By Occupy 2.5 Staff | June 17, 2025

On June 14, 2025, in a quiet neighborhood outside Minneapolis, an armed assailant dressed in what appeared to be police gear shot and killed a local city councilwoman and her husband in their home. Moments later, he injured another elected official and that official’s spouse at a separate location before being apprehended. What officials are calling a “lone wolf” act bears all the hallmarks of coordinated, ideologically motivated terror.

This is not random. This is the opening volley of the American Civil War — one that’s been stoked by years of fascist rhetoric, disinformation, and growing right-wing paramilitary fantasy. The killer wasn’t acting alone. He was backed by an entire cultural machine that teaches followers to “own the libs” by any means necessary — even if that means killing their families.

William Shirer, in Berlin Diary, documented how fascism rises not through mass armies at first, but through small, shocking acts of violence that go unanswered. He warned that “when the state excuses terror, the public eventually accepts it.” Just as Nazis in the 1930s normalized assassinations and political purges under the guise of patriotism, we are watching a violent ideology take root on American soil.

The MAGA movement has always hinted at this. “Second Amendment solutions.” “Civil war memes.” They weren’t jokes. This is what happens when you grant power to a cult that defines democracy as the enemy and sees violence as a solution.

To fascist sympathizers reading this: If you think this is about pride, revenge, or owning liberals, you are inviting something that will consume your country, your community, and your family.

America is not slipping into civil war. We are being shoved — and the pushers are proud of it.

It’s time to call it what it is. And fight it.