Joe Rogan’s blunt warning that America may be flirting with “Step 7” on the road to civil war is not idle fear-mongering — it’s a wake-up call that conservatives and patriots should take seriously. Glenn Beck ran through the nine-step framework this week and pointed to Rogan’s comment after the violent attack on Charlie Kirk as proof that ordinary Americans are finally waking up to how badly our civic fabric has frayed.
Beck’s breakdown is simple and savage: loss of civic trust, identity polarization, gatekeepers collapsing, competing information realities, a politicized rule of law, the normalization of political violence — and then the rise of parallel armed forces. His point is plain: this isn’t theory, it’s a progression, and several of those steps are already completed or well underway in our time.
The murder of Charlie Kirk on a college campus jolted the nation and exposed how toxic public discourse has become, with footage and social posts showing horrifying celebrations from some corners and outrage from others. Mainstream outlets and national coverage make the fact of the attack unmistakable, and even now the aftermath is a show of how fractured our country is — grief on one side, glee on the other.
This rot didn’t start overnight. Trust in our institutions — media, government, corporations — has been collapsing for years, and respected surveys make that clear: people no longer believe the gatekeepers are neutral or competent, and that disbelief becomes fuel for lawlessness. The Edelman Trust Barometer and independent polling show Americans’ confidence sliding across the board, and that vacuum is where radicalism grows.
We’ve already tolerated political violence and turned it into a tool of propaganda instead of a national emergency. Independent researchers tracking demonstrations and armed presences report that armed activity at protests is correlated with a sharp rise in violence, and patterns from recent years prove how quickly escalation becomes normalized if elites look the other way. The question is whether decent people will let lawlessness become a permanent feature of public life.
Worse, the outlines of step seven are visible: state-versus-federal standoffs, governors deploying National Guard resources in enforcement roles, and armed actors showing up at political events and demonstrations. The more states pick and choose which federal rules to follow, and the more private armed groups treat the streets as their arena, the closer we get to the awful scenario Beck and Rogan warned about. This isn’t hypothetical — it’s the trajectory we’re on unless we change course.
If you’re a conservative who loves country, this moment demands action, not panic. Get back into your communities: support honest local law enforcement, vote in school boards and town councils, rebuild church and civic institutions, and don’t let your neighbors be turned into enemies by talk radio or cable hosts pushing division. The left’s strategy of crushing dissent and celebrating violence when it serves their ends must be met with steady, organized civic resistance — ballot-box engagement, local involvement, and moral clarity.
We can still stop this slide if patriots refuse to accept the normalization of political violence and the erosion of shared civic life. Wake up, show up, and stand for the rule of law and the God-given rights that made this country great. If we fail to act now, the “map” that Beck laid out becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy — and the cost will be paid in blood and in the loss of the republic our fathers entrusted to us.
