On Civil War

I really want to second this post. For those not clicking through, the gist of it is the more likely somebody says "civil war in the US is imminent" the more likely they are not playing with a full deck. Here's the real thing about civil war in the US circa now - if you're not prepared to walk up to your local cop and shoot them in the face, you are not prepared for civil war.

The linked post really drills down on that concept. It also drills down on a related concept, which is "what that guy over there thinks." A lot of polls ask questions like "are race relations bad?" People answer those polls based on what they think other people think, not what they think. That's a big difference.