Sunday School

[StregaModerator]

Ah yes. More guns. Of course. Not just the police and military.

It always amazes me how twisty and wriggly the gun-owning American has to be to present a ‘rational’ argument for keeping guns available to all.

Still, as obviously no lesson whatsoever can be learned from ALL the other first world countries attitudes to guns, it’s probably a good thing the SCOTUS took away abortion rights – gotta replace those mown down kiddos somehow.

[jakelafortParticipant]

gotta replace those mown down kiddos somehow. Ouchcasm coupled with stunning Dunning Kruger gunning.

[jakelafortParticipant]

God guns and Enco make America great.

Liberals, wokeness and welfare make it second rate.

Oh hey Enco…did not see you there at the little nudist camp for Floridian newbie perambulators who gaze deeply at alligators and topless toppers and tumbless towers of Illium

[—Participant]

jakelafort wrote:

Liberals, wokeness and welfare make it second rate.

In truth, I have no political views; I’m just jealous of ‘Murricah and want to infect like a virus.

[—Participant]

Strega wrote:

Still, as obviously no lesson whatsoever can be learned from ALL the other first world countries attitudes to guns, it’s probably a good thing the SCOTUS took away abortion rights – gotta replace those mown down kiddos somehow.

I feel like this word, in particular, is important. The conversation seems to always centre around gun rights legislation and the second amendment. Personally, I am glad to live in a country that doesn’t have the same constitutional provision—it’s anachronistic, at best—; however, the law doesn’t in and of itself explain the cultural fixation around firearms in the US.

I mean, it’s a big country with diverse and complex views so I don’t want to paint in overly broad strokes, but it general, but the American mindset feels like an anomaly for countries of the same level of economic development. I’m all for eccentricity, but from the outside looking in, it feels like the sort of dysfunction that need therapy more than legislation. Then again, it could be part of the larger issue that America is an awkward family dinner where two people at the table cannot shut the fuck up about every wedge issue under the sun and everyone else gets sucked up in the drama and angst.

[jakelafortParticipant]

Yeah what is it with guns?

It really does feel like the attitude is one of independence, defiance and distaste of central authority. Perhaps it is borne of the frontier and the necessity. And then as violence escalates a great many Americans feel like they need protection. That movie about Americans in Vietnam doing their horrors like the My Lai massacre there was a line from an American soldier…this is my gun (grabs crotch) this is for fun (the gun)

[—Participant]

It’s the mythos around them I can’t really understand. People who pretend the 1st amendment is defended by people exercising the 2nd have their heads so far up their asses it’s a wonder they don’t suffocate. Or on the other hand, I’ve talked to people who have told me they wouldn’t enter a house if they knew there was a firearm on the property because they wouldn’t feel safe (though I can understand that more in cases where people had certain traumas). It’s like firearms in America are magical or something.

[DavisModerator]

The last scenario (not entering a house in America where there is a firearm making them feel less safe) is far more understandable (though still, extreme). Having a gun in your house in America statistically makes you more likely to die (under any circumstances) and more likely to get hurt in the case of an incident.

This is not the case in other Western European countries which have strict gun laws requiring gun safes, minimal training, inspections, licenses, background checks, target practice etc.

So yeah, I wouldn’t not go into an American house only because there was a gun (if there was a gun and an irresponsible person or someone whose character I didn’t know…I’d have a think) but I would likely feel less safe, even if it is statistically just a little less safe. Just as I feel less safe in a bus vs. a train (not that I’m fearing for my life either way).

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Strega,

No God is coming to the rescue.

In the case of Uvalde, the hired help refused to come to the rescue.

In the very best-case scenario, minor children cannot be expected to come to their own rescue and even non-corrupt, non-lazy law enforcers can be many minutes away.

By process of elimination, the words of The Humanist Manifesto II come into play: “We must save ourselves”…and our fellow rational beings. Pretty straightforward, nothing “twisty” or “wriggly.”

And there’s no Trademark or Servicemark on caring for children. No one even has to have children to care for them.

[StregaModerator]

Enco, you’re missing the vital step. All this talk of successfully or unsuccessfully defending children doesn’t even pause for a second to contemplate not having an attack on them in the first place.

It probably doesn’t seem like wriggling and twisting if it’s something one is used to doing.

 

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Jake,

Ouchcasm coupled with stunning Dunning Kruger gunning.

“Ouchcasm?”. It has to hurt first before it earns that name. 😁

You and Autumn seem to put that Dunning-Kruger on everything, like a 3-year-old just learning a new word. Protest too much, methinks? That’s usually what’s happening when someone turns something into a one-note symphony.

By the way, don’t go Dunning Kruger for money or anything else. He’ll give you really nasty phone calls and Nightmares on Elm Street trying to get it back. 😉

Oh hey Enco…did not see you there at the little nudist camp for Floridian newbie perambulators who gaze deeply at alligators and topless toppers and tumbless towers of Illium

I tend to prefer more conventional vacation vistas, none involving Florida or dangerous non-sapient beings. 😎

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Strega,

Enco, you’re missing the vital step. All this talk of successfully or unsuccessfully defending children doesn’t even pause for a second to contemplate not having an attack on them in the first place.

That world where children or anyone else never have to fear criminal, terrorist, or tyrannical attack simply does not exist. I’m dealing with the world we have.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Autumn and Davis,

Knocking on the door and waiting to hear “Come in” is the sacred tradition. Not doing that before entering is a sure path to having very good reason to fear, especially at night. After nightfall, you know it’s not “Avon Calling.” 😁

[StregaModerator]

Enco, straw man argument. I did not say that children would never have to fear anything.

In the USA, the sale of children’s Kevlar lined backpacks to prevent bullets is quite common.

Recently, in Texas I believe, there has been an issuance of DNA kits to parents so they can file their children’s DNA, in case shooting dismemberments render it hard to identify their child’s pieces of corpse after such an attack.

This is literally incomprehensible to the rest of the civilised world.

It underscores the complete inability of the USA to mentally contemplate any form of gun control.

Americans will simply continue to sacrifice their children on the altar of the ‘second amendment’ – and banning abortion should help to replace some of them.

[—Participant]

TheEncogitationer wrote:

You and Autumn seem to put that Dunning-Kruger on everything, like a 3-year-old just learning a new word. Protest too much, methinks?

No, not on everything. Mostly just you.

[Author]

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