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Comment by anthonylukach | Hacker News Reader

Can you expand upon what you mean by "political violence"?

For starters, this is an election year.

Something like: militia groups across the country decide to go into their nearest big cities and start killing anyone they view as political opponents. Or maybe high ranking elements in the armed forces decide enough is enough and start a coup, plus a violent crackdown on ensuing protest. The country is swimming in rage and weapons. It’s just a matter of time.

I'd rate neither of those as particularly likely. The armed militias tend to be preppers, and are more inclined to hunker down in place and just let the cities eat themselves and descend into chaos on their own.

A military coup? Having worked in a 3-star general's headquarters for years......absolutely not.

I would not describe the people who swarmed various state capitol buildings in recent weeks as hunkering down. They’re itching for a fight.

Fair enough on that point. Looking up on some of that, the Michigan Militia incident seems pretty egregious.

I honestly haven't followed most of the domestic US insanity since COVID-19 descended on the world. I checked in with family members "Have you cleaned your firearms? Buy some more ammo. Do you still have MREs? Double your bottled water supply too." and then tuned out a bit after the news everyday was basically "more people die in NYC".

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