this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2026
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So, lets say we get to August or some summer month, and 4,000,000 people are protesting right out front the white house.

Do they send in the tanks? Do they kill 1,000,000 people? Would republican civilians see empathy for the dead americans who were democrats? Or would it unite the nation like 9/11 did, except this time against the government?

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[–] 1D10@lemmy.world 66 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

"Would republican civilians see empathy for the dead americans who were democrats?"

You mean a couple hundred paid agitators that were bussed up from asylums in south America?

Because that's the story your average republican voters would believe. I know it's a bit hyperbolic but some of the shit I've heard them say about Mrs Good, and in general about the current protests leads me to feel that there is no limit to the lies an average republican voter is willing to suck down.

All that said I do not believe the military would follow those orders, but I'm not sure they would interfere if the DOJ started killing protesters in front of them.

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 month ago

They 100% believe all the protesters are bussed in with pallets of bricks waiting for them. My co workers 100% believe this.

Its fucking sickening. And they all have kids, teaching them all this fox news hate and racism daily.

Sometimes I truly just want to leave here.

[–] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 62 points 1 month ago (3 children)

America bombed its own city 40’ish years ago, and the entire country just moved on without a care. And about 60 years before that, almost forty city blocks were razed to the ground because the inhabitants were black.

Yes, they 100% could risk it. America is an extremely propagandized country, with patriotism on the right reaching jingoistic levels.

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[–] Sanctus@anarchist.nexus 60 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Buddy, we've already bombed our own citizens multiple times. Battle of Blair Mountain for starts.

[–] abbiistabbii@piefed.blahaj.zone 56 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Oh my sweet summer child, the United States has had several tiananmen Square style incidents. 

Look up the bonus army, Kent state, battle of Blair mountain...

[–] HiTekRedNek@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Just to add: Ruby Ridge...

[–] abbiistabbii@piefed.blahaj.zone 17 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Ruby Ridge was a shootout between a family of paranoid religious whackjobs and the feds after they cocked up handing a guy a warrant, which eventually got taken by what today would be called "Magats" as a rallying cry.

  • Bonus army saw 17,000 vets, 26,000 supporters against the US Army and their tanks.
  • Kent State was a load of unarmed college kids against The Ohio National Guard.
  • Blair Mountain was 10,000 coal minters against The Police, Army, and a Pinkerton Company.

They call make Ruby Ridge look like a bar squabble.

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[–] CitizenKong@lemmy.world 33 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Fun (?) Fact: Trump is actually a fan of the massacre:

Then they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength," he said.

"That shows you the power of strength. Our country is right now perceived as weak... as being spit on by the rest of the world."

[–] emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works 32 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Do they send in the tanks?

You don't use tanks in a city. You use machine guns.

Do they kill 1,000,000 people?

If they can, probably

Would republican civilians see empathy for the dead americans who were democrats?

Ask yourself how many people in the US showed empathy for the Gazans.

Or would it unite the nation like 9/11 did, except this time against the government?

Lol no, the US is a terminally propagandised country. Iraq has WMDs, Venezuela has drugs, free healthcare is bad somehow, Israel is not genociding the Palestinians, etc. etc.

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[–] mechoman444@lemmy.world 28 points 1 month ago (4 children)

We're rounding people up into interment camps. We're way past tank man.

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[–] lechekaflan@lemmy.world 24 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (5 children)

This is the endgame Moscow wants: Balkanization and destabilization.

America failed itself, and Putin loves to add more gasoline to the fire. Either that country must save itself, or the rest of the world experience the unimaginable once the collapse is completed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics

[–] BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

All the things that were said the USSR would do, we did unironically.

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[–] SayJess@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (5 children)

The other night, I was eating lunch at my desk, in our small open office. The IT guy and one of the robot techs were debating whether the summary execution of Alex Pretti was justified. IT guy believes the government’s version of events, suggesting that Alex brandished his firearm (which is patently false). They openly support the state’s murder, and further, encourage it. It might be a bit difficult to get them to go along with a massacre, but they’ve already been walked through 2 murders, and are primed for more.

Would something like this ever happen? Hope not. But if it does, god help us all.

I’ve checked out from trying to advocate for the truth. You cannot reason with someone who is arguing in bad faith. The blatant disregard for the live’s lost, instead focusing on proving a point to justify the theft of those live’s. It’s gross. How anyone can look at the system that has been fully exposed in front of them and say More of that! blows my mind. But those are the people that will backup Trump if such a thing happened.

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[–] stupor_fly@lemmy.sdf.org 21 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Without a doubt

heck we are the blueprint for a lot stuff like this in fact the Nazis studied us for protips on how to do Industrialized racism

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[–] Protoknuckles@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago (7 children)

They can't risk it. Too many people could record it so they couldn't control the narrative.

[–] kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.com 47 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Too many people recorded the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti for them to control the narrative, but all that happened was that one guy got demoted.

[–] potatopotato@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It is building political pressure against them, they're very clearly uncomfy within the administration. It may not directly fix all our fucked up shit but the admin blinked for the first time this cycle when it was looking increasingly likely that they had no limit and we were headed straight for a police state.

We survived last time by keeping them consistently on the defensive and for the first time we've managed to control the narrative again

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[–] Mastengwe@sh.itjust.works 33 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Do you think they care? Dude they’re shooting unarmed women in the face in broad daylight in front of thousands of witnesses and on video.

And just imagine, the heartless coward that did it isn’t facing charges and gets to lie down in his own bed every night and walk up the next day.

[–] Nioxic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yep

No consequences so far

Civil wars have started over less than this

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[–] Hello_there@fedia.io 18 points 1 month ago

Kent State says yes

[–] BillyClark@piefed.social 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm still surprised that all of the January 6 insurrectionists could just storm the capitol building without being shot. They were breaking into the main building that had all of our lawmakers in it at the time, and only one of those morons was shot. Only the stupidest one. The queen of morons.

And did you notice what happened after that idiot was shot and killed? Nobody else tried to go through that window.

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[–] Etterra@discuss.online 13 points 1 month ago

Don't underestimate this administration's cruelty.

[–] kugel7c@feddit.org 12 points 1 month ago

Well they certainly could go much much worse. The regime and their base are so far from anything being based in reality I don't think anyone can truly be certain where this will go.

And you can just read about early ish days fascism in Germany and see how that meshes with this Regime and it's historical context. In no particular order :

  • Legislature ineffective and captured/ aligned
  • Judiciary captured /placed
  • Executive controlled (by proxy)
  • Intimidation / Terror Squad
  • Industry leaders largely aligned
  • Populous tired and under economical hardship
  • Extreme militarization
  • Strong and largely aligned surveillance system
  • Scapegoating / internal Enemy phantasms
  • History of ineffective Governance / Corruption
  • Generally unrepresentative and unstable Political System
  • Moderate / Ineffective International push-back
  • Unpredictable and Hostile foreign Policy

There are also lines that haven't been crossed yet but there are not a lot before we get to the really Bad ones. So yes Large scale incarceration and killing against internal resistance, or simply against the 'racialized other' are maybe already the next steps if MAGA(and the reaction to it) keeps on this trek.

There could be some kind of thing to fan the flames and lead into the big Bads including probably some external War as well.

Or there could be circumstances that stop this insanity before we get there. But holy hell Americans are way to chill about all of this currently and MAGA certainly won't stop until they are made to stumble and fall. Could be self inflicted of course but if the pressure is higher the chance of a fumble goes way up. So every resistance is worth the attempt at this point, and if the ship can still be pulled around there have to be real consequences otherwise it's just gonna be this again on a few decade cycle. I mean this shit is already worrying over here and in Germany well we seem to rhyme politically with the US of ten or so years ago so ....

For me this certainly is Fascist and we all should know how that goes if it truly gets to go.

[–] freeman@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Is the issue tanks ? Because the National Guard has killed people during Vietnam.

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[–] nucleative@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago

This thread is actually really depressing.

[–] UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 10 points 1 month ago

What risk? It worked out great for the regime in China, it would work here too.

[–] kboos1@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Don't confuse United States with Trump. Trump would risk it

[–] Greddan@feddit.org 21 points 1 month ago (2 children)

People have been calling U.S Americans dumb cunts for decades, Trump is the embodiment of the U.S.A as viewed by outsiders.

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[–] ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 1 month ago

Like it or not, the distinction is meaningless to people outside of the US

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[–] Wilco@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 month ago

MAGA will justify anything as "they shouldn't have been there". Even when something happens to them.

[–] Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

In a second. It might not have the same end result though. Trumps handlers are playing risky game. Least they unite a majority for the short time it would take to destroy the current despot and all his sycophants.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

If it was the one thing to keep Trump in office and therefore out of prison, yes, indeed.

It really depends on when this happens. If it would happen today, there would be bloodshed, but probably not on a Tiananmen level. The longer we wait, the more likely that the number of deaths is higher in such a case. Which makes it that much more important to act now (which, to be fair, is easy for me to say, considering I don't live in the US).

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Would the United States, under normal circumstances, in the era of cellphones and cameras?

No.

Would Trump?

I don't think theres a single thing that Trump wouldnt do, he is such a infantile, reactionary, egomaniacable manbaby that I can see him doing literally anything, if it makes him feel powerful or if he thinks it'd give him some kind of edge/opportunity.

[–] idiomaddict@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve bombed Americans in the US.

[–] FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website 7 points 1 month ago (6 children)

First of all, I don't think the Anerican military would follow that order. Shooting supposed drug smugglers illegally and shooting your neighbors illegally are two different kettle of fish for us humans who want to belong to sonething.

They would have to turn off the internet including satellites and then destroy all camera capable gadgets, maybe with an EMP. I think this is too much hassle. There won't be a Tiananmen Sq in the US. The Chinese could control the narrative internally and didn't give af about the rest of the world - in 1989. As we see in Iran today, the world is but a village and footage travels fast. The risk is too high.

But keep looking at ICE or "proud" militias. I would not be surprised to hear about these bastards sniping at protest leaders or even rando participants to discourage more protests. Look for fat guys on roofs.

[–] Seleni@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You mean like they ‘didn’t’ at Kent State?

Don’t kid yourself; they absolutely will. Going by our history, though, if they can they’ll do it to a black neighborhood first.

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[–] WanderWisley@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

Yes this administration would in a heartbeat.

[–] Steve@startrek.website 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Sure they killed 1,000,000 protestors in the streets of DC, but at least they would never nuke an American city!

Suddenly, a flash in the distance turns into an angry, boiling glow. At least getting knocked back to the stone age means not having to see thousands of versions of "I told you so" afterward.

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