In 1863, during the Civil War, the First South Carolina Volunteers, an all-Black Union regiment composed of many who escaped from slavery, was mustered into federal service at Beaufort, South Carolina. In 1945, Pvt. Eddie Slovik, 24, became the first U.S. soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion as he was shot by an American firing squad in France.
It is a darkly dystopian vision of Britain's future, in which tens of thousands die in a bitter civil war in just a few years time. Yet such forecasts are no longer limited to niche corners of the internet or the X feed of Elon Musk, condemned by Downing Street for claiming that war in Britain was inevitable after the post-Southport rioting.
"The story is not lace and doilies and sitting comfortably by the fire," Gunderson said. "They're at war, their father might not come home and there's a plague next door that's killing the community. These are really high stakes, and these girls are growing up in this moment of American division and crisis, the real stress-testing of humanity all around them."
In the past weeks, a MAGA civil war has erupted among Trump supporters over the Department of Justice's claim that no Jeffrey Epstein client list exists.