America 2020–2024 had become an Open City. Like Naples in 1943 and Paris in 1944, like Moscow in 1812, the controlling hegemony had fled, and the attacking force had not yet established control. Individuals, then, in the absence of any government, were free to plunder, loot, betray, subvert, at will—they had no interest in the ongoing health or viability of the City (in our case the State), but only in the newfound license for their particular thuggery.
