That is an opinion that a liberal in 1880s Britain would have held but by 1913 Britain was basically already in a state of Civil War over Ireland that was only post-poned by World War. It likely would have spread into Great Britain itself given the connections between Carson's extremist Anglo-Irish protestant movement to the British aristocracy and the large number of Irish people living in Britain plus the drift of liberal opinion towards more freedom for Ireland, such as Irish home-rule (which was somewhat different from actual secession). And the Civil War post-poned by WWI did actually occur, first during the Easter rising and then during the Irish Civil War among Irish nationalists themselves in the late teens and early 20s. Its worth noting here that while Catholic Ireland was granted autonomy in the aftermath of the 1916 Easter Rising it wasn't actually formally independent but was still formally part of the British Empire. The Irish Republic wasn't declared until 1949 and this terminated its membership in the commonwealth making it a fully independent country. Technically, the Civil War that occurred in Catholic Ireland after WWI was a Civil War within the British Empire itself. Then you had the troubles in the 1970s in 1970s, which made Britain the only Western country to have a low-level Civil War/insurgency going on in the same period.Officerkrupke wrote: Fri Oct 24, 2025 9:00 amI would argue that civil war is very unlikely here. More riots, and harassment is on the table.Anonymous_Lover wrote: Fri Oct 24, 2025 3:38 am Will the British Isles become the first place in history to descend into Civil War because of an inability to check anti-MAP brainrot? At this point, it looks not only like its possible but like a foregone conclusion.
Its worth noting that Britain in 1913 was really still at its apex of its power, still had many advantages in business, finance, technology etc. had one of the highest living standards in the world, basically ran much of the world and by doing so could compel even the parts of the world it didn't run to comply with many but of course not all of its wishes. There was an economic crisis brewing in the run up to WWI but it didn't effect Britain alone and was quite minor compared to recessions past. Things can go from bad to worse even in periods where its otherwise unthinkable -- perhaps especially because people are unaware of the danger.
But, even when people are aware of the danger and deep crises and structural issues at play, as most Americans were prior to the Civil War, its often the case that people can still stumble into disaster almost absent-mindedly. Of course, the Civil War in the US now appears inevitable to most historians in retrospect and many Americans thought it was inevitable at the time. But at the Battle of First Bull run, you had picnickers showing up to watch the first battle between the union and the confederacy. Many people had no conception of how bad it would get and how long it would actually last. Normalcy bias is a significant problem in people's reception. You often don't think that things will get really bad when you go outside and the birds are chirping, the sun is shining and life appears to be just going on as it always has. But if you look beneath the surface, its oftentimes very easy to see that a break of some sort is coming. We oftentimes don't know how it might manifest or what form it might take, hence black swans but its often not hard for critically-minded to see something coming down the pike even at the time.
I'm not saying Civil War in Britain will happen. It seems VERY likely at this point. But that the status quo cannot go on as it has is obvious and there is no one offering a credible positive alternative to that status quo at present and that's often a sign in itself that things will get bad.
