I've been thinking about this a lot over the last week

It's important to put this in historical context

How do great republics end? https://twitter.com/theroyalonee/status/1263378893681184770

Our earliest relevant example is Athens, which was eventually swallowed up by Alexander the Great

So, a republic can be overtaken by a vastly superior military empire

The next relevant example is Rome, which was usurped from within by Julius Caesar, and formally became an Empire later under Octavian, after the dust had settled

So, a republic can also fall victim to military coup

History is full of smaller republics that were never influential on an international scale, and eventually faded into obscurity... these do not offer much insight as it relates to a global superpower like the United States

So what other examples do we have to examine?

We could look at the USSR, which, although obviously a Communist Dictatorships, at least *called* itself a union of republics...

It collapsed under its own weight, with the pieces splintering off into smaller republics, for the most part, while mother Russia remains totalitarian

Great Britain is another close example; a parliamentary democracy mashed up with a hereditary monarchy that peaked in the Victorian Era, and collapsed under the stress of two World Wars and the subsequent loss of its colonial holdings

So, based on this analysis, the United States really has only a few likely outcomes

Being conquered by a larger empire, a la Athens, is unlikely at this point in time; although not impossible, it would require a military coalition of several adversarial powers to achieve this

Military coup leading to dictatorship is certainly possible; as is a socialist revolution that renders the Constitution invalid

I suspect this is the goal of present-day leftists

However, the socialist revolution would almost certainly lead to the third option, which is a fracturing of the nation

There is certainly precedent for this with our own Civil War

The secession of states along ideological lines could happen with or without armed conflict

The fourth option is the path we are on presently; persistent decay and erosion of influence

The only thing keeping it from happening at a more rapid pace is the fact that the rest of the world is just as much a mess as we are

I don't really see a more optimistic fifth option

Frankly, as bad as 2020 has been so far, it hasn't been bad enough to jolt people into real change

We're a largely ignorant and easily-manipulated population, controlled by wealthy elites who profit from this petty chaos

Maybe if the #CovidHoax had been real, and millions had died

Maybe if government oppression had been more overt, and millions had been allowed to starve

Maybe if police had been more violent, and millions had been shot

THEN you'd spur real change by culling the weak

But nobody in charge really wants that

They just want the sheep to dance, and to blame each other along the way

That's what we're doing

Republicans blame Democrats

Blacks blame Whites

The middle class withers away

The American dream dies a slow death

It's our own fault

We're all dumb as shit and weak as kittens these days

Nobody reads

Everybody watches TV or surfs social media

We have short attention spans and are afraid of deep thinking and hard work

We don't deserve any better

So we'll continue to drift onward

A fat, stupid worker bee population obsessed only with consumerism, short term gratification, and melodramatic bitching and infighting

Fortunately, the rest of the world only hates us only because they want to be just as soft and comfortable

So I don't know if there's any real external existential threat

China wants to dominate us only so we can feed and employ them, but if they had their shit together, they wouldn't need to

They can't even manage their own country

Russia has a cultural inferiority complex

The Middle East is back-asswards and fanatic

Europe has been dead for 75 years

Latin America has never known an advanced civilization

If we don't end up invaded by aliens

America will continue to lead the rest of the world into global dystopia

And that's what should alarm you

Because America is the world's best hope

And we are shitting the bed right now

We have been since about 1970

Fifty years of decline, and no real sign that any generation is ready to step up and pump the brakes

Turn your televisions off

Put down your smartphones

Read books, lift weights

Create more, consume less

Way less

That's the only solution I have for you