A files release - not Epstein!

[Archie]

There's renewed interest in Spain about the Feb 23 1981 coup attempt following the release of classified files. It seems incredible now that Spain would have a military coup in the 1980s, but at the time it was only six years after Franco died.

It also is further proof that people aren't one dimensional. King Juan Carlos stepped down after a deluge of revaluations about him. He seems a pretty disreputable guy. But he played a key role in saving democracy in Spain. The guy who led the coup died just after the release of the files.

I think there's lessons here for us now. The casual chatter in the right wing ecosphere about wanting a military coup would have been unthinkable even ten years ago. Social media encourages hyperbolic nonsense. And no, I don't think a military coup is coming. But the fact it is even talked about must be a matter for concern

45 Years After Failed Coup, Spain Declassifies Files About Why It Failed

Ending more than four decades of conjecture, the Spanish government moved to publish documents from a long-secret investigation of a failed 1981 coup.

www.nytimes.com

 

[egb_hibs]

Does this casual chatter about a military coup amount to anything more than a single and not entirely serious Allison Pearson column @Archie ? I've never heard anyone going on about it but you, in the course of your stakhanovite effort to manufacture reality.

It remains the case that as yet all threat to democracy has come from the establishment, whether the concerted effort to thwart brexit, encroachments on free expression, or experiments with suspending elections.

 

[Jack]

Does this casual chatter about a military coup amount to anything more than a single and not entirely serious Allison Pearson column @Archie ? I've never heard anyone going on about it but you, in the course of your stakhanovite effort to manufacture reality.

It remains the case that as yet all threat to democracy has come from the establishment, whether the concerted effort to thwart brexit, encroachments on free expression, or experiments with suspending elections.

Quite a lot of chatter among the right wing nut jobs about an armed uprising on the web apparently.

 

[Archie]

Quite a lot of chatter among the right wing nut jobs about an armed uprising on the web apparently.

Sure is. Sadly that's the reality.

 

[egb_hibs]

Quite a lot of chatter among the right wing nut jobs about an armed uprising on the web apparently.

There is a lot of concern that we are headed for northern Ireland style civil conflict. Thats somewhat different than calling for a military coup, though no doubt there are some on the extreme left and right, as well as islamists, who are trying to push us to the former.

Its also far more likely to come to pass than a military coup as well as more likely than it happening in America which was a vogueish concern for a bit. Indeed future historians might judge that it's already underway - i think it might be viewed that way already if tens or hundreds of thousands of black people were raped, tortured and sometimes killed by organised racists, or if any other group was targeted as the jews are, and adding in the violence and intimidation directed at politicians.

In France left and right street cadres are now clashing and occasionally killing each other, to add to the occasional targeted murder or torture of Jews, Christians and secularists. With the game the likes of the greens are playing it's not hard to imagine that coming here.

Democracy faces many threats, from uniparty types losing patience with inconvenient plebs; to youngsters radicalised in our universities who are disturbingly lukewarm on democracy according to survey after survey; to the creep of two tier systems and sectarian politics; and through to that street level discontent.

A tongue in cheek call for a coup from a single columnist is quite the least of it, but some would rather we were looking anywhere rather than at our actual risks.

 

[Keepitgreen]

Not worried.

The right wing in the US may be packed with gun-toting militia, but over here, its a bit different. I'm not convinced a coup can be carried out wielding a podcast subscription and incel vibes