The question isn’t whether America will break up. It’s how to put it back together

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

What unites the United States? Most obviously, it’s the ability to go from California to New York without asking anybody. But Americans cannot do that anymore. During COVID, there are hard borders everywhere, and post-COVID is nowhere in sight. Are the states really united anymore?

People ask whether the United States will break up in Civil War, but they’re missing the point. 250,000 people have already died. The war has already been fought, and it was biological. America has already broken up. Just look at the map. The question is whether you can even put it together again.

Take, for example, New Mexico.

New New Mexico

Right now New Mexico is in a Union of two, with Vermont. And it’s not even mutual. See this map from their tourism board, which is basically tired of your shit.

Right now it is easier for an American to go to Mexico than New Mexico. For some suicidal reason Mexico will just temperature scan you whereas New Mexico sends you straight to quarantine. If you’re just passing through, they tell you to just pass through. Don’t stop to pee, don’t look at anything, just get going. Their FAQs are pretty pissed:

This is not a time to shop for souvenirs, visit state parks or sightsee. Please recognize that if you are traveling amid a global pandemic you are bringing the risk of a highly contagious and lethal virus with you and taking it with you as you go. You must wear a face-covering if you are in public while in the state. Please limit your activities to only the essentials.

The only people the Land of Enchantment welcomes right now are Vermonters, which is a weird way to secede, but you know, Don’t Spread On Me. Vermont of course doesn’t welcome anybody. Everybody goes straight to quarantine.

An American passport is already worthless abroad. Now Americans need passports (driver’s licenses) to go state to state. It’s like this across the whole country.

The 19 Colonies

19 states (including DC) have asserted sovereign control over their borders (quarantine or testing requirements). Call them the COVID 19. These states closed their borders unilaterally, like an independent country would. Even America’s colonies are like “homie, call first.” Hardish borders now cover 41% of the population (or in enslaver-speak, the electoral vote).

Trump built his wall. He just never said you’d be trapped inside.

These nineteen states have effectively seceded from the Union. Americans are now strange to the world and strangers unto themselves.

You can say it’s temporary, but how temporary? Without a national strategy to end this it will not end. At least 200,000 people are getting infected every day. Daily cases have already doubled since election day. These nineteen states are closing off for a reason. They’re surrounded by a hostile Confederacy of COVID.

The Confederacy of COVID

If each US state was a country, they would still be among the worst outbreaks in the world. Unlike every country on Earth, however, these red states are wide open. They’re constantly reinfecting each other. They cannot control an epidemic this way, and they’re not even trying.

Texas has the 10th worst outbreak in the world and yet the governor is blocking cities like El Paso from saving lives. That state, however, will enlist incarcerated (re: enslaved) labor to work the morgues. Welcome to the Confederacy of COVID.

It’s not that just America is collapsing down to the state level, America is collapsing into city-states. For example, Illinois has no statewide restrictions, but the city of Chicago does.

Those traveling from a “red” state are asked to avoid travel, but if they visit Chicago, they must quarantine for 14 days, or the length of their stay. (NYT)

Many countries like China and Vietnam have done regional shutdowns while other parts stayed open, but this is different. This isn’t strategic. This is just collapse. While blue states have rebelled against Trump getting them killed, red states are already rebelling against any Biden attempt to save them.

For the first time in their history, one party is not accepting the election results. This cripples the new government from the start. Red-state governors are already rejecting any mask-guidance from the center, which is the most basic thing. It’s not that these areas are not governed, they’re ungovernable. Hence this is not some temporary division. These states have gone feral.

These governors won’t tell their people to put a cloth over their face, how will they distribute a vaccine? These people won’t even acknowledge the existence of the President-Elect, why would they follow any orders? The Confederacy of COVID doesn’t even need to fight a war. They’re already killing themselves to own the libs.

The end of the United States

As Tourism New Mexico will tell you, the United States of America does not exist. The palace has dissolved into intrigue. The people have dissolved into plague. Americans are not living in a society. They are trapped in a clown car, careening off a cliff.

Americans are in a car with 56 brakes and 56 gas pedals and every governor (and mayor, and judge) is jamming them at the same time. The only result is that you spin, uncontrollably.

At every level your society has completely atomized. Your federal government is headless, lobotomized in a stupid coup. Your states have imposed hard borders or gone completely feral. Cities are rebelling. Then look at your people. This chaos spills onto your streets.

Just look around. Some people mask, some people don’t, some people gather, some people stay home. People fight over the very existence of the problem instead of uniting to fight it. The result of a leadership vacuum is not just collapse into lower forms of government. It’s complete societal collapse. American society has — at a biological level — fallen apart.

This is not in the future. This is not hypothetical. I am telling you now.

I have lived through collapse in Sri Lanka, and it was never this bad. America has already lost more people than the entire Sri Lankan Civil War, and you will likely double that again. Our 2018 coup left us without a functional government and 269 people died. America doesn’t have a functioning government during a pandemic, and that’s just the risk you know about. You’ll be lucky to get away with 200,000 dead. I’m so sorry. It’s fucking traumatic.

America has already broken up into constituent states. Look at a map, or just try to travel across them and see. You cannot get your kicks on Route 66, They’ll kick you out. Right now going to New Mexico or South Korea is the same thing. They’re both foreign countries.

COVID-19 has already broken up the United States, and your new Confederacy doesn’t want to be put back together. Humpty Dumpty has fallen and half the kings men are still stomping on the poor bastard. Americans are not living in a united state anymore. You’re simply in a state. Hence you don’t need a civil war. Your civilization has already collapsed.

Trumpty Dumpty built a great wall,
Trumpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the task forces and even Biden
Couldn't put U.S. together again

Source for map: The NYTimes has a weekly updated list of State Travel Restrictions. I used the information as of 16 November, which I have PDF’d if anyone cares. I have classified mandatory quarantine/testing as ‘Tight’ and voluntary as ‘Loose’ and nothing as ‘Wheeeee’.