I've been reading about the various aspects of the English Civil War, seeing if there are any parallels between those events and present-day America.

The "Levellers" were a group which sound a lot like modern-day Republicans and Libertarians: where the latter two gangs support the US Constitution's ultra liberality in the form of widespread suffrage, equality before the law, and "government by the people"-style populism, so too did the "Levellers" value those same principles.

There was a second group which spun off from this first, who said the "Levellers" weren't taking things far enough: this new gang wanted social egalitarianism, no private property, an ecological relationship with nature, and "public" health care. What's more, they believed that the English people were historically "oppressed" post-Norman conquest! These fellows eventually became referred to as the "Diggers".

One potentially significant caveat: I am getting most of this information from Wikipedia, which as even its founders know, is not operating from a position of neutrality any longer. I am aware that the "Diggers" article may be written in such a way as to inaccurately amplify parallels, with the goal to justify contemporary Leftism by painting it as having precedent. The article does seem to be well-sourced by authentic references however, so for the moment I'm taking it at face value.

But back to the topic at hand: what I find so striking is that, just like today where the Left are misnomered as "Liberals" and "Progressives" when in fact their views are highly illiberal and regressive, similarly mistaken were the "Diggers" in thinking that their purity test showed them to be more liberal than the "Levellers", where in reality their "egalitarianism" and festering anger towards some nebulous "oppressive" force-- like the Spathi's "ultimate evil" in Star Control II, just beyond the range of the best radars-- was opposed to liberalism.

The good news in all of this is that the three English Civil Wars ended in a period known as the "Restoration", where a form of Parliamentary Monarchy was put in place, with the two "branches" keeping each other loosely in a check-like stalemate. Probably then, cooler heads will ultimately prevail in America, and some sensible order will be established.

One other thing which leaps out to me: here is what English Civil War looked like: men firing actual muskets at each other. Or-- different situation, but just to give the impression-- think back to Tolstoy's description of the "Battle of Borodino" bloodbath in "War and Peace". Today, "war" involves South Korea blowing up a building in its own territory, "Antifa" throwing beer bottles into police riot shields, and Indian and Chinese soldiers fighting with rocks and sticks.

This lack of political and social appetite for firearms, seemingly all over the world, is either a mere prelude to out-and-out "hot wars"-- or, the established power brokers, the multi-billion dollar corporations and their Fascistic friends in governments, who are moving all of these chess pieces simply don't want to upset the apple cart which has been so profitable for them. Either way, a lack of wide-spread violent may be a fortunate side-effect.