They don't happen to *you*. If your mind wanders towards the premise, they reject it. An internal threat would be unconstitutional, so it would necessarily be averted. An external one defeated by America's prized ability to coordinate overwhelming force.

It doesn't *just* affect the US, for sure. Ask anyone who saw the start of a war. How the days before they went to cafes, and shook their heads that it was all so severe. But it would be averted right? Right? It won't happen to us in the cafe where the old men play chess and the kids play outside

I'm not convinced that stories like "it was this close to a coup" - or, in general, if not for x, a disaster almost happened - actually help in the long run. Perhaps they just reinforce the "it won't happen here"- thinking?

Maybe orthogonal to the discussion here - but this is the exact reason why i despise docudramas and biopics. Blurring the fictional and historical together seems to undermine historical knowledge in favor of a neater narrative account

I often thought about how people made the decision to flee Nazi Germany. Now? And if not now, when?