The West is Already in a Civil War
The West is at war.
Not yet with tanks or airstrikes, but with broken minds, shattered narratives, and psychological operations so effective that most people don’t even know they’re at war. It’s a civil war of consciousness, and the weapon is division. The victim is reality, writes Matt Agorist .
We are more divided than ever—not by chance, but by design. Political tribalism, algorithmic echo chambers, identity obsession, and weaponized media have created millions of parallel realities. And in each, only some of the corruption exists. Only some of the lies are real. And only your side is ever the victim.
This isn’t dysfunction. It’s strategy.
Divide, distract, dominate
Authoritarian regimes have traditionally relied on targeted repression and the manipulation of social divisions to prevent the emergence of a united opposition. – Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, 2018
The modern ruling class doesn’t need to censor everything—it just needs to inundate you with enough contradictory truths to make you completely stop seeking objective reality. That’s why scandals that would have ended careers or resulted in prison sentences in the past are now dismissed, depending on which way your algorithm feeds you.
One group sees endless corruption on the left, while ignoring the ongoing and despicable corruption on the right. The other group is obsessed with the disgusting policies of the left, while ignoring the despotic nature of the right. Both are right. And both are blind.
Because the system no longer hides corruption—but selectively leaks it. Controlled exposure breaks the collective outrage. What once united people now divides them. If only one team sees the abuse, the abuser retains power.
And if you’re so divided, you’re not going to overturn anything. You’re going to put all your energy into owning your neighbor, while the machine tightens the screws.
When conspiracy theories come out, but no one cares
In recent years, countless so-called “conspiracy theories” have proven true—or at least come disturbingly close. Government surveillance, censorship in collusion with tech companies, media manipulation, corruption in the pharmaceutical industry, an elite cabal of child traffickers, leaks from biolabs, control of digital currencies—all things once dismissed as conspiracy theories but now quietly confirmed by mainstream reports.
And yet nothing changes.
Because the public no longer processes the truth as truth. We process it through tribal filters. If it confirms your bias, you care. If it doesn’t, you ignore it—or worse, you call it disinformation. The ruling class knows this. It’s not a bug. It’s the whole damn system.
As long as we are psychologically at war with each other, they never have to worry about us questioning power itself.
History repeats itself – because it’s allowed to
Authoritarian regimes have long exploited division to strengthen their control. In the 20th century, tyrants used class, race, religion, and ideology to fragment resistance. They encouraged informants, snitching, and neighborhood surveillance. Once people oppose each other, the boot doesn’t even need to stomp. It’s already on your throat—and your neighbor has put it there.
This isn’t new. It’s just been digitized.
The civil war is in your head
“Individuals tend to conform to the attitudes of their social group—even when they contradict the facts—resulting in increasingly entrenched beliefs and hostility toward outsiders.” – Nature, 2024 – “Group identity and polarization in the digital age”
You don’t need a bayonet to break a nation. You just need to break the shared reality. That’s what’s happening now.
The real war is for your consciousness. What you believe. Who you trust. How you define truth. They don’t need you to love tyranny. They just want you to hate each other so much that tyranny seems like peace in comparison.
And so the people cheer for kings, as long as they wear the right colors. They demand censorship to silence “the enemy.” They applaud government crackdowns and economic warfare—as long as it’s aimed at the other team.
Meanwhile, the machine never changes. Only the logos.
The Only Way Out: Voluntarism and the Pursuit of Happiness
You don’t fight psychological warfare with protest signs or more tribal anger. You fight it by quitting the game entirely.
That is what voluntarism offers: a way out of the prison of coercion.
- You reject forced obedience and build systems based on consent.
- You stop obeying laws that harm peaceful people.
- You choose peer-to-peer trading instead of government-controlled money.
- You teach instead of indoctrinate.
- You use privacy tools, encryption, and decentralized networks.
- You build mutual aid where there was previously prosperity.
And most importantly, you strive for happiness, not power.
Because the state thrives on fear. It needs you to be anxious, angry, divided, and hopeless. It needs you to believe the only way forward is through its institutions. But there is another way.
Pursuing happiness isn’t just a right; it’s resistance. It’s building a world without violence, theft, or manipulation. A world where relationships are voluntary and power is earned, not imposed.
Make no mistake, this is not a call to pacifism or weakness. As Malcolm X said, “Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if anyone touches you, send him to the cemetery.” The pursuit of happiness is not submission, it is restraint with clarity. The state has already shown us what happens when violence is the only tool. It leads to fear, dependency, and decay. We can do better.
Voluntarism isn’t about resigning yourself—it’s about rising up without becoming what you despise. It’s about building power that doesn’t require a boot to exist.
That’s the only war worth fighting. And the only one we can actually win.