Mass shootings are difficult to understand. Most of us resort to judgment and leave it there. But if you really want something to stop, you must seek to understand where it originated.
Mass shooting are difficult to understand because they are always done by people with significant mental health problems and/or terrorists pursuing a goal to cause fear and chaos in the general population. Nobody can understand the motives of the insane... even the insane.
The interest in gun ownership is not hard to understand given the God given right to protect self and family and the fact that criminals are abundant and Democrats have clearly demonstrated that they will condone both mob violence and increases in violent crime to serve their political interests.
I have had the displeasure of being at the scene of three multi-fatality automobile accidents. I have witnessed first hand what a moving automobile can do to the human body. However, I am not at all for banning automobiles.
The New Deal brought meaningful work to craftsmen, laborers and artists, something this country needed then and desperately needs right now. Reagan ushered in the era of "grab all the money you can". Now we are a country that makes money with money. Usurers and money changers. There is no more meaningful work. Even farming is mechanized and computerized. As a result we are no longer stewards of the land but consumers of petrochemicals, industrial grade poison. and machinery debt.
Guns seem to provide some kind of security blanket for the masses. A way to lash out at a society that has lost it's humanity. I don't have a problem with guns. They're a tool made to kill things, if that's what you need to do.
They are not good for growing things or conserving water. America will run out water before it runs out of ammunition. We need to start making the tools we need to rebuild this broken country. We already have enough guns. We need more books and teachers and workplaces.
Guns and gun crimes are a side effect. It’s the same answer for the solution for crime, poverty, and despair. If you invest in the communities people feel empowered and that they have a chance. The US invests in corporations and rich people. It doesn’t invest in education, revitalizing struggling cities and investing in infrastructure. If you give people a chance and actual tools like good schools, fair wages, and just a chance people will be less despondent. Politicians and corporations starved the working class for three decades and then are surprised people are pissed off and want to take it out on someone. We send tens of billions a month to Ukraine but won’t increase the Federal Education budget by $20 billion. Once Ukraine situation is over we will send Trillions of dollars to them to rebuild their country but we won’t rebuild decaying cities in the US and help low income people get out of their situation. That price tag is always too high. The Fed bought $9 trillion of US debt, we could have rebuilt inner city Baltimore 10x over with that money and had a greater long term effect on the economy. When people feel they have no choices and no way out they lash out. Sure feels like the system is rigged.
My feeling is that this is spot on ... I am a visitor to the US and my only use for guns is for protection in my home (otherwise guns belong to the police and military - I guess we need these, because our so called civilization has almost fallen apart, which means there are some very angry and desperate people around that want whatever you own and have worked for - whereas I have to see that I earned my things mainly by having better possibilities on the back of poor people that never had the same chances that I had!). It always goes back to our bottomless greed and my fear is that we are heading for total chaos ...
One further thought: I am very glad that guns where very difficult to get were I grew up, because having a short temper I could not be sure not to have used it in an argument (f.i. on the road ...), and for what, that I feel a bit better for a few seconds??
Chris, I always admire your intellectual vibrancy, especially in it's potent veracity. God bless you my friend. The incomparably transformational book about " Policing " is just out; " Bullyycee " by Michael Claude Caesar Sampson. Global society needs the upgrade towards human salvation.
My God ... what a twisted, convoluted screed this is. I don’t even know where to begin. But suffice to say many ... no, most ... Americans disagree with you.
Stopped at about 1/2 way into the video. Hedges barfs out so many absurd, anti-"white", anti-male leftist narratives it is ridiculous, but not surprising.
Here is the reality of how such toxic, totalitarian leftist narratives actually play out:
Everytime we have a push for gun control, the gun shops increase their sales. Best to tone the anti gun rhetoric, take the guns from criminals and the mentally unstable, and serious background checks. Why in the world did the gun shop in Uvalde sell two automatic rifles and a pile of ammunition to an 18 year old other than profit. Lots of other things to think about and we should.
Just wanted to repost a comment from a take on Orwellian Newspeak:
Check out the industrial evil psychology of this new fangled, rushed-through "gun bill". All "our top DNC reps" keep saying "it's not perfect but it goes in the right direction"...right? well.....what kind of "right direction" is that? This new gun bill CODIFIES that the damn MSM will NEVER talk about "banning guns" ever again! It codifies "red flag" thought crime. Any time someone will go nuts and start shooting (you can be assured the bill won't do ONE thing to reduce shootings IMHO), the media will start going down the "thought crime" rabbit hole! "What was the shooters motivation?" "What did shooter say on forkbook?" "What did shooter google"? and the KICKER......"why was the shooter's gun NOT taken away earlier"..because NOW we have "red flag" laws in place!
SO we irrevocably morph from the concept of "taking guns away", to "why was the red flag not raised"...SEE?!!! A totally different talking point ! It's a completely different psychological mindset, as Orwell would love....the new Gun bill is so well crafted, they've been working it for years to juuuuuuust position it psychologically and cunningly into the new frame.
Recap: the venal upshot of the so called "gun bill"....NEVER will any news media talk about banning guns again.......it will permanently use the next shooter's news cycle to narrow focus on "why was a red flag not raised"
.....so thank the gun lobby for not only now killing innocents, but also for FURTHERING the panopticon dot com orwellian era. Murica!
Interesting how you show Elon Musk as your corporate oligarch. He has done great things for humanity; maybe next time, have your editor show Jamie Dimon or the Pfizer CEO. Elon Musk has propelled us into the future. The USA is still a strong country; the American people are resilient, and no one points out the good. Instead, it's all doom and gloom.
The USA is relatively new compared to other nations in the first world. We must catch up on infrastructure projects, education, and income inequality while fighting government corruption. Perhaps if we scaled back military spending, The United States could work on rebuilding the country. On that point, I agree with you.
All nations have a bloody, racist history of war and slavery. It is not just the USA. You have enjoyed the fruits of American universities and relative prosperity, yet you are painting the US as inherently evil. It is not that simple; things are not as bad as you make them.
We have some of the best individuals I have ever encountered in our nation's military. We are great because of these people's willingness to serve others regardless of political views. We are all Americans.
Mass shooting are difficult to understand because they are always done by people with significant mental health problems and/or terrorists pursuing a goal to cause fear and chaos in the general population. Nobody can understand the motives of the insane... even the insane.
The interest in gun ownership is not hard to understand given the God given right to protect self and family and the fact that criminals are abundant and Democrats have clearly demonstrated that they will condone both mob violence and increases in violent crime to serve their political interests.
I have had the displeasure of being at the scene of three multi-fatality automobile accidents. I have witnessed first hand what a moving automobile can do to the human body. However, I am not at all for banning automobiles.
The New Deal brought meaningful work to craftsmen, laborers and artists, something this country needed then and desperately needs right now. Reagan ushered in the era of "grab all the money you can". Now we are a country that makes money with money. Usurers and money changers. There is no more meaningful work. Even farming is mechanized and computerized. As a result we are no longer stewards of the land but consumers of petrochemicals, industrial grade poison. and machinery debt.
Guns seem to provide some kind of security blanket for the masses. A way to lash out at a society that has lost it's humanity. I don't have a problem with guns. They're a tool made to kill things, if that's what you need to do.
They are not good for growing things or conserving water. America will run out water before it runs out of ammunition. We need to start making the tools we need to rebuild this broken country. We already have enough guns. We need more books and teachers and workplaces.
Guns and gun crimes are a side effect. It’s the same answer for the solution for crime, poverty, and despair. If you invest in the communities people feel empowered and that they have a chance. The US invests in corporations and rich people. It doesn’t invest in education, revitalizing struggling cities and investing in infrastructure. If you give people a chance and actual tools like good schools, fair wages, and just a chance people will be less despondent. Politicians and corporations starved the working class for three decades and then are surprised people are pissed off and want to take it out on someone. We send tens of billions a month to Ukraine but won’t increase the Federal Education budget by $20 billion. Once Ukraine situation is over we will send Trillions of dollars to them to rebuild their country but we won’t rebuild decaying cities in the US and help low income people get out of their situation. That price tag is always too high. The Fed bought $9 trillion of US debt, we could have rebuilt inner city Baltimore 10x over with that money and had a greater long term effect on the economy. When people feel they have no choices and no way out they lash out. Sure feels like the system is rigged.
My feeling is that this is spot on ... I am a visitor to the US and my only use for guns is for protection in my home (otherwise guns belong to the police and military - I guess we need these, because our so called civilization has almost fallen apart, which means there are some very angry and desperate people around that want whatever you own and have worked for - whereas I have to see that I earned my things mainly by having better possibilities on the back of poor people that never had the same chances that I had!). It always goes back to our bottomless greed and my fear is that we are heading for total chaos ...
One further thought: I am very glad that guns where very difficult to get were I grew up, because having a short temper I could not be sure not to have used it in an argument (f.i. on the road ...), and for what, that I feel a bit better for a few seconds??
Chris, I always admire your intellectual vibrancy, especially in it's potent veracity. God bless you my friend. The incomparably transformational book about " Policing " is just out; " Bullyycee " by Michael Claude Caesar Sampson. Global society needs the upgrade towards human salvation.
My God ... what a twisted, convoluted screed this is. I don’t even know where to begin. But suffice to say many ... no, most ... Americans disagree with you.
Stopped at about 1/2 way into the video. Hedges barfs out so many absurd, anti-"white", anti-male leftist narratives it is ridiculous, but not surprising.
Here is the reality of how such toxic, totalitarian leftist narratives actually play out:
https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/i-criticized-blm-then-i-was-fired
A systematic, rational analysis of guns and the USA:
HWFO.substack.com
Everytime we have a push for gun control, the gun shops increase their sales. Best to tone the anti gun rhetoric, take the guns from criminals and the mentally unstable, and serious background checks. Why in the world did the gun shop in Uvalde sell two automatic rifles and a pile of ammunition to an 18 year old other than profit. Lots of other things to think about and we should.
Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys sang the Ballad of Charles Joseph Whitman in 1970.
"Who are we to say the boy's insane?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub9m4gszcR4
Just wanted to repost a comment from a take on Orwellian Newspeak:
Check out the industrial evil psychology of this new fangled, rushed-through "gun bill". All "our top DNC reps" keep saying "it's not perfect but it goes in the right direction"...right? well.....what kind of "right direction" is that? This new gun bill CODIFIES that the damn MSM will NEVER talk about "banning guns" ever again! It codifies "red flag" thought crime. Any time someone will go nuts and start shooting (you can be assured the bill won't do ONE thing to reduce shootings IMHO), the media will start going down the "thought crime" rabbit hole! "What was the shooters motivation?" "What did shooter say on forkbook?" "What did shooter google"? and the KICKER......"why was the shooter's gun NOT taken away earlier"..because NOW we have "red flag" laws in place!
SO we irrevocably morph from the concept of "taking guns away", to "why was the red flag not raised"...SEE?!!! A totally different talking point ! It's a completely different psychological mindset, as Orwell would love....the new Gun bill is so well crafted, they've been working it for years to juuuuuuust position it psychologically and cunningly into the new frame.
Recap: the venal upshot of the so called "gun bill"....NEVER will any news media talk about banning guns again.......it will permanently use the next shooter's news cycle to narrow focus on "why was a red flag not raised"
.....so thank the gun lobby for not only now killing innocents, but also for FURTHERING the panopticon dot com orwellian era. Murica!
Interesting how you show Elon Musk as your corporate oligarch. He has done great things for humanity; maybe next time, have your editor show Jamie Dimon or the Pfizer CEO. Elon Musk has propelled us into the future. The USA is still a strong country; the American people are resilient, and no one points out the good. Instead, it's all doom and gloom.
The USA is relatively new compared to other nations in the first world. We must catch up on infrastructure projects, education, and income inequality while fighting government corruption. Perhaps if we scaled back military spending, The United States could work on rebuilding the country. On that point, I agree with you.
All nations have a bloody, racist history of war and slavery. It is not just the USA. You have enjoyed the fruits of American universities and relative prosperity, yet you are painting the US as inherently evil. It is not that simple; things are not as bad as you make them.
We have some of the best individuals I have ever encountered in our nation's military. We are great because of these people's willingness to serve others regardless of political views. We are all Americans.
Felling some white guilt Chris Hedges?