Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by lightgreen 1988 days ago
There was no coup attempt by large margin.

Try looking at histories of successful and unsuccessful coup attempts. They require several orders of degree better planning, coordination and execution.

That was just hooligans, not different from hundreds of other riots happened in the US last year.

1 comments

I'm reminded of a case my civics teacher mentioned. A lady was convicted of felony theft. She walked into a store grabbed a mink coat and tried to run out with it. Not realizing it was chained to a pole.

Appeals court ruled that just because it wasn't possible doesn't mean it's not a crime to attempt.

These guys tried to prevent congress from transferring the presidency from Trump to Biden. That's a coup attempt. Being an idiot isn't an excuse.

OK, sure, technically you are right.

If some drunken man threw a TV out of the windows and shouted let's overthrow the government, that is technically a coup, and a good reason to write about it again and again in social networks and MSM.

Technically you are right. But it would be misleading at best.

Whats the difference between a group of people tresspassing the capitol versus a group of people attempting to overthrow the government? Can your explanation be falsifiable?
Given that it was done as part of a protest against the election results, and at the perceived direction of somebody trying to keep their office, I think a jury could make a reasonable interpretation.
What exactly do you think would have happened to the Congresspeople had they this mob encountered them? The mob sure looked prepared to take some of them into "custody." And some of them clearly had no qualms with beating that Capitol Police officer to death.

Clearly Congresspeople, regardless of party affiliation, were not interested in finding out.

When it was immediately preceded by a rally in which an ousted president ranted about how the election was stolen and they should march on the Capitol and prevent the election results from being certified.