Defeatism is due to empathy.
Yup. The President of the United States is a fascist and the puppet of an foreign enemy. I have no rage to spare for anything else.
You know it’s sad to say it, but a lot of them are truly too far gone. Bill Oreilly for example would, actually, stand over the casket of his grand children murdered by a recently-purchased AR15 and say “shucks, it’s just too bad, mental health! The real problem, yeah! Guns don’t kill people, they’re just tools”.
If this is the attitude of the rational Americans then it’s no surprise that the NRA has no meaningful opposition. I don’t mean to be judgemental towards anyone here, people write things after events and then later feel differently, I have done it plenty of times.
If children dying from entirely preventable causes ceases to enrage or provoke any feelings other than cynicism, then it’s probably time to stop caring about politics generally.
Sending money is the only rational thing to do. But where is the best place to send it?
Part of the Mueller investigation is rumored to include Russian cutouts laundering millions through the NRA as donations to the Trump campaign. There was a huge growth in spending by the NRA directly for the presidential campaign in 2016, over 30$million.
On this same day in 1929, seven guys were shot and killed in the Saint Valentines Day Massacre. Seven. And these were grown men involved in organized crime. The massacre was so shocking and offensive to the electorate that politicians were forced to act. The outcome was the National Firearms Act signed into law in 1934.
That’s amazing to me. We’re so far from that now, that I can’t even conceive of how the killing of seven gangland mooks spurred people to take that gun control action. Here we again are after countless mass shootings and we can’t even start a dialogue without people protesting that it’s “too soon” and to not politicize the tragedy. Hell, no one even gave a serious look at bump stocks after Vegas.
Screwtape would be proud.
It’s not cynicism, sir. It’s realism.
America has spoken. She would like a mass shooting every 2.4 days on average, thanks.
I mean, I will vote and vote accordingly. But what else can I do? Protest? Donate? Those efforts fight fascism.
No this is realism:
What you’re espousing is just indifference.
Dang, our reality is so messed up.
They have opposition, but the NRA has more money.
I mean they only represent like 10% of gun-owners. But they represent 100% of gun-makers and those folks have a lot of cash for buying Congresscritters and ads.
The NRA has spent like $3 million on Joni Ernst. She’s only been in office for like 2 years. That’s fucking insanity.
We have to keep making them spend the money. You have to make sure they play 100x more then you to achieve the same results. It’s a steep climb, but worth it.
What’s he’s espousing is a symptom of what he and many others are suffering; fatigue and frustration. Chastising may not be the most effective method of overcoming that.
It’s not cynicism, it’s simply acknowledging that kids being murdered in school has been deemed an acceptable cost of gun ownership by the US electorate for nearly TWO FUCKING DECADES.
I care. That’s why I’m so fucking exhausted by all this. I already know, living in deep red state America, how exactly the conversation is going to go with my colleagues and family today. Because I’ve been having the same argument with them for TWO FUCKING DECADES.
Edit: raging assholism.
As long as we’re being cynical and defeatist, this is a ‘fun’ link:
No – it’s recognition of a political reality. On this issue, the GOP is intractably, deeply opposed to anything resembling gun control. Unless that party self-destructs, there is no real chance of change here.
There is room for action on other issues. That number is shrinking as our politicals degrade into zero-sum total war. But the number isn’t zero yet.
Well, I donated $600 to https://everytown.org/ so hopefully that helps. The price of one AR-15.
Stop talking and start throwing money to the places that can get stuff done. It’s gonna be a long slog, and words ain’t enough.
All I’ve ever needed is my love gun.