A major survey and study by a group of political scientists – pre-published in 2022 under the title
“Views of American Democracy and Society and Support for Political Violence” – has found that half of Americans agree to some extent,
including 13.7% ”strongly or very strongly,” with the statement that “in the next few years, there will be civil war in the United States.”
The study also detected substantial minorities who openly admitted (the real numbers are bound to be higher) that they were ready to engage in political violence themselves to
”threaten or intimidate,”
”injure,” or even
”kill a person.”
18.5% of respondents believed it was ”at least somewhat likely that within the next few years” there would be ”a situation where they believed political violence was justified” and they would ”be armed with a gun.”
36% of respondents to the ”Views” study – 56% of Republicans and 22% of Democrats – agreed that ”the traditional American way of life is disappearing so fast that we may have to use force to save it”; and 18% found that ”because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.”
If a belief in a coming civil war – and a readiness to fight in it – are disturbingly popular, so is deep skepticism about the realities of the current political system.
Almost 70%, ”with very similar results for Democrats and Republicans,” agreed that ”American democracy only serves the interests of the wealthy and powerful.” Frankly, who can blame them for being realistic?
Yet that is not all. The 2022 study also explored how far Americans endorse views associated with the anything-but-realistic
”QAnon” ideology, which is, of course, radically antithetical to the current political order:
22.7% agreed – 9% strongly or very strongly – that ”a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles” are in control.