I'm not so sure. Yes, it's much more difficult for armed guerillas to take DC by storm, but crippling the federal government doesn't require you to do that; totalitarianism is mostly exercised through the local bureaucracy. It doesn't matter who the government is on paper; if their tax agents and police officers get killed by vigilantes, they'll have trouble functioning.
And no one will do so. Boston proved that the American people have no problem accepting the police rule as long as they're scared of the bogeyman.
Remember, it's all about how you ask the question...
"Would you support an armed rebellion" will elicit a different answer then "Do you want to be part of an armed rebellion?"
Very true. But, let's think about it. If 10% (far less than the 29% suggested in the poll) support an armed rebellion, that's 30 million people.
Now, if just ONE PERCENT of those 30 million are actually willing to physically fight against the government, that's still three hundred thousand armed citizens ready to rise up across the country. If the military intervened on a large scale (which they would), they WOULD kill civilians. This act would only add more and more numbers to the newfound uprising.
That 0.001% is a massive percentage. The people who cheered on the various few vigilantes are most likely already on a watchlist. The only people who are known to have or are killing government officials are the prison gangs and Dorner. Everyone else who is a civilian is screwed.
1. Officials come for your weaponry. They ask to search your house. What are you going to do, shoot them? Police are better armed, are trained to shoot pregnant women and children and have riddled people with bullets for sweeping floors with broomsticks. There are perfect examples of what a 'rebel' vs police encounter would be like. It's not all that hard to find cases of Americans, heavily armed and prepared against home invasions investigating disturbances only to find themselves at the wrong end of a police barrel. They are already a military in their own right, trained to fight against the US populace.
2. The American people have no incentive to go against the system that has given them everything and made them dependent, and can likewise take everything from them.
3. Anyone calling for open revolution is waiting for someone else to start it. They're waiting for it to be safe. It will never happen, it will never be safe, and anyone who tries to be the first in the meat grinder will be a domestic terrorist and die forgotten infamy that will only help further justify the erosion of civil liberties.
4. The American government has already and has always been preparing for these scenarios and many more, since before the war on terror even began they have been spying on the American people and researching methods to control public opinion. Even natural disasters are covered.
5. People say, 'oh but the army would join!'
And the police are assholes in uniforms.
It wouldn't be too hard for the Army to become that too.
6. Drones. In every sense of the word, the drones in the sky that can monitor entire cities for 'suspicious behaviour' to the drones in suits and casual dress that would be against any of the 'crazies' who attempt anything even close to an Arab Spring-style movement.
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Topic: Things that made you absolutely terrified today (Read 2008003 times)