It is always useful to have a single word with which to identify and marginalize the enemy in any kind of conflict, and "Balkanizer" seems to fit the bill.

Balkanizers, who include white nationalists on one side and purveyors of Critical Race Theory on the other, are useful idiots for foreign and domestic enemies of the United States who would like nothing more than to get our people to self-identify by race (e.g. "person of color"), ethnicity, and/or religion as opposed to self-identifying as Americans.  These enemies would like nothing more than to have the "woke" left persuade Black people that American society is their oppressor and they do not have an equal stake in our society while White supremacists foment hatred of all non-White Americans.

Balkanization is why a Serbian terrorist murdered the heir to the Austrian throne in 1914.  Archduke Franz Ferdinand was a reformer who wanted to make the Austro-Hungarian Empire's Slavic peoples equal to the ruling Austrians and Hungarians — that is, create an entity in which all of its people would think of themselves as Austro-Hungarians as opposed to Czechs, Slovakians, Bosnians, Croats, and so on.  These reforms would have obstructed Serbia's agenda of creating a southern Slavic, or Yugoslavian, empire by breaking up Austria-Hungary.  Serbia succeeded at the cost of tens of millions of European lives and roughly 115,000 American ones, but Yugoslavia later broke apart because its people continued to think of themselves as Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes rather than Yugoslavians.  The very weapon Serbia used against Austria-Hungary in 1914, Balkanization, later destroyed Yugoslavia itself.

Today's Scottish independence movement suggests that the United Kingdom never succeeded entirely in getting its people to think of themselves as Britons rather than Scots, Irish, or Welsh. A "Bavaria Independence Party" wants similarly to secede from Germany, while the Soviet Union fell apart when Ukrainians, Lithuanians, and others reminded themselves that they were not Russians, had never been Russians, and did not want to be Russians.  Ferdinand and Isabella did not completely unify Spain, either, because now many people in Catalonia want to leave.

Balkanizers = Enemies of the United States or Useful Idiots

The agenda of Balkanization is therefore to transform a unified country into a squabbling aggregation of different racial, religious, and ethnic groups.  This makes its promoters useful idiots for foreign and domestic enemies who seek to undermine the foundation of American nationalism as described by Theodore Roosevelt.  This is the proposition that America is one indivisible nation for all who share our values regardless of what they look like, how or if they pray, where they or their ancestors came from, or when they or their ancestors became citizens.

Cui bono?  (Who benefits?)  Rival nations such as Mainland China and Russia have much to gain from internal division within, or even the outright breakup of, the United States.  Vladimir Putin was formerly in the KGB, he knows how Balkanization broke up the former Russian Empire, and he doubtless knows how to use all forms of propaganda to undermine another country.  It would not surprise me if at least some Balkanizing movements are projects of hostile foreign intelligence agencies, under the influence of hostile foreign nations, and/or supported with untraceable cryptocurrency from hostile foreign nations or non-state actors.  Some far-right entities involved with the Capitol riot did apparently get Bitcoin donations, so we have to ask which other divisive entities in our country are getting them as well.

Meet the Balkanizers

• Nobody knows who QAnon's Q really is, which is exactly why Russia, Communist China, Iran, and foreign terrorist organizations cannot be ruled out.  They all have the means and motive to create an anonymous online personality to spread divisive disinformation about a shadowy global cabal of Democrats and Jews who harvest the adrenal glands of children to make adrenochrome, a chemical that can be purchased legally from chemical supply houses.
• The Black Lives Matter movement uses Balkanizing language such as "allyship," which demotes the relationship between Caucasian and Black Americans from "fellow citizens" to "allies," and also "white privilege" to divide rather than unify African-Americans and their Caucasian neighbors.  This aspect of the BLM movement, as well as so-called "educators" who teach Critical Race Theory, allyship, and White privilege, makes them useful idiots for genuine foreign and domestic enemies of the United States.  On the other hand, anybody who does treat an African-American as anything less than a fellow citizen is equally part of the problem.
• The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) had a web page that depicted "whiteness" as including values such as the nuclear family and the Protestant work ethic, as if non-White people lacked similar values before they encountered Caucasians.  Japanese workers have a reputation for putting in far more hours than Caucasians, Protestant or otherwise, and the same goes for Asian-American immigrants.  Black-majority nations in Africa also have a strong work ethic.
• The NMAAHC adds the Balkanizing statement, "People of color must always consider their racial identity, whatever the situation, due to the systemic and interpersonal racism that still exists."  White supremacists also call on their followers to always consider their racial identity; it's the same Balkanizing trash from two different dumpsters.
• Systemic racism — i.e., the proposition that the entire country is somehow racist as opposed to a small but visibly odious collection of White supremacists on one side and the likes of Louis Farrakhan on the other — is another phony Balkanizing canard.  It is definitely in the interest of our country's enemies to help the "woke" left persuade African-Americans that the United States is a systematically racist country and that all Caucasians are tainted with some kind of racist original sin, and simultaneously encourage and finance white supremacists to foment hatred of African-Americans to aggravate the division even further.
• Squad member Ayanna Pressley said, "If you're not prepared to come to that table and represent that voice, don't come, because we don't need any more brown faces that don't want to be a brown voice.  We don't need Black faces that don't want to be a Black voice."  If a White member of Congress said that about White faces and White voices, we would ask where he kept his sheet and hood, and we would probably find them.  Squad member Rashida Tlaib said similarly, "When will the world stop dehumanizing our Palestinian people who just want to be free?"  We do not have Palestinian people here.  We have American people, some of whom may have emigrated from Hamas-infested "Palestine" the same way the ancestors of other Americans emigrated from various countries that were good places to be from, and I stress "from," like tsarist Russia, Nazi Germany, and fascist Italy.

Balkanization has already resulted in the breakup of Yugoslavia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Russian Empire.  Balkanization is the reason for proposals for Scottish, Bavarian, and Catalan secession.  This makes those who want to similarly Balkanize the United States useful idiots for foreign and domestic enemies of the United States.  We need to marginalize them as such.

Civis Americanus is the pen name of a contributor who remembers the lessons of history and wants to ensure that our country never needs to learn those lessons again the hard way.  The author is remaining anonymous due to the likely prospect of being subjected to "cancel culture" for exposing the Big Lie behind Black Lives Matter.

Image: MasterTux via Pixabay, Pixabay License.