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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   3256 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for March 24, 2023

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I think that the "we need guns to put a fear to potential tyrants" argument vastly underestimates the will to power of the strongly politically inclined people (which you basically usually would need to be to enact tyranny, fight a civil war etc.) vis-a-vis their fear of death.

I think it pretty directly depends on how much the politician actually cares about their cause/how easily they'd be replaced by someone with different beliefs. Sometimes if you assassinate a leader, like Lincoln's assassination, their replacement has very different positions that are much more in line with yours. Other times, like your example with The Troubles, not much changes. Other times, like the Japanese leadership in the WWII, the fear of assassination from nationalists made all the leaders too scared to openly oppose nationalist policies like expansion into China, even if they'd speak against it if there was no coercion.

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