Actor Alec Baldwin claimed in an Instagram video on Tuesday that the United States is currently experiencing a "pre-Civil War" culture.
The actor explained to his social media followers that after returning home from a trip abroad, he decided to watch Ken Burns’ PBS documentary The Civil War without any "explicable provocation." The miniseries details the entirety of the American Civil War.
"in the world of the subconscious," something told him to "pick up the remote and turn on" his television to watch the series.
"Something told me, something led my hand to pick up the remote and turn on my television… and watch Ken Burns' famous miniseries," Baldwin said. "And boy, you can see now that we are in a pre-Civil War culture now."
He drew comparisons between today's political climate and that of the years leading up to the Civil War, though he acknowledged "profound differences, of course.”
"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," Baldwin said. "But I look at the politics of it, of where people are in this country today, in 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."
Baldwin added that it "doesn't seem likely right now" that the country will come together.
"Watching this show ['The Civil War'] really reminded me how we are in a very similar state now, in a pre-Civil War culture, in a pre-Civil War environment… It's hard to believe," he said, concluding by recommending that people watch the miniseries.
