And people read it and it spreads. The 230 liability rollback proposed by Trump has support on both sides for that reason. Social media has a huge reckoning ahead. The industry deserves what’s coming to them. I used to lobby as part of a prior job and all the social media lobbyists I knew who were drawn to socially oriented media prior their IPOs have already moved to safer industries.

The first half of 2020 is just the start unless our leaders and those with publishing and republishing responsibility actually focus on unity. Anyone who can’t behave in the interest of the country at a time like this is unfit to lead. And that goes for both sides. This year I will vote for whichever candidate tries hardest to consolidate support on both sides of the aisle, full stop. Beirut was the gem of the middle east in the 60s and you know how it looked in the 80s. Forty years on that country is still controlled by political elements beholden to a foreign government. That happened by a combination of decadence and reckless politics–are there any better words to describe the United States today? I mean, the top poster this weekend was a user named dystopiamembrane. This is not uncharted territory we are covering. It’s a well worn path by virtually every dead society. The outcome wasn’t an accident. It was a series of irresponsible choices. It can happen to us. It already has. How far are people willing to let it continue?

You know what I’d rather see than a split into separate nations?
A parliamentary form of government.
But…
That has just as much chance as us splitting into separate nations, I guess.
Which means, none at all.