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Comment by GaryBluto | Hacker News Reader

>No both-sides here. At risk of sounding rude, this entire comment sounds exactly like something you'd see on the top of r/all.

January 6 wasn't a coup, as (if I remember correctly) Joe Biden was president for 4 years. I actually welcome the new administration, as they do everything government has always done but are far too incompetent to divert attention away from it.

For a notable case of your holy, angelic Democrats doing something less than moral, here is a link about their pressuring of Google: https://thehill.com/opinion/robbys-radar/5521897-google-admi...

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January 6 wasn't a coup; it was a failed coup.

A successful coup lasts longer than seven hours.

>as they do everything government has always done but are far too incompetent to divert attention away from it.

This kind of attitude only increases and normalizes corruption. It's not a binary situation. And having an openly corrupt President at the top is the worst scenario of all, because now all of his lackeys are being pardoned for past crimes and given passes for current ones.

>here is a link about their pressuring of Google

The Democratic administration pressured social media companies to take down what they believed to be COVID misinformation. Note that this doesn't personally benefit them in any major way (maybe a little, because the Republican party has de facto adopted RFK Jr.s wacky medical beliefs).

The Republican administration:

- Publicly said that if ABC did not remove Jimmy Kimmel from the air, they would open investigations into the network.

- Withheld funding from multiple universities under flimsy pretenses.

- Indicted multiple enemies of Trump for the crime of being enemies of Trump, as evidenced by Trump's own social media post directed to the Justice Department.

- Sued private law firms that were involved in cases against the sitting president.

- Is withholding funding of state projects, but only for states that went Democratic in the last election

- Sent the military into cities with Democratic leadership under flimsy pretenses.

Don't point out the splinter in a person's eye when there's a whole log sticking out from yours.

Jan 6 was a brazen attempt at a coup. It was Mike Pence who refused to break the country for the narcissist's demands - which was the only reason Biden could be sweared in.

We were very close to a third world level coup thanks to Trump back in 2021.

This time around, the call could be in JD Vance's hands - the same person supporting Republicans blocking the swearing in of a house representative.

For all the dirty partisan things you point out about democrats, they have never attempted a coup. If you think our country and constitution is worth fighting for, you too will not support coup candidates, pedophiles, unitary executives, and separation of church and state.

As it stands, if you support republicans, you are against the above principles, regardless of your whataboutism.

I think it’s fascinating that you actually believe a coup is even remotely possible, much less the actual intent.

I wonder if the country has ever been so bifurcated in its belief in basic objective facts.

A majority of voters reelected Trump. If anything, that just shows how deeply the disagreement about these facts runs.

> I think it’s fascinating that you actually believe a coup is even remotely possible, much less the actual intent.

Once again, are you not aware of Jan 6? What do you think happens in a third-world coups?

Do you think its tanks protecting the coup-master like some blockbuster movie? No. Most coups are subtle - simply by a narcissist not letting go of their seat. Once that happens and people inevitably come to revolt, they call on to their own supporters to protect "freedom" - causing riots or even a civil war - a war caused not for any good but only for that one tyrant's own narcissism.

This was America on Jan 6, 2021. We'll see how the next one transition fares.

Have you watched any of the videos from January 6th?

All I saw were a bunch of clueless morons behaving badly, but not violently, in the capital building while Trump literally told them to go home.

Embarrassing, ridiculous, stupid, and wrong — but not a coup.

They were breaking down the doors of the capitol building to stop certification of a presidential election, blocking the peaceful transition of power.

Took 3 hours for Trump to politely ask supporters to stop.

What are you talking about it being non violent?

You can’t stop the certification of a presidential election that way. And they didn’t.

Violence would’ve involved more than people wandering around the building being idiots after both being let in and forcing some doors.

We’ve seen groups of all shades, stripes, and colors occupy public buildings of all types.

There’s a lot of things I could call it, but an attempted coup would not be one of them.

> You can’t stop the certification of a presidential election that way.

You absolutely can stop it that way, though they only succeeded in delaying it because they missed, by seconds, gaining access to the people involved. Their intent was to change the outcome by intimidating and/or murdering those unwilling to act in the manner they preferred, including especially the VP since there was belief (because a number of prominent figures, notably the President, had endorsed the idea that this could and should be done by the VP or an alternate presiding officer) that the presiding officer could (and a different one would) simply unilaterally decide not to present certain votes in the first place.

> Violence would’ve involved more than people wandering around the building being idiots after both being let in and forcing some doors.

They weren't just walking around being idiots; a number were armed and body armored, carried restraints for dealing with the people they sought to capture, coerce, and punish for non-cooperation. The thing that stopped their from being more violence is that they were successfully prevented from reaching their targets, including by a large crowd breaking into the Speakers lobby seconds behind a group of legislators and staff departing being stopped by thefirst person through the breach being shot dead.

“First person through the breach” being an unarmed veteran.

To reiterate, what I find most interesting about this isn’t the event. It’s the framing of the event afterwards, and how remarkably bifurcated American’s views are on ostensibly objective facts.

When you compare it to the framing around violent protests more aligned with the mainstream left’s political agenda, the issue becomes even more stark in my mind.

The CNN “Fiery But Mostly Peaceful Protests” chyron being a top-of-mind example of how substantially different that framing can be.

From my own perspective, I would expect the party that owns the majority of guns to actually bring some to bear if their goal was an actual coup. Especially given that they have “weapons of war” readily at their disposal.

Add to that the fact that the only person that died that day was an unarmed protester.

In that light, the accusations ring quite hollow — and self-serving.

Lots of wrong assumptions.

- If you think the other side isn't armed, you are foolish.

- The number of deaths doesn't define a failed coup attempt.

- The accusations are not accusations once you see the violence: https://www.reddit.com/r/CringeTikToks/comments/1oasyyt/this...

The only reason this coup attempt looks comical is because it was unplanned and led by Trump who is incompetent. It could have easily turned even worse - more deaths, more congress people running around, a traitor VP etc. Mike Pence truly saved the country by breaking ranks with Republicans.

I didn’t say the other side doesn’t have guns, and that isn’t the point.

I see some violent protesters, but I don’t see a violent coup. You’re welcome to call that distinction without a difference, but it’s really not. We’ve had years of violent protest, that’s not what a coup is.

From what you said, it was unplanned, but also run by the president of the United States of America. Who is incompetent, but who also secured the presidency not just once, but twice.

Either way, it doesn’t matter. He won again, with the majority of the vote. It doesn’t seem like the American people believe there was a coup attempt — or they don’t care. He’ll serve out his term, and the same arguments with different actors will play out all over again in 2028.

JD Vance will probably be the Republican nominee, and he’ll be called the next Hitler. We’ll be told that fascism is on the ballot. People will either care or they won’t. Emotion-driven messaging will drive the election. No matter who wins, the country will probably not fall apart.

> I see some violent protesters, but I don’t see a violent coup. You’re welcome to call that distinction without a difference, but it’s really not. We’ve had years of violent protest, that’s not what a coup is.

The motive and the location of the protest matters. They motive was to stop certification, but storming inside and blocking the certifiers - that is what separates a protest from a coup.

> From what you said, it was unplanned, but also run by the president of the United States of America. Who is incompetent, but who also secured the presidency not just once, but twice.

None of this takes away from the attempted coup.

> Either way, it doesn’t matter. He won again, with the majority of the vote. It doesn’t seem like the American people believe there was a coup attempt — or they don’t care. He’ll serve out his term, and the same arguments with different actors will play out all over again in 2028.

It matters. Why? Because the narcissist man has demonstrated that he is willing to egg people on to storm elected representatives to get his way. This is how Erdogan, Putin, Maduro operate. It might not matter to you - but maybe you care more about having Trump in office than the constitution. But this is not how a large number of people feel. You can keep pointing at election results as a definitive verdict of the people but elections are about the opposition too - not just about the person. The coup was about the person.

Anyway, I can't convince someone who can delude themselves when evidence is staring right at the face. But like someone else pointed out, this country is truly broken when 2 people look at the same video and cannot agree on the truth.

> Have you watched any of the videos from January 6th? All I saw were a bunch of clueless morons behaving badly, but not violently, in the capital building while Trump literally told them to go home.

Ok, I will give you evidence that it was violent. But will you change your mind or still try to convince yourself by dancing around the edges?

https://www.reddit.com/r/CringeTikToks/comments/1oasyyt/this...

I see a some violent protesters, but I don’t see a violent coup. You’re welcome to call that distinction without a difference, but it’s really not. We’ve had years of violent protest, that’s not what a coup is.

The videos of inside the capital show the majority of people wandering around being idiots.

If you wanna keep re-litigating this for the next three years of Trump’s presidency, you’re welcome to do so, but it’s not going change anything, and clearly the American people weren’t too concerned about it when they voted him in.

> I see a some violent protesters, but I don’t see a violent coup. You’re welcome to call that distinction without a difference, but it’s really not. We’ve had years of violent protest, that’s not what a coup is.

A violent protest could have happened at the National Mall, National Monument, White House, outside the Capitol. Why did they storm and go in at that exact time upon the egging of Trump? Of course to prevent the certification. The motive matters - in this case, the motive was to prevent certification - an attempted coup. You can't keep trying to brush around the edges when the motive itself was to prevent certification.

> The videos of inside the capital show the majority of people wandering around being idiots.

And why are you talking about a handful of clips inside the capitol when the link I posted show exactly how they destroyed barriers from the outside and stormed in? Could it be that your mind is unwilling to accept the reality?

>If you wanna keep re-litigating this for the next three years of Trump’s presidency, you’re welcome to do so, but it’s not going change anything, and clearly the American people weren’t too concerned about it when they voted him in.

I am not interested in re-litigating. However, I love the country enough to call out attempted coups. Coups are unacceptable. And I don't care what brainwashed people think either - because history is littered with stories of brainwashed populace willing themselves into wars and crises - see: Nazis.

Reducing Weimar Germany to a “brainwashed populace” is certainly a take. That depth of analysis seems to be the common thread here.

The fact that you chose to not disagree with the attempted coup is welcome.

I am not going to go off topic on Weimar republic - but it has been known since the time of Socrates - BC era - that a brainwashed populace is the one that enables authoritarianism.

It's crazy that he was allowed to run again, win and amass much, much more power. The next attempt will be much worse.

“Allowed” to run and win? He won the majority of the popular vote.

If America did didn’t want him, they wouldn’t have voted for him.

What they mean by "allowed" is that the President can and should be convicted of treason for preventing constitutional processes such as elections.

Brazil had the balls to do it. The fact that America didn't just shows that American constitution, democracy, and people are fragile. If people don't even want to protect their own constitution - the country is already a banana republic.

> He won the majority of the popular vote.

That is false. Trump won the plurality of the popular vote. He got more votes than any other candidate, but it did not exceed 50% of the votes cast.

If you want to split hairs about 49.81%, that’s fine. You can say plurality.

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