i very regularly think that americans have an extremely skewed perspective on revolutions, primarily because ours was largely successful, less (aesthetically) horrific than average, and took place prior to mechanized total war.
I once had this silly dream that we could trick the GOP into importing Venezuelans en-masse to make the country more anti-socialist and then get Democrats to import victims of right wing governments, etc etc
importing more middle eastern muslims into the US because the GOP wants more religious conservatives that also tend to become fiscally conservative by the time they have children
My family hosted a refugee from Sierra Leone. We had him, his family, and friends over for Thanksgiving one year and no lie it really put the day in perspective.
The French tend to possess a fairly nuanced understanding of the perils and gruesome nature of revolution based on their own long history with choppy choppy the ruling class
Actually I suspect it’s a good analogy: any revolution that the US engaged in today would look more like the French Rev than the American, which were w/i mere decades of each other. One was a guerrilla war designed to be an unsustainable nuisance, the French had to execute their entire ruling class.
It would also presumably devolve in much the same way as the reign of terror did, where the "victors" in the revolution wound up being just as bad of tyrants as the monarchy had been.
It’s easy to think the Founding Fathers were smarmy shits but the fact that they pulled off a revolution and then went on to actually found the govt they said they would is pretty fucking remarkable and I get why they were so cocky
The founding fathers are flawed humans and there’s lots to criticize, but president Washington actually stepped away from power and retired, though he could have been elected for life. He gave us a peaceful transition of power, and that isn’t a small thing.
So many haven’t managed it. It’s not small
Almost every one of these cosplay socialists who dreams of revolution thinks that they’ll be part of some intellectual leadership writing missives about their noble cause while other people serve as the actual cannon fodder on the front lines.
The punchline is when they start bleating about the Maoist revolution and like, my babies: the pointy-headed academics were the first ones shipped off to be farm laborers in the Asscrack of Nowhere, China! That's you, dumdum! You're going to be pulling rocks out of a field for 14 hours a day!
Yeah they always say something about how they're going to make art and study linguistics and I ask them why they think they won't be working at the sewage treatment plant, and who they think will be instead.
My favorite was the guy who said his job on the commune was going to be a helicopter pilot medivacing all the people dying of starvation on the commune
Now let's be fair: not *all* of them got shipped off to remote provinces for brute labor! Some of them had show trials and were executed for treason, and some just got shot in the street or beaten to death! Good times!
I love talking to apocalypse guys about logistics. I'm guessing most people who pray for war have about the same understanding of how stuff gets to places.
The people who remember wars fought on our soil all died a long time ago and it fucking shows.
The Civil War was a goddamn horror show and I can’t imagine how much worse it would be if it happened again.
I know someone who does in depth studies of the 30 Years War.
His opinion: "it really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really sucked."
I kinda think that a successful communist revolution in an industrialized state is impossible, from first principles
the capture of the industrialized state requires mechanized total war, which annihilates the wealth that the communist revolution was meant to capture
To that add a large part of the public education system teaching about the Civil War in a manner calculated to minimize its horror & obscure its cause, along with a gun culture that fuels vigilante/revolutionary hero fantasies.
i know historians go back and forth on this but it being a "revolution from above" matters. the people who led it were people congenitally suspicious of mass rule
Interestingly, the historical consensus these days is to play down the revolutionary aspects of the American revolution - the war ends with basically the same guys in charge as before (colonial elites like Washington, Hancock, Jefferson, etc).
It's a more outwardly-directed war of independence, the Colonies vs. Britain. Still extremely not fun! But somewhat less internecine in its bloodletting than something like the French or Russian Revolutions.
The real revolutionary change in the American colonies was the century or so of weird political evolution prior to 1776, when the British just let the colonists do their own thing.
It's also so long ago that it's become mythical. The details are so unimportant. I'm from the country America revolutioned from and I probably know more than the average American.
