A Look at China Part Five
I came across this passage yesterday while reading a book on the Southern United States discussing the aftermath of the Yamassee War (1715—1718).

"In the meantime. the British authorities began political steps to prevent the rise of any future tribal confederacies that might threaten their trading empire. In essence the English determined to follow the old rule of divide and conquer. They would forment discord among tribes by pitting Indian against Indian. Inparticular the Carolinians would sustain a Creek-Cherokee feud. "This makes the matter of great weight to us,' explained on colonist, "how to hold both as our friends, and assist them in cutting one another's throats. This is the game we intend to play."
Tribes of the Southern Woodlands

Three great powers of Europe England, France and Spain were carving up North America and the American Indian tribes. Our founding fathers grabbed the prize from the Europeans. The next century Western powers moved onto China.

I'm on the fence, kinda torn. On the one hand I think the government (federal, and many states) did a bad job of being consistent in COVID-19 messaging and that fed into a lot of people's paranoia and government mistrust. We really don't need people gathering together to protest social distancing, and part of me thinks they are just pawns doing the bidding of Big Oil who desperately needs us to start consuming gasoline at a breakneck pace again.