What Does Telling Us Now Do, Exactly?

 

The nation’s top military leaders discussed a plan to resign one by one rather than carry out dangerous orders in the event of an attempted coup by then-President Donald Trump and his allies after the November election, new book reveals https://t.co/epzvLdia08

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 15, 2021

So, this question isn't my first day at the rodeo: the idea that an authoritarian Trump would try to capitalize on a crisis he happened to create to stage a coup is not something I ever saw as out of character, but something clearly foreshadowed by the way he basically always talked about things being "rigged" against him (setting up for his sore-loser allies to buy any "stab in the back" myth), his admiration for authoritarian violence in the form of police/military brutality (endorsing roughing up arrestees, pardoning war criminals), and his regular references to civil war. People who studied what Trump was saying and took him both seriously and literally got it: the guy is not mentally stable, but his flavor of instability appeals to a very specific kind of mindset. The kind that will follow up on what Trump threatens.

We saw what happened on January 6th, but even now, conservative pundits and very online Trump superfans are trying to retcon the actual evidence of our eyes as seen on numerous pieces of video, as being no big deal or overblown. 

So how, now, months after the fact, are we to view the current crop of reports regarding what people like Gen. Mark Milley were fixing to do now that we're hearing about them? Because as for me--okay they had a plan that was not voicing their concerns publicly, and maybe waiting until things were pretty far along before the big public resignations that might not actually have stopped shit from getting all too real--but we're finding out about this now? 

It's fraught. Speaking out prior to 1/6 might've tamped down on anything happening at all (in the way more people, elected officials and journos alike, could have stressed that the voter fraud claims were entire fucking lies before that day--and I am very definitely looking at the members of congress who still voted to decertify after their own fucking necks and those of their colleagues and Hill staffers and journalists and well over a hundred Capitol PD were imperiled). 

Of course, because they stick with their lie, Trumpist pundits now will say bullshit like: well of course, Pentagon leadership is full of weak puppets who want to push vaccinations and CRT on our troops so they were scared and overreacted to Trump's "vigor" or whatever, because that's the current load of pablum the baby birds are coughing up these days. 

These books will sell, they add to the historical record. I just wonder--what are they doing for us? Because the bare bones of the "Stop the Steal" rallies, the chatter on Parler and Telegram and whatnot, and the false-flaggy rumors that it was gonna be provocation by antifa were all available to be spelled out in public where people could see. MSM could've helped spell out what bloggers and people with smaller platforms knew--could have had access to people closer to the situation and voiced concerns like these sooner. 

Learning things fast helps people develop impressions--people think in impressions, they are not necessarily logical. Just like with Congress--how quickly the question of establishing a commission to get to the bottom of who was to blame could have been done faster--before GOP conspirators got their story straight and advanced the cover-up. If the deal was struck when the impressionistic iron was hot?

I'm not saying I know. I just wonder, is all.