The Great American Gun Fetish

[The Ozzman]

It wouldn't surprise me if you never learned anything about it.

Why wouldn't it surprise you? I imagine the Michigan school system probably wasn't much better anyway.

 

[Mort Divine]

Why wouldn't it surprise you? I imagine the Michigan school system probably wasn't much better anyway.

Oh it certainly wasn't good.

Unless the world history classes you took specifically focused on socialism/communism/Marxism etc I just don't see them having any kind of detailed analysis of them is all.

 

[CiG]

Name some fringe leftist-fringe/communist outlets average Americans see in their Facebook feed on a daily basis off the top of your head.

Hell, just name a truly leftist-fringe/communist media outlet based out of the US that you occasionally come across off the top of your head.

Right-fringe isn't necessarily more dangerous than left-fringe. The difference is is that very few people in the US take on leftist-fringe ideology as a dogma to live their life by, which is a good thing, while radical right-wing views are prominent in mainstream American politics.

Question, which fringe-right outlets are you referring to? Because people measure fringe differently person-by-person based on their own political compass.

For example, I think The Young Turks are edging towards fringe-leftist these days, but I am much more of a centrist.

Advocating for strong social welfare programs does not make one a communist.

That also doesn't make one a democratic socialist. That alone would make you a social liberal.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

Since everybody ignored my previous post about the relationship between the US right and the military, and instead chose to debate death statistics that I barely give a fuck about, here's some more evidence of the aforementioned relationship:



http://www.iop.harvard.edu/sites/default/files_new/pictures/151208_Harvard IOP Fall 2015 Report.pdf

My argument is that it's in the interest of the whole world for the U.S. to remain the top superpower, that part of that superpower status is rooted in military strength, and that our gun-happy Republicans may be vital to that military strength.

 

[UltimateApathy]

Gotta love those statistics:

https://www.google.com.tw/amp/s/geo...dangerous-developed-country-in-the-world/amp/

“People thinking of going to the USA for business or tourists trips should think carefully about it given the statistical fact you are 15 times more likely to be shot dead in the USA than in Australia per capita per million people.”

Those are the words of former Australian deputy Prime Minister Tim Fische in response to the brutal and senseless killing of 23-year-old baseball player and recent USA transplant Christopher Lane. Of course, it goes without saying that all murder is brutal and senseless, but the story behind this particular story is extremely disturbing (if nothing else because a group of young teenagers decided to kill someone “just because”).

And he’s right.

The United States is becoming notorious for its shockingly high crime rate. The same way Americans look at Mexico say “be careful down there,” so does the rest of the world to USA travelers.

Consider these facts:

• The USA has the highest gun-murder rate of any developed nation in the world.
• Many of our cities have worse homicide rates than some of the poorest, undeveloped countries in the world.
• One in three people in the U.S. know someone who has been shot (Goss, Kristin, “Disarmed: The Missing Movement for Gun Control,” Princeton University Press, 2006. p. 2).
• On average, 32 Americans are murdered with guns every day and 140 are treated for a gun assault in an emergency room.
• Every day on average, 51 people kill themselves with a firearm, and 45 people are shot or killed in an accident with a gun.
• The U.S. firearm homicide rate is 20 times higher than the combined rates of 22 countries that are our peers in wealth and population.
• A gun in the home is 22 times more likely to be used to kill or injure in a domestic homicide, suicide, or unintentional shooting than to be used in self-defense. Women are 17 times more likely to die in a domestic dispute if a gun is in the home.

This all comes off the heals of a near-massacre at an elementary school in Georgia, stopped, no less, by a secretary who talked a gunman armed with 500 rounds down during the middle of a standoff. This is less than a year after Sandy Hook, and just over a year since the Aurora theater massacre, in which a classmate of mine was shot in the face. Not to diminish the other 11,000+ fatalities by homicide and 25,000+ fatalities by suicide with guns each year.

A gun culture in desperate need of salvation."

 

[Mort Divine]

That also doesn't make one a democratic socialist. That alone would make you a social liberal.

I know. He advocates for social democracy, not a system of democratic socialism.

 

[CiG]

I know. He advocates for social democracy, not a system of democratic socialism.

Oh my mistake I thought you were saying he's a democratic socialist. Yeah he isn't anywhere near as radical as Americans think, even if he is a bit of a dipshit with strange views about South American socialism and the causes of terrorism.

Americans would shit a brick if Jeremy Corbyn was a politician in America.

 

[arg]

There should be limits to democracy. Not everything should be up for a majority-wins vote. The majority should not be able to vote a person's freedom, life, property or wealth away.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

There should be limits to democracy. Not everything should be up for a majority-wins vote.

That's the whole point of the Senate and the Electoral College

 

[Nate Skalman]

By logic if we have a vested interest in getting guns off the street, then automobiles should also be removed from the streets based on statistical reasons alone. My hypothetical neighbor doesn't have a right to take my firearm from me because he feels I'm dangerous, and that he's just "right"...statistics, or not. It's like saying "construction is killing people", then using jobsite injury statistics to call for a ban on construction. I think gun opponents are seething that they can't just tell people what to do based on a "moral high ground" opinion. Fuck your statistics...you're not taking MY guns because you "want to".

 

[Nate Skalman]

Statistics aren't accurate at all...if I justifiably shoot and kill 5 people when I come home and find them armed and harming my family...it still goes on the books as 5 gunshot "homicides" despite the fact they deserved it. If you disagree with deadly force being necessary...that's an OPINION.

 

[CiG]

By logic if we have a vested interest in getting guns off the street, then automobiles should also be removed from the streets based on statistical reasons alone.

Seems like this is on the agenda already, many big cities are slowly minimizing automobile travel space and putting in bus-only lanes, bike-only lanes, trams and expanding the number of train stations per portions of land.

 

[Nate Skalman]

Seems like this is on the agenda already, many big cities are slowly minimizing automobile travel space and putting in bus-only lanes, bike-only lanes, trams and expanding the number of train stations per portions of land.

I highly agree, but it's to generate revenue...it helps but there is no "clean power" or safe transportation...tell a Prius driver to turn in their cars because they're dangerous, or because of lead and Mercury dumping in China because of their batteries and...all the sudden now they have no interest in hearing the proof. I think they struggle with the fact that they make demands but have no background in what they're speaking on...unless you're a census analyst for a government/state agency with a background in the subject (firearm deaths), then the statistic is coming from a nobody- I wouldn't listen to advice about guns from people who are uneducated on firearm use, and are scared of guns and cower from gun exposure...lol

 

[Nate Skalman]

Here's some 105mm howitzer rounds for this weekends ordinance reg...95 lbs each...36 kilometer reach. Feels like a wall of JCM-800's going off. God-like power that gives me a hard on....instant bum camp removal!!!

 

[Nate Skalman]

...or a great protest ender!

 

[Nate Skalman]

 

[zabu of nΩd]

I see you're from Oregon. Must be one of the guys behind this:

 

[CF87]

Get the gun, shoot, shoot, shoot, The Bullet Awaits.

 

[UltimateApathy]

Deathcult Phenomenon:

 

[The Ozzman]

Deathcult Phenomenon:

More people die from cancer each year. Should we ban everything that can cause cancer?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year

Just as many people die from auto accidents as guns. Should we ban cars?