ok to just shoot people now apparently

[Ibby]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

But if sides are being taken, is the average soldier going to be more, or less, comfortable shooting a CBP agent compared to a civilian of unknown motives? Some will desert, I agree--a good percentage of cops have already resigned in the past few months--but I don't think any of them are going to take a stand against anybody in a uniform.

oh, 100%. The military will only be used against civilians, not rogue agents of a "hypothetical" fascist state. If the military does get involved, it will be to crush "dissidents" and, as flint says, kill people the government - whatever the hell that looks like - say are malefactors. but my guess is that its a little more likely that the military will splinter into Just More Militias rather than The Military Versus The People Of The United States. there's a lot of variables - violence after a narrow Biden victory is upheld by the courts looks different than violence after a narrow Biden victory is overturned by the courts looks different than violence after a narrow Trump victory is upheld by the courts looks different than violence after a narrow Trump victory is overturned by the courts, etc. also, listening to what folks who lived through recent unrest/revolutions in places like Ukraine and Syria and Libya have said about their experiences, i don't expect us to wake up and be like "oh there's a civil war happening now" - it'll just be slowly escalating violence until its militias holding territory and cities defending themselves from federal goon squads or rioting demonstrators or whatever.
and again, i sure fucking hope i'm wrong!!!!! i would LOVE to be wrong. because if i'm right and there is a shooting war (more than, like, there already is), a lot of my friends are going to die. i'm probably going to die. even if i don't stand up for my community and like, be on the front lines, between my health issues and my identity, i've got a pretty bad chance of coming through things fine. but from where I sit the opportunity to turn back the tide of violence seems to be slipping away. and thats unbelievably scary.