A bit of the ol'
Somnovexillology today, droogs. I've been drunkenly binge watching the HBO John Adams mini-series while having mass anxiety over the upcoming US election, and so for the past few days I've been having a series of dreams, each building on the other, where I am trying to survive in an America torn by civil war. In my first dream it had been about a year of conflict, and in the dreams I journeyed around the country trying to locate friends and family to keep them safe. Details of my journey in the dreams are hazy, but in each I saw a lot of flags, some appearing in multiple dreams (this has been going on for about 3 nights now).
I've been doodling the flags down in a dream journal, along with any names/nicknames of the faction that flag belonged to. Please note that this post is in no way political, nor meant to be predictive or at all realistic. These all just came from my dreams. Some of these factions are real movements/inspired by real movements, likely a result of reading something about them in my newsfeed before bed. I've been cleaning up and tweaking the designs, but each of the following flags are fairly representative of the images that appeared in my dreams.
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Unaffiliated Groups
In my dream, the war is between the Left Wing and the Right Wing, which are large pseudo-alliances between a variety of factions. The alliances are tenuous at best, and often shifting as some groups refuse to cooperate or have skirmishes between each other. In general, however, if a member of the opposing "wing" is present, the factions of the other wing will put differences aside to fight them. But, there are several factions that refuse to work with anyone officially, or don't restrict themselves.
The
Northeastern DMZ is located vaguely somewhere in the Rust Belt or New England. What I know about it from my dream is that a joint Commonwealth-EU peacekeeping mission supports them. The flag is more of a banner used by militia and diplomats from the DMZ trying to calm everyone down and stop the fighting. They are called the neutrals, or sometimes Treehuggers due to the flag and their pacifism.
The
Libertarian Association was originally the Libertarian Party's main joint militia group trying to fight for the party's values. Over time, the group has become less cohesive, but the "centrist" ethos they tried to pursue evolved into the Association becoming a large banner for mercenaries and freelancers. As Libertarians, just wanting to live as unmolested as possible and with maximum personal liberty, the best means of achieving this was not picking a side, but picking all sides. Association militias are for hire to any faction that wants them, and Association members are often nomadic and take jobs as they stumble on battlefields or contested regions.
The American Redoubt is a large network of survivalists living in the Montana-Idaho-Wyoming region. Based on a real movement in the world, they are "Christian Libertarian Survivalists" who migrated in mass at the start of the conflict to seek safety in numbers and common values. Paranoid and suspicious of those who refuse to join them, they are a hermit kingdom who attacks any who get too close, but they are willing to trade their crops and supplies in barter.
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The Left Wing
The Left Wing is the loose coalition/bloc of leftist movements. Some are separatists, others are trying to create a new federal government (since the federal government is gone but was Right Wing at the start of the conflict the Left Wing has a lot contesting governments rather than ideological militaries).
The Continental People's Congress is a syndicalist and anarcho-communist confederacy of far left city states, rural communes, and Marxist movements. They are the most organized Left Wing movement, though not the most stable. A major contender in the war, and increasingly hostile against neutrals and "fencesitters" as the horrors of war have made the originally minarchic government utilize harsher means to maintain the war effort against the "regressive lobotomites" of the Right Wing. They control parts of the Black Belt, the Eastern Seaboard, Missouri in particular, and regions in the Northwest. The Congress is large and has numerous representatives, but some kind of Central War Committee is in charge I think. Very much a Robespierrean vibe to them too.
The
Progressive American Republic was originally a splinter from the CPC, being a, well, group of progressives, social democrats, and neoliberals hoping to create their own utopic vision of America. The CPC failed them by becoming Marxist dominated, and I believe they have control of Colorado, portions of the Eastern Seaboard and a presence in Seattle. The most favored faction by the Commonwealth-EU peacekeeping mission, though said mission remains (officially) neutral and based only in the NEDMZ. They are very technocratic and have a strong focus on antibigotry, especially for LGBT+ groups. Lacking in freedom of speech and they are criticized for easily shelving their constitution’s “inalienable, inherent, fundamental human rights” through repeated declarations of emergency powers for the government. If I recall, they have two presidents, and one must be male and the other female? Possibly something I imagined later, its barely mentioned in my notes.
The
Socal Commune is fairly cut and dry. An alliance between San Francisco and Los Angeles, the greater metro staying alive through trade with the Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese. As one of the few open ports in America, the Commune leverages their power as a supply line to keep most factions off of them.
The Feminine Republic of California controls most of California, parts of Nevada and Arizona, and southern Oregon. They are not any kind of matriarchy, but have instead concocted an ideology rooted in railing against the "masculine" states of the past, focused on war, conflict, power politics, and chauvinism, and instead seek to create the "feminine state", one that is maternal, peace-loving, and cooperative by default. They are not pacifists, however. While they sympathize with the Progs, and have good relations with the CPC, they have a strong cult of personality around their leadership, who believe their ideology the panacea to all of America's woes. If the Progs or CPC won the war, California might join their nation, but for now they ready for when their perfect system can shine when the other Left Wing factions fail. Felt very... vaporwave in aesthetic to me.
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The Right Wing
Similar to the Left Wing, but less groups claiming to be a new government, and more competing factions who all claim to be the army that is fighting to restore the same legitimate government (despite said government mostly being dead). Few have attempted any kind of civilian government even in their heartlands.
The
Army of Eternal Freedom was the first faction I encountered in my dreams. Based mostly in Texas and pockets in the Deep South, they were once just allied gun-owner militias. Now, however, they are an almost Makhnovist-like anarchic zone, although they do not realize this nor get the irony. They view it less as carving out an anarcho-commune with a military to defend it, and more as military of god-fearing patriotic Americans working to build a safezone where people are free to live as they please in a fetishized vision of American Right-wing rhetoric. They would have a capitalist system, but the "necessities of war" and an enforced "charity and love for thy neighbor" has meant they in fact have a distribution network that looks very similar to what the CPC is doing. Called Molons and Lambdas because of their use of the "Molon labe" motto frequently. The "freetards" label was what every single Leftist I encountered in my dream called them. Unaffiliateds and Rightists were who had more respect.
The
One America Movement started as Deep South revolt against the CPC in white-majority areas. While claiming to want to create a 1950s "good ol days" vision of Americana and prosperity, they have a strong Neo-Nazi and White Supremacist faction that, ironically wishes to create two Americas; one white and one brown, one that is prosperous, and one that is a source of labor for that prosperity. Even their most devout members are recognizing the white supremacism in the group, but conflict with the black-majority militias of the local CPC and Progs has seen this white supremacism spread amongst the troops.
The
Second Sons' Republic are a very small faction controlling regions of the East Coast and are basically just some suburban militia communes that despise both Leftism and Trumpism as treason to the Founders' vision. They lack much power, and mostly just begrudgingly work with the other Right Wing factions for survival. Given their moderatism, they constantly lose members and territory to their "allies". As a moderate faction, however, they have begun to gain support from the outside world as they hope that a "Snake" (or Snek as everyone was pronouncing it in my dream) controlled Right Wing could mean a truce and peaceful resolution. It's an uphill battle, though, as the war makes young people crave the fiery passion of fanaticism.
The
Soldiers of the Storm are QAnon fanatics who are the oldest faction of the Right Wing, or at least the first to see the conflict as a civil war and not just nation-wide rioting. They have a cult like reverence for the texts of the now constantly sockpuppeted "Q" account as well as the deceased President Trump, and see neutrality or leftism as akin to utter treason to the Founders. As such, the group has become a cabal of political commissars, more or less a group within the other factions that help the Right Wing weed out traitors and "soon-to-be-traitors". Given this function, some fear the "Qanonites" are almost trying to perpetuate the war and love thriving in this era of the conflict, seeing it as a time to purge the "pedophiles and leftist degenerates" in this "Great Awakening and Cleansing" of America.
The
Union of Great America is the largest faction of the Right Wing, and started as the more political arm of the Soldiers of the Storm as the Federal government collapsed. The remnants of the federal government were then absorbed into this political arm and became the Union of Great America, a new government for the United States that will be "great". Y'know like America once was, or something. What does "great" actually mean? Well after Trump died (I think assassinated?) they took his rhetoric, platform, and policies and created a political ideology of populism, anti-elitism, strong-arming, and xenophobia. Ironically it greatly twists even what Trump said to suit the goals of its creators. Great America controls Utah, parts of Idaho, parts of Arizona and New Mexico, and much of the Midwest sans CPC controlled Chicago and NEDMZ Detroit (I think... might just be filling in the blanks now as I type though). The war has meant a greater focus on fighting than implementing their vision of "Trumpism," however, so as of right now their territory just tries to operate like pre-war America. Their declared postbellum ambitions are what stop any nations beyond Russia and its allies from recognizing them as the legitimate government of the United States. If I recall they are also having an internal power struggle between Candace Owens and Ivanka Trump. And yes, they use Orange stripes because they embraced the "orangeman bad" meme fully and took orange as the color of Trumpism in my dream.
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