A few years ago I remember saying to a friend that I thought one of the key differences between the contemporary moment and the collapsing polities of the early to mid-C20th was the relative paucity of armed non-state actors acting with impunity. And, well, uh. https://twitter.com/DrRJKavanagh/status/1298532736790077440">https://twitter.com/DrRJKavan...

Relatedly, I think this is absolutely true & a good orientation. And yet: nominally democratic orders can accommodate (and even "normalise") significant political violence for long periods. The anni di piombo in Italy lasted 20 years at least. https://twitter.com/BreeNewsome/status/1298654489940041734?s=19">https://twitter.com/BreeNewso...

The entire political system collapsed a few years after most people deem the years of lead to have ended, of course. Hard not to see the murkiness of the strategy of tension and mani pulite as expressions of the same disorder. But those are the timescales, I think, at least.