One fascinating characteristic of the well-indoctrinated ultra-nationalist is they tend to lose their sense of reflexivity. Ultra-nationalism depends on authoritarianism and exceptionalism, so it doesn’t hold up well to challenges against its authority – after all, it wouldn’t have to be authoritarian if it were possible to justify their beliefs. What we wind up with is this weird sort of “what I say, goes, as long as it applies in the direction I want it to.”
Here’s a fascinating example: [slate]
Fox News host Jesse Watters suggested that the FBI investigation into whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election has maybe transformed into a “coup” against President Donald trump.
Kellyanne Conway replies:
“The fix was in against @realDonaldTrump from the beginning, and they were pro-Hillary…”
A coup, naturally, is when power is seized illegitimately; when the government is taken over by force or chicanery.
You know, like when the popular vote was mooted by the electoral college? Methinks these people are worried about a counter-coup not a coup.
Any self-respecting anarchist will tell you it’s coups all the way down. Let’s just have a revolving counter-revolution, shall we?
Of course it’s coups all the way down. But the teapot is still out there, and I’m fairly certain that the dragon that lives in my garage is using it to brew a nice cuppa right now.
That reminds me, I have to apologize to my children again tonight.
I thought the coup is wot the chickens come home to roost in.
I’ve always said that the problem with revolution is that you just end up back where you started…
“like when the popular vote was mooted by the electoral college”
How is that illegitimate, given that is the constitutionally mandated method for choosing the president?
We might not like it, and want to change it – but disliking something does not make it illegitimate.
felicis@#5:
How is that illegitimate, given that is the constitutionally mandated method for choosing the president?
We might not like it, and want to change it – but disliking something does not make it illegitimate.
The fact that it exists to moot the popular vote is what makes it illegitimate; a political system in which the vote is ignored and leaders are chosen by a committee is called an “oligarchy.” Oligarchies are authoritarian forms of government that ignore the consent of the governed. They may rule by force but they cannot claim to have legitimacy because they lack a popular mandate.
Dunc@#4:
I’ve always said that the problem with revolution is that you just end up back where you started…
That was a problem with Trotsky’s theory of permanent revolution. You wind up with a revolving door at the top.
Contrecoup is also the term for a particularly nasty type of concussion in which the brain rebounds after an impact and gets damaged on the opposite site of the skull.
If this means the counter-coup involves clobbering the current administration in their evil little heads until they collapse, I think I could manage to be okay with that.