Gun Control - Why I Feel The Way I Do
Hi Roger - This is a bit lengthy.
I’m not referring to those who are willing to discuss, no matter what their camp, the Second Amendment, and how to modify it in a way that will not compromise the guaranteed rights of law-abiding citizens. Incidentally, real progressive philosophy recognizes that all aspects of society needs to be included in the decision making process
I'm specifically referring to anti-gun bigots, and yes, I've known pro-gun bigots too.
In reference to the first, yesterday I read a commentary, that not only called for the outlawing of all guns, it also stated that “all gun owners need to be questioned.” (1)
This brings the Brownshirts to mind. Founded by Hitler in 1921, one of their purposes was to intimidate voters in national and local elections. From January 1931 it was headed by Ernst Rohm, who harbored radical anti-capitalist notions. (2)
I need to give you some background as to why I feel strongly about this.
1) The first thing is that I was a Democrat for over 30 years. That began to change in 1996 when I joined Baltimore’s Artmobile forum (Artmobile is an anagram for Baltimore). Besides posts about the arts, there were all these political posts directed against America, Republicans, and conservatives.
With my background, you might think that I would be in agreement. The problem was though, that these people were lying, their accusations being based on falsehoods.
Most egregious to me was this accusation that the U.S. was the “greatest terrorist nation.” While I recognize that our nation has engaged in questionable activities since its founding, these left-wing denouncements not only conveniently ignored the atrocities of the Soviet Union, Communist China, Fidel Castro, and the Cambodian Khmer Rouge, they also ignored modern state-sponsored terrorism in the Middle East, that began with the September 1970 hijacking of four jetliners by the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine).
There was also the denunciation of President Bill Clinton’s sending U.S. forces to support NATO, which helped put an end to the Bosnian War, and ended the Serbian genocide against the Bosnian Muslims: Heaven forbid the most powerful nation in the world should intervene for a real humanitarian cause.
In my naivety at the time, I mentioned these inconsistencies on Artmobile, expecting that my fellow artists, rumored, as it was to be on a quest for “Truth,” would participate in a rational discussion about these issues.
Was I ever wrong. It was a rude awakening to Liberal intolerance. Though I mentioned that I was a fellow Democrat, I was assailed as being some kind of “traitor” for daring to question the validity of those claims. No wonder there were no conservative views. Anyone daring to question was quickly driven off – that is until I came along.
This was not the Democrat Party I grew up with in the 1960’s. I was focused on my career in the years after, and really didn’t pay all that close attention to politics, but when I finally did, I was appalled. Knowing first hand from my childhood the destruction bigotry can cause, I couldn’t remaining silent.
Interestingly enough, it was through Artmobile, and the constant portrayal of Republican policy as being “Orwellian,” that I came to discover the writings of George Orwell, which have influenced me ever since. As a democratic socialist, he certainly criticized conservatives, but what was revealing, was that he criticized the entire spectrum of leftist politics with equal, if not greater, voracity.
2) Specific to the gun issue, I felt the need to purchase one after the 9/11 attacks. Besides practicing at public ranges, I took NRA sponsored gun safety classes. During that entire time, I encountered only one person who I would consider “flaky,” a guy who feared a race war was imminent. Naturally, I kept my distance.
Though no longer participating in Artmobile, I found the same type of bias, this time on Facebook.
I had friended this popular jazz organist in town. I noticed that many of his posts were of the blame-Republicans-for-all-the-problems-of-the-world type. When he posted that “gun nuts” wanted to return America to a time of the “Wild-West” where everyone supposedly openly carried a gun, and gunfights reigned supreme, I had to say something.
I mentioned that I had recently seen a History Channel episode about Wyatt Earp. It said that in truth, the “gun-fight” was mainly the work of “dime novel” and Hollywood fiction. The preferred way of dispatching an enemy was actually by ambush. It also pointed that the real Wild West was roughly only a 20-year period, following the end of the Civil War, lasting into the 1890’s. The episode also stated that equivalent towns in the east had a higher murder rate.
This person’s response was, “I KNOW MY HISTORY!” I guess he never read the articles citing that it was initially the dime western novels, popular from the 1860’s to 1890’s, that was responsible for the myth of the Wild West, and not reliable journalism. This was followed by all those popular cowboy movies, then all those popular cowboy T.V. shows.
In hopes of getting him to modify his views, I related that I owned a hand gun, and that not only had I never entertained the notion of the U.S. becoming another “wild-west,” I didn’t know of a single gun owner who did.
For that revelation, I was accused of having “Ultra Right-Wing views.” Now think of that: Our Bill of Rights has been around since 1791, two hundred twenty four years, and yet I’m the one who has extremist views??? This hints at the mentality behind demands to rewrite the Bill of Rights.
Just like what happened on Artmobile years earlier, this person was either lying, or engaging in willful ignorance to make his point; or as Orwell would have said, engaging in “Intellectual Dishonesty.”
Next I made an offer for him to go with me and hang out with some shooters I knew, a friendly and open bunch, and find out what they were about, and why they enjoyed their hobby. The response, “NO!!” I ALREADY KNOW WHAT THESE TYPES ARE LIKE!”
Indeed.
I never did tell this to Mr. Know-It-All, but those shooters I hung out with, both men and women, were members of Mensa, any one of which was smarter then Mr. Know-It-All could ever hope to be.
3) This brings me to another musician, saxophonist OM. OM had already criticized me before for sharing information about marijuana’s dangers, discounting not only the links I shared from the American Heart Association, American Lung Association, and a bunch of other physical and mental health articles, but also ignoring what I had said, that due to a marijuana addiction, I had suffered a mental breakdown in my mid 20’s.
After a comment on the gun issue, OM joins in and says something along the lines that I have a “reputation as a gun fanatic.” The first thing I did was to tell M.O. that he’d just libeled me, and that back in 2009, I was awarded a nice settlement as the result of being lied about on the Internet. The thing is, I had never talked to OM before about gun issues before, which indicates someone was spreading rumors about me. And as I’ve indicated earlier in this document, spreading rumors has become a hallmark of many modern Democrats.
I also told OM that just two weeks earlier, I had heard Governor O’Malley speak about gun control in Annapolis, and had posted that I thought his ideas, as I heard them presented, seemed reasonable.
4) Now in reference to your question -
NRA specifically, and Republicans in general, are portrayed as being "bad" (see Orwell quotes below). The fact is though; the NRA supports gun control that restricts criminals and the mentally ill. I even saw this being discussed on NBC’s Today Show. The anti-gun crowd doesn’t want to hear that though, and prefer to keep up the denigration unabated.
“How does people out there telling us how we "should" live our lives take away our right to a choice?” -
The Second Amendment guarantees us the right to bare arms. It specifically says that right is not to be tampered with (infringed), no exceptions – yet that person who inspired my initial comments here once posted something along the lines that the Second Amendment needs to be changed. It took a little prodding on my part to get her to clarify that she meant the mentally ill. I’m fine with that.
In relation to that initial discussion, I had another person give me the typical anti-gun litany of assumptions. The irony being that there was not one single fact given to support his position. Every single point was based on his personal opinion and nothing else. Plus there was the usual patronization I’ve come to expect from these types of persons, “Well meaning people like you.” It just goes on and on.
That highlights one of the difficulties in attempting to carry on a rational conversation with these “intellectual” types. They assume their opinions are fact, which creates a barrier to them being able to see the world “clearly,” as Orwell wrote.
And in closing, I’d like to go back to that first reference: “Appoint a liberal Supreme Court to interpret the Second Amendment properly.” That clearly shows the attempt by liberals to subvert the Bill of Rights. As I’ve said before, democracy is the representation of many voices – “E Pluribus Unum,” Out of Many, One. A democracy of liberals is not democracy, it is pure totalitarian evil.
- - - - - -
Orwell Quotes – Notes on Nationalism:
“By ‘nationalism’ I mean first of all the habit of assuming that human beings can be classified like insects and that whole blocks of millions or tens of millions of people can be confidently labelled ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ But secondly -- and this is much more important -- I mean the habit of identifying oneself with a single nation or other unit, placing it beyond good and evil and recognizing no other duty than that of advancing its interests. Nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism.”
“Nationalism is power-hunger tempered by self-deception. Every nationalist is capable of the most flagrant dishonesty, but he is also -- since he is conscious of serving something bigger than himself -- unshakeably certain of being in the right.”
“Political commentators, like astrologers, can survive almost any mistake, because their more devoted followers do not look to them for an appraisal of the facts but for the stimulation of nationalistic loyalties.”
“Indifference to objective truth.”
“Nationalism is an enormous subject. The world is tormented by innumerable delusions and hatreds which cut across one another in an extremely complex way.”
“. The point is that as soon as fear, hatred, jealousy and power worship are involved, the sense of reality becomes unhinged.”
http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/nationalism/english/e_nat
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Reference *1 - https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2015/10/03/time-to-outlaw-guns/
Reference *2 - http://www.britannica.com/topic/SA-Nazi-organization
http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/nationalism/english/e_nat
I’m not referring to those who are willing to discuss, no matter what their camp, the Second Amendment, and how to modify it in a way that will not compromise the guaranteed rights of law-abiding citizens. Incidentally, real progressive philosophy recognizes that all aspects of society needs to be included in the decision making process
I'm specifically referring to anti-gun bigots, and yes, I've known pro-gun bigots too.
In reference to the first, yesterday I read a commentary, that not only called for the outlawing of all guns, it also stated that “all gun owners need to be questioned.” (1)
This brings the Brownshirts to mind. Founded by Hitler in 1921, one of their purposes was to intimidate voters in national and local elections. From January 1931 it was headed by Ernst Rohm, who harbored radical anti-capitalist notions. (2)
I need to give you some background as to why I feel strongly about this.
1) The first thing is that I was a Democrat for over 30 years. That began to change in 1996 when I joined Baltimore’s Artmobile forum (Artmobile is an anagram for Baltimore). Besides posts about the arts, there were all these political posts directed against America, Republicans, and conservatives.
With my background, you might think that I would be in agreement. The problem was though, that these people were lying, their accusations being based on falsehoods.
Most egregious to me was this accusation that the U.S. was the “greatest terrorist nation.” While I recognize that our nation has engaged in questionable activities since its founding, these left-wing denouncements not only conveniently ignored the atrocities of the Soviet Union, Communist China, Fidel Castro, and the Cambodian Khmer Rouge, they also ignored modern state-sponsored terrorism in the Middle East, that began with the September 1970 hijacking of four jetliners by the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine).
There was also the denunciation of President Bill Clinton’s sending U.S. forces to support NATO, which helped put an end to the Bosnian War, and ended the Serbian genocide against the Bosnian Muslims: Heaven forbid the most powerful nation in the world should intervene for a real humanitarian cause.
In my naivety at the time, I mentioned these inconsistencies on Artmobile, expecting that my fellow artists, rumored, as it was to be on a quest for “Truth,” would participate in a rational discussion about these issues.
Was I ever wrong. It was a rude awakening to Liberal intolerance. Though I mentioned that I was a fellow Democrat, I was assailed as being some kind of “traitor” for daring to question the validity of those claims. No wonder there were no conservative views. Anyone daring to question was quickly driven off – that is until I came along.
This was not the Democrat Party I grew up with in the 1960’s. I was focused on my career in the years after, and really didn’t pay all that close attention to politics, but when I finally did, I was appalled. Knowing first hand from my childhood the destruction bigotry can cause, I couldn’t remaining silent.
Interestingly enough, it was through Artmobile, and the constant portrayal of Republican policy as being “Orwellian,” that I came to discover the writings of George Orwell, which have influenced me ever since. As a democratic socialist, he certainly criticized conservatives, but what was revealing, was that he criticized the entire spectrum of leftist politics with equal, if not greater, voracity.
2) Specific to the gun issue, I felt the need to purchase one after the 9/11 attacks. Besides practicing at public ranges, I took NRA sponsored gun safety classes. During that entire time, I encountered only one person who I would consider “flaky,” a guy who feared a race war was imminent. Naturally, I kept my distance.
Though no longer participating in Artmobile, I found the same type of bias, this time on Facebook.
I had friended this popular jazz organist in town. I noticed that many of his posts were of the blame-Republicans-for-all-the-problems-of-the-world type. When he posted that “gun nuts” wanted to return America to a time of the “Wild-West” where everyone supposedly openly carried a gun, and gunfights reigned supreme, I had to say something.
I mentioned that I had recently seen a History Channel episode about Wyatt Earp. It said that in truth, the “gun-fight” was mainly the work of “dime novel” and Hollywood fiction. The preferred way of dispatching an enemy was actually by ambush. It also pointed that the real Wild West was roughly only a 20-year period, following the end of the Civil War, lasting into the 1890’s. The episode also stated that equivalent towns in the east had a higher murder rate.
This person’s response was, “I KNOW MY HISTORY!” I guess he never read the articles citing that it was initially the dime western novels, popular from the 1860’s to 1890’s, that was responsible for the myth of the Wild West, and not reliable journalism. This was followed by all those popular cowboy movies, then all those popular cowboy T.V. shows.
In hopes of getting him to modify his views, I related that I owned a hand gun, and that not only had I never entertained the notion of the U.S. becoming another “wild-west,” I didn’t know of a single gun owner who did.
For that revelation, I was accused of having “Ultra Right-Wing views.” Now think of that: Our Bill of Rights has been around since 1791, two hundred twenty four years, and yet I’m the one who has extremist views??? This hints at the mentality behind demands to rewrite the Bill of Rights.
Just like what happened on Artmobile years earlier, this person was either lying, or engaging in willful ignorance to make his point; or as Orwell would have said, engaging in “Intellectual Dishonesty.”
Next I made an offer for him to go with me and hang out with some shooters I knew, a friendly and open bunch, and find out what they were about, and why they enjoyed their hobby. The response, “NO!!” I ALREADY KNOW WHAT THESE TYPES ARE LIKE!”
Indeed.
I never did tell this to Mr. Know-It-All, but those shooters I hung out with, both men and women, were members of Mensa, any one of which was smarter then Mr. Know-It-All could ever hope to be.
3) This brings me to another musician, saxophonist OM. OM had already criticized me before for sharing information about marijuana’s dangers, discounting not only the links I shared from the American Heart Association, American Lung Association, and a bunch of other physical and mental health articles, but also ignoring what I had said, that due to a marijuana addiction, I had suffered a mental breakdown in my mid 20’s.
After a comment on the gun issue, OM joins in and says something along the lines that I have a “reputation as a gun fanatic.” The first thing I did was to tell M.O. that he’d just libeled me, and that back in 2009, I was awarded a nice settlement as the result of being lied about on the Internet. The thing is, I had never talked to OM before about gun issues before, which indicates someone was spreading rumors about me. And as I’ve indicated earlier in this document, spreading rumors has become a hallmark of many modern Democrats.
I also told OM that just two weeks earlier, I had heard Governor O’Malley speak about gun control in Annapolis, and had posted that I thought his ideas, as I heard them presented, seemed reasonable.
4) Now in reference to your question -
NRA specifically, and Republicans in general, are portrayed as being "bad" (see Orwell quotes below). The fact is though; the NRA supports gun control that restricts criminals and the mentally ill. I even saw this being discussed on NBC’s Today Show. The anti-gun crowd doesn’t want to hear that though, and prefer to keep up the denigration unabated.
“How does people out there telling us how we "should" live our lives take away our right to a choice?” -
The Second Amendment guarantees us the right to bare arms. It specifically says that right is not to be tampered with (infringed), no exceptions – yet that person who inspired my initial comments here once posted something along the lines that the Second Amendment needs to be changed. It took a little prodding on my part to get her to clarify that she meant the mentally ill. I’m fine with that.
In relation to that initial discussion, I had another person give me the typical anti-gun litany of assumptions. The irony being that there was not one single fact given to support his position. Every single point was based on his personal opinion and nothing else. Plus there was the usual patronization I’ve come to expect from these types of persons, “Well meaning people like you.” It just goes on and on.
That highlights one of the difficulties in attempting to carry on a rational conversation with these “intellectual” types. They assume their opinions are fact, which creates a barrier to them being able to see the world “clearly,” as Orwell wrote.
And in closing, I’d like to go back to that first reference: “Appoint a liberal Supreme Court to interpret the Second Amendment properly.” That clearly shows the attempt by liberals to subvert the Bill of Rights. As I’ve said before, democracy is the representation of many voices – “E Pluribus Unum,” Out of Many, One. A democracy of liberals is not democracy, it is pure totalitarian evil.
- - - - - -
Orwell Quotes – Notes on Nationalism:
“By ‘nationalism’ I mean first of all the habit of assuming that human beings can be classified like insects and that whole blocks of millions or tens of millions of people can be confidently labelled ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ But secondly -- and this is much more important -- I mean the habit of identifying oneself with a single nation or other unit, placing it beyond good and evil and recognizing no other duty than that of advancing its interests. Nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism.”
“Nationalism is power-hunger tempered by self-deception. Every nationalist is capable of the most flagrant dishonesty, but he is also -- since he is conscious of serving something bigger than himself -- unshakeably certain of being in the right.”
“Political commentators, like astrologers, can survive almost any mistake, because their more devoted followers do not look to them for an appraisal of the facts but for the stimulation of nationalistic loyalties.”
“Indifference to objective truth.”
“Nationalism is an enormous subject. The world is tormented by innumerable delusions and hatreds which cut across one another in an extremely complex way.”
“. The point is that as soon as fear, hatred, jealousy and power worship are involved, the sense of reality becomes unhinged.”
http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/nationalism/english/e_nat
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Reference *1 - https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2015/10/03/time-to-outlaw-guns/
Reference *2 - http://www.britannica.com/topic/SA-Nazi-organization
http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/nationalism/english/e_nat
To Chris Bacas: FB - 2016/06/13
I agree that most people are reasonable. In regard to guns, I know liberals who own them (one a small arsenal in fact), and I know conservatives who want nothing to do with them. As I mentioned, the problem are those who live in a world of stereotypes and assumptions.
Orwell is my biggest political influence. One of the things he stressed was reporting issues honestly: without distortion or the fabrication of facts (propaganda).
In a number of his essays he details the psychology of intolerance and hatred, and the Intellectual Dishonesty (denial, intellectualization, projection) that allow it to flourish.
Possibly the best is “Notes on Nationalism.”
Being raised by bigots, I witnessed first hand its destructive effects, which is why I often challenge statements like the one by Ron about the NRA.
One of my observations from 20 years of debate, is the best way to “win” one of these types of discussions, is to just let the other person talk – much like a psychologist with a client.
Because of bias, sooner or later they contradict themselves, which usually brings the conversation to an end because they stop responding.
There are some instances though, where the internal conflict becomes so great that all they can do is lash out with a series of projection driven denunciations and insults.
You’ll notice how my statements, while not accusatory, elicited Ron to responded further.
When he said I’d implied that I supported the NRA stance on assault weapons, I knew I had him. I hadn’t said any such thing. This was his prejudice peeking out of his subconscious.
His next statement, about the NRA saying that everyone should have an assault weapon, sealed his fate. When I asked, “Did the NRA ever say this?” he was stymied, because they hadn’t.
That’s the thing about the mind. You can fool the conscious, but the subconscious, sometimes called the conscience, can’t be.
“By ‘nationalism’ I mean first of all the habit of assuming that human beings can be classified like insects and that whole blocks of millions or tens of millions of people can be confidently labelled ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ But secondly -- and this is much more important -- I mean the habit of identifying oneself with a single nation or other unit, placing it beyond good and evil and recognizing no other duty than that of advancing its interests. Nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism.” - http://orwell.ru/library/essays/nationalism/english/e_nat
I agree that most people are reasonable. In regard to guns, I know liberals who own them (one a small arsenal in fact), and I know conservatives who want nothing to do with them. As I mentioned, the problem are those who live in a world of stereotypes and assumptions.
Orwell is my biggest political influence. One of the things he stressed was reporting issues honestly: without distortion or the fabrication of facts (propaganda).
In a number of his essays he details the psychology of intolerance and hatred, and the Intellectual Dishonesty (denial, intellectualization, projection) that allow it to flourish.
Possibly the best is “Notes on Nationalism.”
Being raised by bigots, I witnessed first hand its destructive effects, which is why I often challenge statements like the one by Ron about the NRA.
One of my observations from 20 years of debate, is the best way to “win” one of these types of discussions, is to just let the other person talk – much like a psychologist with a client.
Because of bias, sooner or later they contradict themselves, which usually brings the conversation to an end because they stop responding.
There are some instances though, where the internal conflict becomes so great that all they can do is lash out with a series of projection driven denunciations and insults.
You’ll notice how my statements, while not accusatory, elicited Ron to responded further.
When he said I’d implied that I supported the NRA stance on assault weapons, I knew I had him. I hadn’t said any such thing. This was his prejudice peeking out of his subconscious.
His next statement, about the NRA saying that everyone should have an assault weapon, sealed his fate. When I asked, “Did the NRA ever say this?” he was stymied, because they hadn’t.
That’s the thing about the mind. You can fool the conscious, but the subconscious, sometimes called the conscience, can’t be.
“By ‘nationalism’ I mean first of all the habit of assuming that human beings can be classified like insects and that whole blocks of millions or tens of millions of people can be confidently labelled ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ But secondly -- and this is much more important -- I mean the habit of identifying oneself with a single nation or other unit, placing it beyond good and evil and recognizing no other duty than that of advancing its interests. Nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism.” - http://orwell.ru/library/essays/nationalism/english/e_nat
So I'm watching MSNBC, and the lady being interviewed (not a victim, but someone in the studio says, "When are WE (the nation) going to do something. WE (liberals) will never give up (good for you). WE will win (everybody thinks that).
But then she say, "'The Gun Lobby' has written the gun laws in this nation, and it's time we change them."
While I understand the frustration, the lady is grossly ignorant, perhaps even willfully, if she believes a "gun lobby" is responsible for this nation's gun laws. I attribute this to the unrelenting hate propaganda that is constantly being spread by liberals.
This nation's gun laws were established as the Second Amendment back in 1789 as part of the United States Constitution. There was no gun lobby.
Efforts to modify this amendment began with the passage of the Brady Gun Law in 1993, after the 1981 attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan by James Hinckley, who was determined to be mentally incompetent.
Now most people I know, conservatives and liberals alike, want a reduction in gun violence. Most people I know, conservatives and liberals alike, have no problem with background checks and waiting periods, whose purpose is to prevent criminals and the mentally ill from obtaining weapons.
So why are we still struggling with this some 40 years later?
Not that there isn’t a conservative responsibility here too, but for my money, I put most of the blame squarely on the laps of liberals, and their infernal sanctimonious condescending attitude.
You would think that with all their professed intellectual and moral superiority, liberals would know that creating animosity is not the way to solve problems, yet Facebook and the Internet is filled with pages and sites that are entirely devoted to denigrating and hating conservatives.
If this were 1930’s Germany, this would be the Nazi’s condemning Jews. If it were the south during the days of segregation, it would be the Klan condemning blacks.
And they wonder why conservatives fight back? Duh.
The attitude is a reflection of gross intolerance, and as a way of denial, libs have convinced themselves that they are the tolerant ones, and that all conservatives, are racist, homophobes, anti-women, (fill-in-the-blank).
That’s a function of scapegoats, to focus attention away from the real culprits. That’s why liberals love to blame.
Now you may think I’m picking on liberals. Well you’re right. While I have encountered bigots on both sides of the political spectrum, in my experience, liberals seem to be far worse. That could be because I live in a heavily Democrat area, but I don’t know for sure.
FB - 12/02/2015
But then she say, "'The Gun Lobby' has written the gun laws in this nation, and it's time we change them."
While I understand the frustration, the lady is grossly ignorant, perhaps even willfully, if she believes a "gun lobby" is responsible for this nation's gun laws. I attribute this to the unrelenting hate propaganda that is constantly being spread by liberals.
This nation's gun laws were established as the Second Amendment back in 1789 as part of the United States Constitution. There was no gun lobby.
Efforts to modify this amendment began with the passage of the Brady Gun Law in 1993, after the 1981 attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan by James Hinckley, who was determined to be mentally incompetent.
Now most people I know, conservatives and liberals alike, want a reduction in gun violence. Most people I know, conservatives and liberals alike, have no problem with background checks and waiting periods, whose purpose is to prevent criminals and the mentally ill from obtaining weapons.
So why are we still struggling with this some 40 years later?
Not that there isn’t a conservative responsibility here too, but for my money, I put most of the blame squarely on the laps of liberals, and their infernal sanctimonious condescending attitude.
You would think that with all their professed intellectual and moral superiority, liberals would know that creating animosity is not the way to solve problems, yet Facebook and the Internet is filled with pages and sites that are entirely devoted to denigrating and hating conservatives.
If this were 1930’s Germany, this would be the Nazi’s condemning Jews. If it were the south during the days of segregation, it would be the Klan condemning blacks.
And they wonder why conservatives fight back? Duh.
The attitude is a reflection of gross intolerance, and as a way of denial, libs have convinced themselves that they are the tolerant ones, and that all conservatives, are racist, homophobes, anti-women, (fill-in-the-blank).
That’s a function of scapegoats, to focus attention away from the real culprits. That’s why liberals love to blame.
Now you may think I’m picking on liberals. Well you’re right. While I have encountered bigots on both sides of the political spectrum, in my experience, liberals seem to be far worse. That could be because I live in a heavily Democrat area, but I don’t know for sure.
FB - 12/02/2015
To David S. - FB 02/27/18
"Maybe the few who are left will ban AR-15s and similar guns."
Maryland has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation. Last week USA Today voted Baltimore the most dangerous city in America, so how do you explain that???
The point being, the issue is more then hand guns, something that in spite of your IQ, you can't seem to understand. Instead, just like so many other modern liberal / progressives, and just as Orwell predicted in the Two Minutes Hate section of 1984, you obediently join the masses in a unrelenting frenzy of hatred.
Sure, there's much to despise about Trump, but you're so obsessed, all you can do is criticize. There's no attempt to see beyond your contempt, which is why in spite of all the condemnations, there is no progress.
"The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in." - 1984
"Maybe the few who are left will ban AR-15s and similar guns."
Maryland has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation. Last week USA Today voted Baltimore the most dangerous city in America, so how do you explain that???
The point being, the issue is more then hand guns, something that in spite of your IQ, you can't seem to understand. Instead, just like so many other modern liberal / progressives, and just as Orwell predicted in the Two Minutes Hate section of 1984, you obediently join the masses in a unrelenting frenzy of hatred.
Sure, there's much to despise about Trump, but you're so obsessed, all you can do is criticize. There's no attempt to see beyond your contempt, which is why in spite of all the condemnations, there is no progress.
"The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in." - 1984