The fear mongers would have you believe that we're just one glitch away from the destruction of civilization, widespread violence and cannibalism in your cul-de-sac.
But we have major catastrophes fairly often, and time after time we see people helping people, not purging them.
However when ressources are no longer produced, people get hungry and desperate with no lights at the end of the tunnel, i.e. real game-changing global catastrophe, I hope I am wrong (and hope even more to never test that theory), but I doubt this would bring the best of humanity overall.
Fear mongers have one good thing: if you can reply with facts and destroy their theories, nutcase aliens mind controlling aside, it means that it has been studied or acknowledged. Simple dismissal might not be the best way to fix holes or anxious bodies.
This is NOT the same as a hypothetical EMP.
An EMP could potentially fry everything from small electronic devices (like those which control the flows in oil and gas pipelines and in chemical plants, and the circuit breakers meant to protect the grid from power surges) to the about 2500 large power transformers at the core of the US grid, which would take years to replace even under ideal conditions.
https://worldif.economist.com/article/13526/electromagnetic-...
In a dying society like that however, it will be almost impossible to allocate labor to fix issues that caused the blackout, because as time goes on, violence on the streets increases. Weeks on end without food, water, heat, sanitation, order on the streets, weeks without ability to call or text anyone, people's trust into the government disappears, as does the trust into the currency of the country.
In a scenario like that, society eventually hits the point of no return.
Also, I present Hurricane Maria hitting Puerto Rico as hard evidence that when the power is out for 2 weeks the society doesn't descend into violence
In the event where the entire US goes into the blackout for 2 weeks, things will be different. Sure, maybe not an apocalyptic anarchy on the streets, but there will be unrest. Because most people don't have extensive food and water reserves at the place of their residence.
The larger point I was trying to make is that things will be getting exponentially worse as time goes on, and the point of no return will be hit eventually, if we are not able to address the issue quickly.
To your larger point: sure if power was out over large swaths of the US for weeks on end, things would be difficult. But the power outage wouldn't be the problem, the problem would be whoever is causing the power to keep going back out (or the radioactive fallout from a nuclear war in the EMP scenario)