Hacker News Reader

Comment by vlan0 | Hacker News Reader

At some point the military needs to remember their oath to the constitution. And act accordingly

Typically you use uprising/insurrection against the right and you coup the left as the military is usually more right than the average citizen.

Typically yes. But I don’t know what about this is typical. Trump will throw military under the bus just as fast. It’s up to them to realize that.

The left will throw them down even faster. I'm honestly baffled as to why any police bothered stopping January 6th - it predictably got them hated by the right, but they never got any thanks or appreciation from the left either, so it looks like a complete losing move to me.

They got the Congressional Gold Medal award, and every time I heard Nancy Pelosi speaking of them, she sounded personally grateful.

Also, it was their job to keep Congress safe, and there are a lot of people that take their job and their honor seriously. Maybe they don't make the podcasts, but they are out there keeping our society safe.

You're baffled that someone would do their job if nobody is going to thank them for it?

When someone's in a highly politicised position where it's not obvious what the right call is, I'm baffled that they wouldn't take the route that aligns so heavily with their interests, yes. Much as I'm a fan of personal integrity, there's only so much shitting on my whole profession that I could take.

What's not obvious about preventing trespass?

You're not usually meant to use force to prevent trespass outside of some very narrow circumstances. And whether someone is trespassing or is somewhere they have every right to be is very often unclear.

In turkey this has been the other way around! Us does not look so much different now

Not really. Right/Left labeling is silly in general so it's hard to explain in those terms, but Turkish military is and has been anything but Left. You could maybe call them reformist, secular authoritarians, in opposition of religious, populist authoritarians.

Interestingly after 50 years and 2.5 coups, the kind of people they pushed out are the ones running the country for the past 20 years and they're stronger than ever. I take it as a signal that the problem wasn't specific individuals and parties, but they were merely symptoms of deeper problems with the Turkish people.

Maybe it's the same for US as well.

There was a momentous coup in 1980 that clamped down on the left and nurtured the religious right, to counter communist influence. It was a Carter administration project. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Belt_Theory

When a ruler becomes authoritarian and fascist, the military has usually sided with that ruler historically.

Usually because that leader financially rewards military leaders.

That'd be a major change in the US.

Not that it couldn't happen, but military peers would feel some kind of way about their superiors who did that.

America as 70s/80s Turkey, just have the military coup the civilian government every time it gets out of line. Not a super stable way to run a country!

That's why you send letters asking if it would be a good idea to prominent people on both sides first.

This sounds very ignorant. The members of the military very much understand and remember their oath to the constitution and they are acting accordingly currently.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com