One month into the Russo-Ukrainian war, the world adjusts to seeing a conventional military conflict. The world did not pay attention to Yemen nor to Ethiopia, but the media did not tell them to care. The conflict is not a police action after a steamrolling of a poorly equipped Muslim nation. The unification of the American center needed an external problem to coalesce, and my God they have moved lockstep in condemnation of Russian aggression. With the non-stop media messaging, the left has memed normal redditors into volunteering for cannon fodder duty and the right posts about Red Dawn tactics. Actually, both left and right do this with such horrible advice as shooting out the optics of a tank with an AK like it is Fortnite. This first month of fighting should end the video game and Marvel movie inspired fantasies of insurgency.

The video online and body counts rising should be enough for the American political factions to see that the civil war hype will have a horrendous end. One video showed a Ukrainian hitting a tank with an anti-tank propelled weapon, only to be killed shortly once he was spotted. Redditors post on the horrors of war, even the American veterans, because war is a different beast when you do not have overwhelming firepower and total air dominance. Some redditors are returning without even fighting because the terms and conditions (like it’s an app) are too much. Some are given guns and sent to trouble spots and complaining they did not sign up for that. Missiles do not care if all you did was come to be a medic. You are an enemy. You are just as good of a target.

The mismatch between propaganda fueled emotion and reality is best displayed in this Washington Post article of the brave international volunteers. Adam is a twenty something from Sherman Oaks, California who just had to fight for freedom from tyranny. Innocents are dying. The Tigrayans and Houthis did not count, but Ukraine fit the bill. This dual American-Israeli citizen went to Ukraine with no skills but said he wanted sniper duty. Another American wanted sniper duty, was assigned to a sniper unit and said he “had never killed a man in my life… but I am going to enjoy [it].” This is your brain on propaganda. This is a lifetime of Hollywood movies and video games looking for the head shot streak. Later in the article, these men complain about equipment, supplies and the danger of missile strikes. They want the immediate adrenaline rush of the front. It is vitalism all in service of the cause (defending the empire’s goals).

There is no insurgency, yet. There is just two well armed militaries going at each other in the 20th century fashion with the added drone and surveillance technological flourishes. Even if there is an insurgency, these men would be on the receiving end of overwhelming firepower and death from above. They would eb playing the role of identified target, possible goat herder, who gets droned to death. If they are concerned about missile strikes now, they should be fearful of the drone and missile capabilities when there is total air control over their heads.

This is also a lesson, likely unlearned, for those who push civil war fantasies. This is not Red Dawn. That was a wonderful ’80s action film about plucky teenagers who become guerilla warriors killing Soviets with cool tricks and good supplies from friendly citizens. There is no guerilla warfare montage with shouts of Wolverines. In a domestic fight, who is going to have all the firepower? Who will be the side shooting at armored carriers and tanks or at least police controlled MRAPs? This is not to say that organization may not happen. This is not to say there are not millions who would fight. A man may rise like Wrangel in Always With Honor to lead an opposition. America is a very well armed society. Will to use those arms matters as well. In 2020, the left showed they will cause terror for their goals (until their paymasters say enough). The right had sporadic responses if there were any, but behaves as if waiting for an official email to go out that “it’s time“.

There is another thing that matters, and this has been on display recently, and should imprint memories into these fantasists’ heads. We have seen with 1/6, the Canadian trucker convoy and now the Russo-Ukrainian war that the media will turn every single megaphone to full blast to demonize the opposition in an unrelenting fashion until your old auntie is calling for blood. If you think those leftoids in a covid or Ukrainian fueled frenzy would bat an eye at wiping out a million problematic right wingers within their borders, you are lying to yourself. The trucker convoy showed the system will not resist the urge to isolate any domestic threat, and the sanctions and other economic tools deployed against Russia show they will do it even if it inflicts pain on themselves. If you are even tangentially connected to someone in an insurgency, the American system may freeze your money. With the actions against Russia as a template, they may even seize it. Why would anyone support you if it meant unpersoning and elimination from employment to feed their family? Add in a dollop of covid tracking and hysteria, and how is anyone going to get near you without suspicion from the authorities? Looking at opinion surveys, the covid shots were a regime loyalty test.

These are problems and the authorities would have weaknesses and problems as well. They would have skin in the game and face risks. It would not be a far-off fight. Just as Red Dawn fuels some fever dreams, it can create worries and anxieties for others who may be on the receiving end. Pablo Escobar could get through to the elite by going after their families and even supporting the execution of some elites. Terror against the masses did not matter to his opponents. Only when they were at risk did they negotiate. This is not a video game nor the fantasies of these Ukrainian international volunteers who think it is sniping and waiting for loot crates via aerial supply.

This is why these Red Dawn fantasies must die. It is a gruesome outcome. Face reality. We are not voting our way out of this, but building up power centers makes sense. We have witnessed a very unified imperial core become even more unified albeit while losing competency and following a psychotic ideology that prevents any correction. A crisis is coming, beyond what we see now, and in those crisis moments, the way pieces on the board are arranged matters. Stacking state governments matters. Making areas unhospitable for the other matters. Your county sheriff matters maybe more than any other elected official you can vote for in November. Making those states strong enough to disregard federal edicts is even more important. The left does it all the time, and if the current regime were to fall today, it’d likely be replaced by a woke, 1619 inspired clique than any right wing alternative. The right needs to learn. The right needs to learn the time to start was yesterday, but there is no time better than today. Hopefully, all of the civil war talk is concern and meant as a warning and not a pre-game hype session. That is our hope. We can see the casting and plots to pop culture productions like Hunters, therefore, we know that is not true.