Current Events > Trump could now order the military to open fire on protesters.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Still holding onto the hope that he was just saying trumpy stuff and didn't really mean it. Hopefully he can assemble a halfway decent team. At least he hasn't gone on a crooked Joe rant yet, so there that.

The military could say no.

he had said he would do and locked up Hilary

Going to be hard to do so when the generals and other military leaders that would refuse to follow those orders get replaced by yes men loyalists.

I mean yes thats true and objectively horrific.

But Kamala didnt earn my vote

The military could say no.

in the end, every soldier is responsible for their own actions when they're given an unlawful order
they have the right to refuse

i really hope they know that

Many, maybe most, members of the military are Republican

Didn't most vets and soldiers vote for trump?

He could order it a maximum of once

The bread and circuses routine only goes so far and the right wing at least has to retain *some* semblance of normalcy until the levers are fully dismantled

in the end, every soldier is responsible for their own actions when they're given an unlawful order
they have the right to refuse

i really hope they know that

The military could say no.

Hopefully he can assemble a halfway decent team.

Even the Nazis didn't really use the military on their own people.

For every one person that says "no", there will be 5 others who step in and yell "YES".

it's better to go down fighting.

So the thing about this sort of activity is that it rarely works. Usually the military doesn't like engaging in it. Even during the Iranian revolution in the 70s there was resistance from the Shah's military to massacring protestors in the street. There are of course outliers like Kent state though. The cops, now the cops, are pretty much always willing to brutalize the populace.

There was a study done that I can't find right now, I'll keep digging to see if I can find it, that basically shows the cause for this sort of thing is that the military generally comes from the working class and are more likely to be sympathetic to the people in the streets. They may even have family members there. Whereas cops are usually drawn from the middle class and are hostile to anyone that might threaten the status quo and their comfortable place in it.

Hell. Even the Nazis didn't really use the military on their own people. They just used the cops, then later the Gestapo.

Are we just forgetting that the military has been used against protesters countless times throughout our history already?

it doesnt work out for the government.

Well it's a good thing cops don't have tons of military grade gear lying around that they're dying to use or anything.

in the end, every soldier is responsible for their own actions when they're given an unlawful order
they have the right to refuse

You think Trump knows history?

the people with the guns do.

Still holding onto the hope that he was just saying trumpy stuff and didn't really mean it. Hopefully he can assemble a halfway decent team. At least he hasn't gone on a crooked Joe rant yet, so there that.

And that my friend is the real problem. Our cops are psychotic and violent and have a long history, going all the way to back to the gilded age of murdering people who oppose the ruling class and it's interest.

That being said, most cops are poorly trained and cowards. If push comes to shove I'm willing put my money on an angry crowd armed with street weapons against the cops. Look how hard pressed they were in the streets during the George Floyd and Michael Brown protests. They were on the verge of breaking against people who weren't really even fighting hard with them.

For every one person that says "no", there will be 5 others who step in and yell "YES".

I think people forget the extreme tactical disadvantage the police have against any real kind of domestic threat.

Police are taught that everything is a threat and while that sucks for us in one-on-one situations, it means groups scare the fuck out of them and human instinct kicks in. They run, they give out the wrong intel because their brain is in a panic, they give up their positions and they abandon equipment. It happens every time when cops engage with the public in mass.

True. I saw one video a few years back of cops pushing protestors back, and when one guy didn't move quick enough, they grabbed him and started trying to pull him behind their line.

A group -- maybe 10-15 -- of the protestors surged forward to grab him back and the cops dropped him like a hot potato while backpedaling.