weird pro-coup feelings
I was fascinated by the coup attempt in Turkey. Last night I kept scanning various sources on the Internet for more information until I fell asleep.
And despite my rational self, I found myself sympathizing with the coup, or kind of rooting for the coup. I started to feel sad when reporters said the coup was failing, and today I'm feeling sad that hundreds or thousands of Turkish people might be put to death for allegedly taking part in the attempted coup. I feel like they should be given amnesty.
Rationally, I would not support the coup. But emotionally I was definitely tugged toward it.
I think this is mainly for the fascination value, perhaps even just as a form of entertainment, something interesting to watch in real time: a NATO country undergoing a violent meltdown.
But also, from afar I'd heard bad things about the Turkish government, so I wasn't sad to potentially watch it fall, even if it fell under the guns and bombs of the military instead of citizens voting peacefully at the polling places.
I'm willing to admit this emotional reaction, but I'm not proud of it.
There were others on Twitter who were more openly rooting for the coup. And I suspect that many Western governments, and Russia also, would've been OK with the coup succeeding, as the current Turkish leadership has been troublesome. Most of them didn't issue statements condemning the coup until intelligence began to show it was failing anyway.
This emotional reaction is probably similar to what humans have felt throughout the history of civilization when they identify emotionally with a military conquest. There's a part of us that likes to watch violence and likes to root for one side over the other.
And despite my rational self, I found myself sympathizing with the coup, or kind of rooting for the coup. I started to feel sad when reporters said the coup was failing, and today I'm feeling sad that hundreds or thousands of Turkish people might be put to death for allegedly taking part in the attempted coup. I feel like they should be given amnesty.
Rationally, I would not support the coup. But emotionally I was definitely tugged toward it.
I think this is mainly for the fascination value, perhaps even just as a form of entertainment, something interesting to watch in real time: a NATO country undergoing a violent meltdown.
But also, from afar I'd heard bad things about the Turkish government, so I wasn't sad to potentially watch it fall, even if it fell under the guns and bombs of the military instead of citizens voting peacefully at the polling places.
I'm willing to admit this emotional reaction, but I'm not proud of it.
There were others on Twitter who were more openly rooting for the coup. And I suspect that many Western governments, and Russia also, would've been OK with the coup succeeding, as the current Turkish leadership has been troublesome. Most of them didn't issue statements condemning the coup until intelligence began to show it was failing anyway.
This emotional reaction is probably similar to what humans have felt throughout the history of civilization when they identify emotionally with a military conquest. There's a part of us that likes to watch violence and likes to root for one side over the other.