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Protester shot in chest by live police round during Hong Kong protests

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628 points nodea2345 | 1 comments | 01 Oct 19 11:19 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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nvahalik ◴[01 Oct 19 13:30 UTC] No.21125093[source]▶
> Imagine if the US suddenly had a dictator

This is why we have the second amendment. And the constitution as the thing to which office-holders swear allegiance to rather than to "the party" or "the president".

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Fezzik ◴[01 Oct 19 15:03 UTC] No.21126073[source]▶
I always find this sentiment a little silly - if the US President went in to full dictator mode and had the support of the military, do you really think a militia of armed citizens would be anything but gnats against the windshield of the United States Armed Forces? And if s/he did not have the support of the Armed Forces, it would not be a very effective dictatorship and you would not even need guns for a rebellion. I truly do not get it.
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markstos ◴[01 Oct 19 15:08 UTC] No.21126144[source]▶
The US Armed Forces is made up of people, many of which would not support a self-appointed dictator attacking their own people.
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hnuser54 ◴[01 Oct 19 15:16 UTC] No.21126249[source]▶
The rise of killer death robots like Boston Dynamics definitely changes this dynamic. A handful of people in charge of the robots could order them to murder whomever with little oversight or room for ethical qualms on the part of the "soldiers".
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1. chongli ◴[01 Oct 19 15:31 UTC] No.21126472[source]▶
It’s not a question of whether the robots could attack and kill people, it’s a question of whether they could defend the dictator’s interests. In a protracted guerrilla war against survivalist Americans with machine guns and large stashes of preserved food, not to mention access to tons of technology? I doubt it.

It’s not very difficult to attach a hand grenade (or even a pipe bomb) to a quadcopter drone and use it to attack a military checkpoint or a politician’s entourage. It’s simply much harder to defend than it is to attack nowadays, and centralized power is offset by scattered, decentralized resistance.

Finally, you might be able to convince a unit based in one state to attack another, but you’re unlikely to have the loyalty of all generals in a civil war.