FiftyFiftyOne
joined 6 months ago
Barbara F. Walter is not just any commentator, she’s a leading expert on civil war and democracy:
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Rohr Professor of International Affairs, UC–San Diego
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Served on CIA’s Political Instability Task Force, predicting conflict
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Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
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Author of New York Times bestseller How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them (2022)
https://www.barbarafwalter.com/how-civil-wars-start -
TED2023 speaker on the fragility of U.S. democracy
“Is the US headed towards another civil war?” (TED Talk, 13 min) https://www.ted.com/talks/barbara_f_walter_is_the_us_headed_towards_another_civil_war
Why she’s ringing the alarm bells:
##The signs are undeniable:
- Political violence is rising
- Extremism is mainstreaming
- Trust in elections and institutions is eroding
- Powerful voices are fueling conspiracy theories and hate
- Walter’s research shows democracies most at risk are “anocracies”—nations caught between democracy and autocracy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anocracy - The U.S. slid from a stable democracy toward partial democracy/anocracy during 2020–21.
TED Talk summary & analysis - Civil conflict risks spike when political parties form around identity (race, religion) instead of ideology.
Analysis from TED & PBS - She's warned that overt actions—like Trump’s assault on norms or calls for war—strengthen factional divides and escalate to violence.
What a 21st-century U.S. civil war looks like (not 1860s-style):
- Decentralized violence—bombings, assassinations, militia clashes
- Social media fueling hate and conspiracy
- Legal breakdowns—competing governing authorities, refusal to cooperate
This isn’t fear-mongering. It’s a warning.
Walter reminds us: civil war doesn’t arrive with tanks and uniforms.
It slips in through eroding norms, growing grievances, social polarization, and unchecked factional identity politics.
##If you think “it can’t happen here,” Barbara F. Walter says: that’s exactly what every crumbling democracy thought—until it was too late.
“Democracy doesn’t die in darkness. It dies in silence.”
Speak up. Organize. Vote. Resist authoritarianism — before it's too late.
Originally Posted By u/Lo_Stallone At 2025-07-16 01:26:42 PM | Source
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For those interested in a combined pdf of court docs related to Epstein and Ghislaine, along with the full black book, you can check them out here before they inevitably disappear:
COMBINED COURT DOCS: https://joshwho.net/EpsteinList/gov.uscourts.nysd.447706.1320.0-combined.pdf
BLACK BOOK: https://archive.org/details/jeffrey-epstein-39s-little-black-book-unredacted/page/9/mode/2up
Originally Posted By u/Shim-Slady At 2025-07-16 11:09:28 AM | Source
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US House speaker Mike Johnson calls for release of Epstein files amid backlash
(www.theguardian.com)
(If he disagrees, he can show proof with the list he’s hiding)
Republicans in congress are beginning to call out Trump (mostly the far-right sadly) BUT even Trump supporters are beginning to leave the GOP. This could be a great opportunity to shift them to the left (and have them leave their bigotry ofc).
We need to be on top of this. Like the Republicans with Hunters laptop, we need to call the fuck out of Trump.
Originally Posted By u/serious_bullet5 At 2025-07-15 10:56:54 PM | Source
