I came across this video interview The Coming Civil War with David Betz and watched it this morning. The appeal (I can NOT say I enjoyed it!) is his dispassion; his measured, sober, understated approach weds many civilizational threads - threads which are fraying and detaching - even as much of the West disintegrates before our eyes. I can’t speak for anyone else, but my overriding sense is of utter powerlessness; that the promise of Western Civilization (which was not long ago taught, favorably, in universities) has been utterly squandered - betrayed, actually, by groups calling themselves “progressives”, even as they reverse hard-won, real human progress, in order to tear down a system of self-governance which once had promise to further improve the future of humanity. It is being betrayed by the oldest of the sins: pride - with the lust for raw power overlain.
It reminds me I was taught in law school that the First Amendment was ordinal in its preternatural necessity for all the enumerated rights that followed. Revisionist revolutionaries of today boldly say instead (with a straight face!) that it stands in the way of censoring "mis- , dis- , and mal-’ information, whose definition, obviously, is information they don’t like. Similar, I believe, stands the First Commandment: western elites, self-appointed as our betters, as so well described by Prof. Betz, actually believe they are God-like in their knowledge and entitled to God-like powers over their inferiors and the world at large. With such status, they are certain they are empowered to act (as they incessantly tell us) “by any means necessary” by virtue of their “eternal” and “noble” goals - which received wisdom has been revealed unto them, chosen above all others to bring forth the heretofore elusive paradise on Earth.
If you have an hour and a quarter (less if you listen at 1.5X speed as I do), you may find he gives specifics and context to that now-chronic, aching feeling we may have in common - that ‘something is not right’, ‘something’s wrong’; ‘what’s going on?’ He fleshes this out calmly, methodically and offers sensible statistical projections of likelihood, along with a view that civil wars are highly contagious to neighboring countries once begun. You won’t be surprised to learn he believes this pending horror is already unavoidable. We have passed the point of no return.
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… but there is no need for despair. There is Matt Ridley’s “Rational Optimist” viewpoint that the 20th Century was objectively a disaster, with two World Wars and a Great Depression – yet despite all that, Planet Earth had more people living longer healthier lives at the end of the 20th C than at the beginning.
Then there is the contrary viewpoint which accepts that the world got better over the 20th Century – but that is no consolation to the millions of people whose lives were destroyed by the wars & depression.
Yes, we citizens in the West have failed. We have allowed out countries to be dominated by lawyers & politicians (but I repeat myself) who have sold our birthright for their mess of pottage. But the world is not the West.
When we in the West face our inevitable Coming Collapse, the human race will still march forwards in places like China and Russia and Brazil. And after the unpleasantness of the Coming Collapse has wrought so much damage, history tells us that the big wheel will keep on turning. In another hundred years, the West will be recovering and perhaps once more will lead the world forward.
Our role is to make sure that future generations learn lessons from our failure – No universal suffrage; No career politicians; Keep lawyers & financiers on a very short leash.
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Many have argued that the Second Amendment is the sine qua non for all the others. As Jefferson observed, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.” Words on parchment aren’t worth much without the power to enforce them. Everything’s all rainbows & puppy dogs as long as there is a broad consensus concerning societal values. Once that breaks down, there’s no longer republican virtue; it’s every group for itself.
That doesn’t necessarily mean violent conflict. The tensions can be eased by segregation of the various groups, who then mostly leave each other alone. The problem with the Left is that they won’t leave everyone else alone because they are ideological rather than practical. It’s not enough for them to create their own enclaves. They insist that everyone conform. This has been the cause of all the subversion and wars of choice that the GAE has pursued to make the world safe for democracy, to coin a phrase.
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This link merely points to your own YouTube history, which is great for you but useless for the rest of us. I assume you are referring to the video linked below, which has about the right length and was published two weeks ago.
I don’t have an hour to spend on this thing but his claim made early in the discussion that multiculturalism is the principal culprit is wrong. Multicultural societies can and do exist without armed conflict if the various ethnic groups leave each other be. The more fundamental problem is an ideologically-driven subgroup will who not leave everyone else to their own devices, as I noted in the previous comment. This includes religion as ideology but it also includes the “progressive” Left*, whose ideology has religious fervor.
*including the Neocons who, true to their roots, have come out of the closet as leftists
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To prevent civil war, we need to get really good at communicating across the party lines.
Here you can check your ability to recognize political bias in media. I got 9 out of 10 correct.
Also, this comparison of left-vs-right narratives on the stories pretty interesting:
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Thank you and sorry about that. My own technical ineptitude strikes again. Please grant me a little slack. I completed college in 1967 without even hearing the word “computer”.
Addendum I have tried to fix it.
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Betz’s earlier interview with Louise Perry rendered with voice synthesis to get rid of the quasi speech impediment:
https://x.com/jabowery/status/1907474989533770062
Commenting on that war, Derbyshire warns:
“Don’t RELY On Civil War”
My response is that even if only a 4% per year chance, you’d better at least take out an insurance policy. Betz says of this 4% figure:
“I’m more pessimistic than her. I think that the potential is higher. But if you were to go with her judgment, then you’re looking at four percent a year. If the conditions don’t change — which, as I said, I don’t think there’s any indication whatsoever from our current government that there is intention, or let alone ability, to change the conditions — then that’s the statistic that one needs to encounter.”
How big of an insurance policy?
How many times do I have to repeat myself about countycurrency.org you property owners out there?
BTW: I may finally have done myself in in these parts because of the property owners’ reliance on the World Reserve Currency trickledown through the private sector rent-seeking hierarchy. I criticized a philanthropy founded by the largest land owner in Nebraska who was born around here. These centralizations of private sector wealth into “philanthropy” are virtually without exception subverted for the benefit of urban minority and immigrant populations even when the stated purpose is the revitalization of rural culture. Everyone is absolutely terrified by the, how shall I put this… compassionate young beautiful women with hearts of gold put in charge of these gold hoards.
There’s your “civilization” civwest.
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Just today, I learned of Rod Dreher’s book, Live Not by Lies and a documentary film of the same name, released in April 2025. I’ve watched the first episode so far and find myself again floored. At the outset, a woman in the UK is standing on the sidewalk, alone, not speaking or moving - doing nothing. She is accosted by police who ask her what she is doing there. Is she praying? Does she know she is in an “exclusion zone” where this is not permitted? If she is unwilling to leave, she will be arrested and taken to the police station. No matter how bad I thought I knew the state of the UK to be, this left me utterly despondent.
Following are numerous interviews with people from Czechoslovakia, who experienced the beginnings of totalitarianism there at the end of WWII. They are an only slightly a slightly less polished version of life here in the past decade or so. To watch, you must join angel.com I think they’re doing some very good work and am glad to support them - despite my sense it is already too late.
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Angel Studios produced Sound of Freedom, which we saw in a local (AMC) theater a couple of years ago. The film treats the horrifying subject of the sex trafficking of children. It’s hard to imagine that this level of pure evil exists in the world, as well as the remarkable people who take risks to fight it.
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