Actor Alec Baldwin warned his social media followers Tuesday that he believes the United States exists in a “pre-Civil War culture.”
“Boy, you can see now that we are in a pre-Civil War culture now,” Baldwin, 66, said in a video posted on Instagram. “When they describe things back then politically, there are profound differences, of course, in terms of just history and age and what life was like back then and cotton and slavery and Lincoln and Robert E. Lee and so forth.”
“But I look at the politics of it, of where people are in this country today, and the division and how they’re holding fast, and no one’s going to falter. No one’s going to break or compromise, and it’s bad,” he continued.
The actor said he reached this opinion after returning from a trip abroad and watching Ken Burns’s award-winning 1990 television documentary miniseries, The Civil War.
Baldwin said his decision to watch the miniseries was “purely subconscious,” and it showed him that, similar to antebellum America, the nation today is not moving toward progress or union.
“Watching this show really reminded me of how we are in a very similar state now, in a pre-Civil War culture, in a pre-Civil War environment,” he said. “It’s hard to believe.”
Despite support from his followers, many people across social media jumped to criticize Baldwin’s warning.
“Not sure that he is the most reliable source of the pulse of the Nation,” one X user said.
“I always find it interesting when the democrats start sounding like republicans when the other side is in charge,” another user commented. “Unfortunately for them and his take, the hand tight democrats are becoming more a minority every day. I think it will be more of a mental health crisis than a civil war.”
“Didn’t realize he was an historian. In reality, it’s the Democratic party that is in, or needs to be in, an internal Civil War,” another user said. “The country isn’t buying what they’re selling and most of them apparently can’t understand why.”