I have cut back on my social media in recent years substantially, where I used to go into protracted explanations and arguments about my positions and thoughts about political and current events. Sometimes, I miss those arguments, because writing helps me understand what I think about a particular subject. Since I spent time in the right-wing propaganda machine and am now outside of it, sometimes I approach the perfidy of the Republican Party with a bit more grace than those who place the Bushes in the same category as the Trumps. In that spirit, I wanted to try and articulate why this shooting in Uvalde feels worse than others.
I have laid out my explanations of why some of the repeated arguments from the anti-gun-reform crowd are bad, but there are three recent events that make all of this seem even more helpless.
In this last year, there was an entirely fabricated threat about ‘CRT’ from a Fox News commentator, amplified by Trump, and then disseminated into screaming matches in suburban school districts throughout the country. The argument was that there was a woke cabal of teachers indoctrinating white kids to feel bad about being white. None of this was based in reality, but, for the purposes of this situation, the important conclusions are the belief that ‘teachers have power’ and ‘teachers can’t be trusted.’ Already, there are renewed calls to arm teachers, despite the growing shortage of the underpaid and overworked unionized staff. Even more than before, this sounds silly. The same people who did not trust teachers to teach without veto power on what books they use now, apparently, trust these pinko America-haters with firearms.
Second is the general response to the pandemic. The idea that it will ever be able to convince people to disarm because their gun might be used to kill a hypothetical victim at a hypothetical later time seems particularly impossible when those exact same people would literally rather die than put on a mask or take a vaccine to curb an immediate and present death toll. There is no way to logically introduce abstract altruism to those who have incorporated a distorted and ahistoric sense of aggrieved individualism into their personal religion. Articles of faith cannot be disproven through facts and logic.
Third is the recent leaked opinion in Dobbs. I am not going to argue the sincerity of people’s belief that abortion is ‘murdering a baby’ (though little about their actions indicate they actually believe that). I don’t know if terminating a pregnancy kills a child. I think it is an unknowable question of faith and semantics, not logic and science. Indeed, that is how the court treated the question in a line of cases about contraception, including Hobby Lobby. But I certainly know what IS murdering children: murdering children. When Roe was first decided, the Pro-Life crowd were at least consistent - the mostly-Catholic group were also in favor of the kids being provided services after they were born and were also opposed to the death penalty.
I think that Roe was a shaky decision from the start. If Alito’s opinion becomes the opinion, I think there will be huge problems with the legitimacy of the court based on its slapdash stare decisis reasoning. But I would be more willing to give Alito and his supporters the benefit of the doubt if they had demonstrated that they would actually apply the reasoning elsewhere. English common-law from the 13th century and discussions about “quickening” and “foetuses” are all well and good, but you can’t then apply that method to ‘well-regulated militia’ or ‘bare arms’ and come up with high-capacity, high-velocity weapons of war that could have destroyed battalions of founding fathers single-handedly. If you are an actual Originalist, the drilling in the town square with privately held black-powder muskets would not be extrapolated into the present catastrophe.
Even now, after the NRA has been disclosed as a scam, a generation of children have come of age with the regular occurrence of this thing that only happens in America, the ability of entrenched minority rule and a vocal subset of stubborn, fact-free agitators can scupper a response to a pandemic, let alone climate change.
Shooting guns is fun. So is driving a car 300 miles an hour or flying a plane. But we have restrictions, licensing, insurance schemes, regulations, inspections and entire industries around mitigating risk around these things.
Most Americans are in favor of some access to guns with some regulations, just like most are in favor of some access to abortion with some regulation. Ask yourself why we have a system that prevents these things and enshrines what a vanishingly small group of people want as the world in which all of us have to live. Then ask yourself whether, when people told you that America was the best system, they were telling the truth.
You’ve more than likely took a hiatus because you embarrassed your parents and lost your job. Other than gay marriage, the only difference between bush and Obama was affiliation title. Both are war criminals and Obama dropped a bomb every 20 minutes for eight years. In fact trump is the only potus in our lifetime that hasn’t started a war plus let’s not forget the Abraham accords. CRT is a divisive ideology of oppressed and oppressor which utilizes melanin content level as an identifier, therefore it is by definition racist. Groomers in schools are the reason Biden attempted to use the patriot act on convened parents. Veterans should be employed by the states to protect our children. Masks are nothing more than splash guards according to peer reviewed studies. Gene therapies fall short of natural immunity plus they render you incapable of donating plasma to save the lives. Only the plasma from natural occurring immunity can save the lives of the folks that have been coerced to take an experimental gene therapy. The Christian faith is exactly what made this nation exceptional. Extinguishing an innocent life by any other description is still murder. The second amendment relates to the ability to overthrow a tyrannical government, not shooting for fun. Therefore military equivalent is clearly their definition in the constitution. Patriots are the majority and the komrades are clearly the minority. Man made climate change is nothing but a farce. The constitutional USA is the greatest system because it is a republic founded on individual liberties whereas the minority has unalienable rights as well. Unlike a democracy which is majority rule with no minority rights. The only thing democratic is our process of elections. Returning abortion law back to the states should be supported by those in favor of democracies so it can remain on the ballot where constituents can vote their conscience. This experiment we call a constitutional republic is the greatest experiment of individual liberties ever began and it is far from over. Unfortunately as history shows, there are factions that tear her down while others build her up. In the end god wins but in the meantime patriots will shine light into the darkest of days so prosperity can still be achievable by all future American citizens in this great nation.
As usual this is so, so good and I agree with every word of it (until the very last sentence. I want lots of changes to the American system but I think it’s probably still the best?). Thank you for this beautifully articulated piece, I am sharing it with lots of people. Xo