everything

What a powerful movie. It puts into motion picture the worst case scenario of this road we seem to be traipsing down without a care.

As I write this, a hurricane barrels towards FL, and there seems to be a popular conspiracy theory that somehow the government is controlling the weather and directing hurricanes into red states before the election.

This is what we've come to as a nation, quite obviously being led into fractious division by external forces (it has been documented quite comprehensively how Russia, China, and Iran have been using our own social media services against us), and one of our two political parties, the leaders of which are quite aware of what is really going on, continues to attempt to leverage this situation to their own advantage.

Marco Rubio, who days before was decrying the BLS jobs report as fake, exhorting his constituents to listen to the government when they say the hurricane is strong enough to kill them and they should evacuate.

Conspiracy thinking when it suits him, but underneath he knows he's peddling lies and leading his followers deeper into fantasy land.

What does this have to do with the movie Civil War?

The line from the movie that I think explains why the movie was made:

“Every time I survived a warzone, I thought I was sending a warning home – don't do this. But here we are.” – Lee Miller, war photographer

The whole movie is a warning. To those who secretly hope that we end up in civil war, that they can fight it out to determine who is right. To those who want to make the people of their country who vote differently from them their enemy. To those who would seek to deport tens of millions of people.

That's why the movie takes no political stance, and muddles up its scenario to the point where either side of our political divide could claim it as their own. Because the point is not that one side is right and the other wrong. The point is that resorting to violence only leads us down the road to ruin. That war is hell, and we should do everything we can to avoid it.

Will we reverse course on our national delusions in time?