In 1970, the National Guard opened fire on a crowd of peaceful, unarmed students, killing four and wounding nine more. A Gallup poll conducted a week after the shooting found that 58% of Americans blamed the students for the massacre, with only 11% blaming the guardsmen. Many students who were present at the massacre were shunned by their own families, some were even disowned, and some were told that even more students should have been killed to teach them a lesson.

The students, for their part, couldn't even comprehend what was happening at first. Many of them thought the soldiers' weapons were loaded with blanks, that they were just trying to intimidate them. After the massacre, many of the students wanted to reassemble and continue peacefully demonstrating, in defiance of the guard. One of the professors convinced them to disperse, by shouting at them that all of them would be killed.

How was it possible for the public to see it that way? Because of how the media spun it. Even before the massacre, they were saying that the protests were full of "outside agitators" and claiming that they had been doing things like lacing the water supply with LSD. Of course, it eventually "came out" that these claims were complete bullshit based on nothing. So, once the moment had passed, they quietly printed retractions.

All that shit still happens today. It happens every single time a cop murders someone, whether it's Renee Good or George Floyd. The right wingers immediately start digging for any possible way to spin it and if they can't then they simply lie, and if the lie falls apart it doesn't matter, by that point people will have forgotten and moved on.

Yes they will kill you. They'll put people down like dogs and worry about how to justify it later. People want to believe the world is just, and that often means blaming the victim. They'll do it and they'll get away with it too.

Buy a gun.

Everybody keeps expecting civil war when what we're likely going to get is akin to "the troubles" of Northern Ireland. Prolonged, indefinite, bloody, insurgency. Bombings. Assassinations. More heavyhanded fascist paramilitary actions. Blood and chaos.

"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.

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.

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

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...

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.

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."

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

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

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

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.

Kent State says yes

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.

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

This thread is actually really depressing.

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.

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