On Monday, Audrey Hale drove to Covenant School, a private elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, retrieved three guns from the vehicle — two AR-style semi-automatic weapons and one pistol — and shot out a window to gain entry to the school.
1938 again. They are not coming after me this time. Doesn't matter. The millions of Germans who stood by, watched and did bupkis were just as bad as those who commanded and physically perpetuated the Holocaust.
Do we Americans want to be just as bad as the Nazi era Germans? Is this really what we want? Is this really what we are becoming?
Geez, Trans people are PEOPLE. LGBTQ+ people are PEOPLE. The fascist media has a leg up on this story and it needs to stop...yesterday.
A multi-pronged approach from grass roots protesting outside FOX, Trumpist Republicans' offices Newsmax et al, Corporations closing the money spigot and words of leadership from President Biden are needed to put an end to this "idea" that LGBTQ+ are less than human.
Or is it just 1933 when the book burnings started with LGBTQ+ studies? They are not coming for us yet. Enough of them think George Soros funds everything they hate, that I suspect it’s only a matter of time.
Too many folks in this country have been inculcated in the gun culture for far too long and conflate freedom with guns, while neglecting to consider the second part of the issue.
So, if GUNZ = Freedom
Does Freedom = DEATH?
Not an exaggeration. Why on earth would a state with an obvious problem, elect to loosen their already lax gun laws? The same is happening all over the red states isn't it?
Can kristalinacht be far behind. I hate Elon Musk with a hateful passion this old soul has not felt in a long time…. Well, not since chump standing behind the presidential seal…
Again, it's not complicated. Republicans don't care. Period. Look at Congressman Ogles (the House member for the district where the latest mass school shooting happened), who just for the 2022 holiday posted a photo of himself and his family in front of their Christmas Tree, armed with assault rifles (if you want to find the image, it's very easy to do so, but I refuse to link to it). What says "Holiday Spirit" and "Peace, Love and Goodwill towards all" more than a bunch of people holding assault rifles?????? To repeat, REPUBLICANS DO NOT CARE. They profess to love the children and to want to protect them, but apparently that "love" doesn't extend to making sure that those kids come home from school alive, or at least without bullet holes. Their "solution", then, now and forevermore, is to offer useless, meaningless "thoughts and prayers" and to then call for MORE guns. Because, the fact that this is the only so-called "advanced democracy" to have this type of carnage happen with mind-numbing regularity is just A-OK with them. It's vomit-inducing and infuriating.
It is crazy. Congress is the only place that change can take place. Full stop. Any idea that "we can't do anything" is insane. Our constitution can be amended. It is time. I am not advocating tearing down the right to bear arms. That is not going to happen peacefully. We simply need to define what it means in the 21st century. Make things sensible, as in citizens to not need weapons of war. One "needs" an AK-47 or AR-15 about as much as one needs a hand grenade. No practical use other than to kill people.
Well buddy, I've got a REAL hankerin for an Apache AH-60 attack helo and some few thousand cases of rounds and assorted weaponry, parts and maintenance manuals for it. Plus I needs me an A-10 (Warthog) with appropriate parts, maintenance manuals and the like. And a few dozen assorted long guns, shot guns, stun guns and hand guns. Mebbe a couple cases of grenandes and a Confederate statue or two. And some boots and shoes and Meals Ready to Eat and perhaps, well, I don't want to be greedy but a decommissioned air craft carrier would look mighty nice in the driveway.
You sure you don't want fries with that? How about a dozen armed drones and some hollow point ammo and oh my, you certainly need a flak jacket and an ammo vest. Night goggles are essential, too.
One thing that makes me cringe is the prevalence of firearms in American films and TV. Glamorizing guns is one reason there are so damn many of them, especially among insecure young white men.
I ain't no insecure YWM ma'am but I know I got'z a REAL hunger for some advanced weaponry and armor and such. Know where I can get me an Abrahm's M-1 tank cheap? I'll make it worth yer while little lady.
Please note: the above characterization is merely that and in no way reflects the actual attitudes or opinions held by Adam
Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. In full honesty and disclosure, I've wanted a bazooka since childhood. No good damn reason I can't have one if I have the right to keep and bear "arms".
Arms can mean anything. It is hypocritical and improper to say that we have that absolute right. I cannot have my bazooka, legally. Somebody, somewhere, in their ultimate wisdom decided that citizens do not need bazookas, stealth fighters, or M-1 Abrams tanks. But why not damnit? Could they possibly be used to kill people? Oh, right, that's it.
I know how to handle and shoot guns of all kinds. I believe I first used a shotgun hunting in 5th grade. I choose not to own a gun because they are dangerous, and statistics bear that out. Plus I don't hunt. I still respect that right, though. But nobody needs anything beyond a shotgun and a handgun for home defense.
I am a former US Marine and a trained killer of men.
I have zero weapons. They are a responsibility and a burden when treated with the proper (to my mind) amount of respect. I am not willing to deal with them anymore. Not now at least.
However, should we descend into anarchy, I shall hurriedly revisit that determination in particular.
A weapon in my eyes is no different from my vehicle. It is a tool. I drive a high performance vehicle. In the wrong hands it is a danger to everyone on the road. Treated with the proper amount of respect, it's by far the best vehicle I have ever owned, bar none.
I love animals and do a bit of activism for them, but unlike a lot of folks, I don't have a problem with legal, humane hunting (no trapping, poisoning, etc) if the meat is going to be eaten. Where I live, deer are a road hazard. Most people don't need a gun for home defense - by the time they get the gun out of the safe and load it, well, what's the point? I guess if you live in a place where home invasions happen often, and you can handle a gun under stress and fear, you're still going to be charged with manslaughter if you aren't white.
From recent events, it's obvious that republicans don't give a shit about guns killing people. The bodies of dead children don't faze them even when they're blown to smithereens by hollow point ammo coming from a gun meant for snipers and long range targets. Hell, people don't own tanks and bazookas and MiGs simply because your average ammosexual can't afford them.
The Right must be thrilled that the shooter might have identified as trans. The vast majority of mass shooters for the past several years have been white and adhered to the alt-right so now that there’s the possibility that one shooter might not have fit into that category, suddenly they claim we have an “epidemic” of trans shooters. Unbelievable.
Blaming mass shootings on Muslims is no longer a thing, so they needed a new scapegoat - anyone but the white men who commit the vast majority of these shootings.
I feel like this school shooting is going to serve as a litmus test for the amount of BS society is willing to take. Here's the thing, though. It is terrible, but let these crazy people keep running their mouths. Do not try to silence them. Yes, they are stoking fear and rage in people, but this is only for those already primed for hate. If I learned one thing in 2022, it is that a whole lot of people are sitting back and watching this debacle that is the implosion of a major political party. Problem is, with only two viable parties, the implosion of one is likely to take down the whole structure.
Indeed. Now, aside from the potential pain inflicted, would that be such a bad thing? You wanna make an omelette? Gotta break some eggs.
I'm gonna live thru it with you, but my question is, would you knowingly help to foment events that ultimately would take down the structure to make room for something hopefully better? Such is the nature of sacrifice, as we may collectively find out before all is said and done.
Great point. I think we are all way too close for anything beyond misplaced targeted violence at minority groups. Which is bad. Civil war - I don't think it is possible.
Rather, I'm still holding out hope that Republicans can reform the party themselves. I think that the sane ones finally realized in 2016 just how much a "basket of deplorables" the MAGA folk are. Hillary was right, although I would not have advised she say it. There are so many deplorables in the party, it might be beyond saving.
Of course they are! Now "trans" people are a TERRORIST ARMY just waiting in the wings for us to drop our trousers and our gunz before they ensnare us with the GAY AGENDA!!!!
Obama said it best in the 2008 Pennsyltucky western PA primary- They cling to their guns and religion. Those things are tied together in the Christofascist theocracy we’re living in. Does anyone remember that Twitter thread from 2021, a man who’s family was very religious after 9/11 at a Christian youth camp in CA, they’d have masked men with assault rifles invade the church, make the kids hide in the woods, and pretend hunt down the kids and ask if they took Jesus Christ as their Lord and personal savior? Then if they said know they were pretend murdered and got to go to heaven, ie back into the church after the drill because a child dying in a mass shooting was a good thing in their eyes because it meant the second coming is nigh. I truly believe the answer is burn down every church in this country and build that Fascist Killing Machine Woodie Guthrie sang about and wipe these evil POS’s off the face of the earth.
Don’t burn churches down, convert them to housing for the homeless. But we must confront the absurdity called religion. Multiple authors with dark ages ideas. Biggest hoax pulled off on the human race. It was taboo to criticize it for years. Now it’s time to relentlessly challenge it and let people see it for what it is.
Our nation stands for slaughtering Native Americans and enslaving and brutalizing Black people. So as you sow, so shall you reap. We’re moving closer to Russia and China- Fascist violent governments who murder and terrorize and imprison people.
It's so important that writers/bloggers keep the massive amount of carnage from guns in the forefront of news. I sense a turning point in our thinking. From the WAPO a vivid picture of the destruction of AR-15 type weapons - it presents the cold hard truth of what happens to human bodies. Many more politicians are live on news shows proclaiming their support of tougher gun laws. Those blasting trans or gender as the culprit are just papering over the real issue. It's GUNS, not TRANS. Most of us can see through the tactics of the right wing blame. It's just another paper tiger. Just like the foul musings and threats of Trump, we see through this charade - know that it's just that. But glad that people like Judd keep it front and center - this is the REAL issue, not what the right wing book banners and authoritarians are preaching!
This is distraction politics. If you point to some movement or some group that can't possibly defend itself, then you can talk yourself and other people into believing that the problem is "them," the outsiders. The problem couldn't possibly be your view of the world. There has to be a scape goat, the one we blame for everything and send out into the wilderness undefended to be killed on your behalf.
This is about as sick as it gets—not the people being targeted, but the people who are doing the targeting. There is no looking inside for these people. It isn't their own souls that needs repair, but someone else whom they can hate and blame. All this from social media which takes advantage of them.
It makes me sick quite literally. No difference between this and the vilification of minorities that has preceded most internal strife worldwide throughout history. Not only Nazis. It is rhetoric just like this that started and inflamed numerous episodes of genocide.
The right is both philosophically and morally bankrupt. I include in this outwardly-appearing normal people who froth at the mouth when real ideas to stop gun violence are proposed. The right certainly do not take their "freedom" and "individual responsibility" seriously at all, as they are the first to propose legislation banning this, that, and the other.
Way too many people are born into this gun culture and then are repeatedly stoked with fear-mongering and outright hate toward others in their own country. This is a powder keg that will blow up, and many "normal", well-meaning, peaceful people will die as a result.
It is no longer acceptable for me to look the other way on this issue. I mean the ones surrounding LGBTQ people. I'm an old-school liberal. I guess I'm woke, but not too woke, a Gen X straight guy with a wife and daughter. My parents were not protesters or hippies in the 60's. They are still just working-class Democrats who did not fall for Trump. I've been quiet for too long. This is absolutely what happened in Nazi Germany with outgroups. They were demonized by people in powerful positions.
Folks, we have people openly calling for violence against an already-highly-repressed group of people. It is appalling.
Question for Senator Vance and Tucker 'viewers can't take anything I say on my show seriously' Carlson: how do they explain these cases of gun violence against Christians -
I saw nothing about any of the perpetrators in the stories above targeting Christians because they were trans.
These hate dealers are complicit in the gun worship that creates a culture of death. Worse yet is their presentation of what they feel is most topical in a mass shooting report. They could hear about a multiple-car crash that began when a driver, intoxicated along with cocaine and methamphetamines found in their system, drove the wrong way on the highway and caused a fifteen car wreck resulting in 8 deaths. If an unsubstantiated report came out later that the driver recently received a flu vaccine, they would all blame the flu vaccine for the wreck. Totally imbecilic.
If Musk and sorts are talking about it being a transgender problem, then leave out the word transgender. They know as well as all who post here that gun violence is a problem, and they are telling on themselves by pointing fingers.
First, many thanks to Popular Information for ferreting out verifiable information buried in the firestorm of contemporary media reporting.
The thoughts expressed in these replies reveal the depth of concern felt by all of us. The tricky bit is the seductive appeal of the "us vs them" mind frame engraved in our DNA. As "us" seek political power, ascendancy, it is imperative to identify the "them" as a focus of exclusion, a handy tool for assertions of the "us" as ideologically, morally, superior. This obviously cuts several ways. The crux is in the fundamental constitution of our modes of thought. What in the forming of mind frames lead some folks to aspire to a consensus, compromise driven, democratic, construct of social governance and other to an ideologically, superiority, authoritarian, construct of social governance.
The systematic rightwing effort to make it easier to access guns, alongside policies and rhetoric that spew racism and bigotry, make the rightwing enablers of mass murder and inspirations to white nationalist terrorism.
While some think this shouldn’t be a political issue, it is. It is because the killers are telling us it’s political in their manifestos. It’s political because progress – getting legislation passed – requires politics. And it’s political because it is overwhelmingly one side of the political spectrum that is fueling the threat.
-----------------
From 2019:
"America must act. There are plenty of commonsense pieces of legislation and executive action that could be put into effect immediately to reduce gun violence. Congress and the executive branch could easily focus on combating white nationalist terrorism and provide the resources to do so. And the current president and his allies could stop talking like white nationalists."
"The current narrative around crime and murder is convenient and wrong," the Third Way report concluded. "The data clearly paint a different story. The increase in murders is not a liberal cities problem but a national problem. Murder rates are actually higher in Republican, Trump-voting states that haven't even flirted with ideas like defund the police," the think tank said. "A more accurate conclusion from the data is that Republicans do a far better job blaming others for high murder rates than actually reducing high murder rates."
But of course the entire Trump phenomenon has nothing to do with policy or ideology. It has nothing to do with the Republican Party, either, except in its historic role as incubator of this singular threat to our democracy. Trump has transcended the party that produced him. His growing army of supporters no longer cares about the party. Because it did not immediately and fully embrace Trump, because a dwindling number of its political and intellectual leaders still resist him, the party is regarded with suspicion and even hostility by his followers. Their allegiance is to him and him alone.
As an overview, sexuality is part of the human condition that most people have difficulty being at peace with. I remember when studying mental illness and doing field work with young schizophrenics, I learned how John N. Rosen viewed sexual adjustment and being able to form a relationship was a step in becoming mentally healthy. We have too many "unhealthy" people to ignore the need for wise and loving therapeutic learning and training. Guns are an obvious symbol of "male power" that is not bringing joy, peace, or health. We have SO MUCH WORK to do here.
1938 again. They are not coming after me this time. Doesn't matter. The millions of Germans who stood by, watched and did bupkis were just as bad as those who commanded and physically perpetuated the Holocaust.
Do we Americans want to be just as bad as the Nazi era Germans? Is this really what we want? Is this really what we are becoming?
Geez, Trans people are PEOPLE. LGBTQ+ people are PEOPLE. The fascist media has a leg up on this story and it needs to stop...yesterday.
A multi-pronged approach from grass roots protesting outside FOX, Trumpist Republicans' offices Newsmax et al, Corporations closing the money spigot and words of leadership from President Biden are needed to put an end to this "idea" that LGBTQ+ are less than human.
NEVER AGAIN!!
Or is it just 1933 when the book burnings started with LGBTQ+ studies? They are not coming for us yet. Enough of them think George Soros funds everything they hate, that I suspect it’s only a matter of time.
Never Again!
Too many folks in this country have been inculcated in the gun culture for far too long and conflate freedom with guns, while neglecting to consider the second part of the issue.
So, if GUNZ = Freedom
Does Freedom = DEATH?
Not an exaggeration. Why on earth would a state with an obvious problem, elect to loosen their already lax gun laws? The same is happening all over the red states isn't it?
Adam-🎯
Can kristalinacht be far behind. I hate Elon Musk with a hateful passion this old soul has not felt in a long time…. Well, not since chump standing behind the presidential seal…
Again, it's not complicated. Republicans don't care. Period. Look at Congressman Ogles (the House member for the district where the latest mass school shooting happened), who just for the 2022 holiday posted a photo of himself and his family in front of their Christmas Tree, armed with assault rifles (if you want to find the image, it's very easy to do so, but I refuse to link to it). What says "Holiday Spirit" and "Peace, Love and Goodwill towards all" more than a bunch of people holding assault rifles?????? To repeat, REPUBLICANS DO NOT CARE. They profess to love the children and to want to protect them, but apparently that "love" doesn't extend to making sure that those kids come home from school alive, or at least without bullet holes. Their "solution", then, now and forevermore, is to offer useless, meaningless "thoughts and prayers" and to then call for MORE guns. Because, the fact that this is the only so-called "advanced democracy" to have this type of carnage happen with mind-numbing regularity is just A-OK with them. It's vomit-inducing and infuriating.
We must repeat this, put it on billboards everywhere and keep it front & center until we bring children-killer republicans down!
It is crazy. Congress is the only place that change can take place. Full stop. Any idea that "we can't do anything" is insane. Our constitution can be amended. It is time. I am not advocating tearing down the right to bear arms. That is not going to happen peacefully. We simply need to define what it means in the 21st century. Make things sensible, as in citizens to not need weapons of war. One "needs" an AK-47 or AR-15 about as much as one needs a hand grenade. No practical use other than to kill people.
Well buddy, I've got a REAL hankerin for an Apache AH-60 attack helo and some few thousand cases of rounds and assorted weaponry, parts and maintenance manuals for it. Plus I needs me an A-10 (Warthog) with appropriate parts, maintenance manuals and the like. And a few dozen assorted long guns, shot guns, stun guns and hand guns. Mebbe a couple cases of grenandes and a Confederate statue or two. And some boots and shoes and Meals Ready to Eat and perhaps, well, I don't want to be greedy but a decommissioned air craft carrier would look mighty nice in the driveway.
You sure you don't want fries with that? How about a dozen armed drones and some hollow point ammo and oh my, you certainly need a flak jacket and an ammo vest. Night goggles are essential, too.
One thing that makes me cringe is the prevalence of firearms in American films and TV. Glamorizing guns is one reason there are so damn many of them, especially among insecure young white men.
I ain't no insecure YWM ma'am but I know I got'z a REAL hunger for some advanced weaponry and armor and such. Know where I can get me an Abrahm's M-1 tank cheap? I'll make it worth yer while little lady.
Please note: the above characterization is merely that and in no way reflects the actual attitudes or opinions held by Adam
Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. In full honesty and disclosure, I've wanted a bazooka since childhood. No good damn reason I can't have one if I have the right to keep and bear "arms".
Arms can mean anything. It is hypocritical and improper to say that we have that absolute right. I cannot have my bazooka, legally. Somebody, somewhere, in their ultimate wisdom decided that citizens do not need bazookas, stealth fighters, or M-1 Abrams tanks. But why not damnit? Could they possibly be used to kill people? Oh, right, that's it.
I know how to handle and shoot guns of all kinds. I believe I first used a shotgun hunting in 5th grade. I choose not to own a gun because they are dangerous, and statistics bear that out. Plus I don't hunt. I still respect that right, though. But nobody needs anything beyond a shotgun and a handgun for home defense.
I am a former US Marine and a trained killer of men.
I have zero weapons. They are a responsibility and a burden when treated with the proper (to my mind) amount of respect. I am not willing to deal with them anymore. Not now at least.
However, should we descend into anarchy, I shall hurriedly revisit that determination in particular.
A weapon in my eyes is no different from my vehicle. It is a tool. I drive a high performance vehicle. In the wrong hands it is a danger to everyone on the road. Treated with the proper amount of respect, it's by far the best vehicle I have ever owned, bar none.
Attitude is everything.
I love animals and do a bit of activism for them, but unlike a lot of folks, I don't have a problem with legal, humane hunting (no trapping, poisoning, etc) if the meat is going to be eaten. Where I live, deer are a road hazard. Most people don't need a gun for home defense - by the time they get the gun out of the safe and load it, well, what's the point? I guess if you live in a place where home invasions happen often, and you can handle a gun under stress and fear, you're still going to be charged with manslaughter if you aren't white.
From recent events, it's obvious that republicans don't give a shit about guns killing people. The bodies of dead children don't faze them even when they're blown to smithereens by hollow point ammo coming from a gun meant for snipers and long range targets. Hell, people don't own tanks and bazookas and MiGs simply because your average ammosexual can't afford them.
The Right must be thrilled that the shooter might have identified as trans. The vast majority of mass shooters for the past several years have been white and adhered to the alt-right so now that there’s the possibility that one shooter might not have fit into that category, suddenly they claim we have an “epidemic” of trans shooters. Unbelievable.
Blaming mass shootings on Muslims is no longer a thing, so they needed a new scapegoat - anyone but the white men who commit the vast majority of these shootings.
OK? They jumped onto the trans blame train with a sigh of heartfelt gratitude.
I feel like this school shooting is going to serve as a litmus test for the amount of BS society is willing to take. Here's the thing, though. It is terrible, but let these crazy people keep running their mouths. Do not try to silence them. Yes, they are stoking fear and rage in people, but this is only for those already primed for hate. If I learned one thing in 2022, it is that a whole lot of people are sitting back and watching this debacle that is the implosion of a major political party. Problem is, with only two viable parties, the implosion of one is likely to take down the whole structure.
Indeed. Now, aside from the potential pain inflicted, would that be such a bad thing? You wanna make an omelette? Gotta break some eggs.
I'm gonna live thru it with you, but my question is, would you knowingly help to foment events that ultimately would take down the structure to make room for something hopefully better? Such is the nature of sacrifice, as we may collectively find out before all is said and done.
Great point. I think we are all way too close for anything beyond misplaced targeted violence at minority groups. Which is bad. Civil war - I don't think it is possible.
Rather, I'm still holding out hope that Republicans can reform the party themselves. I think that the sane ones finally realized in 2016 just how much a "basket of deplorables" the MAGA folk are. Hillary was right, although I would not have advised she say it. There are so many deplorables in the party, it might be beyond saving.
Methinks they are far beyond any but the most radical of surgeries.
Of course they are! Now "trans" people are a TERRORIST ARMY just waiting in the wings for us to drop our trousers and our gunz before they ensnare us with the GAY AGENDA!!!!
Obama said it best in the 2008 Pennsyltucky western PA primary- They cling to their guns and religion. Those things are tied together in the Christofascist theocracy we’re living in. Does anyone remember that Twitter thread from 2021, a man who’s family was very religious after 9/11 at a Christian youth camp in CA, they’d have masked men with assault rifles invade the church, make the kids hide in the woods, and pretend hunt down the kids and ask if they took Jesus Christ as their Lord and personal savior? Then if they said know they were pretend murdered and got to go to heaven, ie back into the church after the drill because a child dying in a mass shooting was a good thing in their eyes because it meant the second coming is nigh. I truly believe the answer is burn down every church in this country and build that Fascist Killing Machine Woodie Guthrie sang about and wipe these evil POS’s off the face of the earth.
Don’t burn churches down, convert them to housing for the homeless. But we must confront the absurdity called religion. Multiple authors with dark ages ideas. Biggest hoax pulled off on the human race. It was taboo to criticize it for years. Now it’s time to relentlessly challenge it and let people see it for what it is.
It's a history of violent and disturbing actions done for all manner of reasons, presented as a blueprint, a recipe for a "good and godly life."
I had to sit down and catch my breath. That last bit was pretty damn funny.
I understand your fear and outrage. Burning churches is against every principle our nation stands for .... and I am an agnostic.
Our nation stands for slaughtering Native Americans and enslaving and brutalizing Black people. So as you sow, so shall you reap. We’re moving closer to Russia and China- Fascist violent governments who murder and terrorize and imprison people.
The guns are ceremonial instruments in a fake-Christian authoritarian cult of hate.
It's so important that writers/bloggers keep the massive amount of carnage from guns in the forefront of news. I sense a turning point in our thinking. From the WAPO a vivid picture of the destruction of AR-15 type weapons - it presents the cold hard truth of what happens to human bodies. Many more politicians are live on news shows proclaiming their support of tougher gun laws. Those blasting trans or gender as the culprit are just papering over the real issue. It's GUNS, not TRANS. Most of us can see through the tactics of the right wing blame. It's just another paper tiger. Just like the foul musings and threats of Trump, we see through this charade - know that it's just that. But glad that people like Judd keep it front and center - this is the REAL issue, not what the right wing book banners and authoritarians are preaching!
You f-ing said it Babs!
This is distraction politics. If you point to some movement or some group that can't possibly defend itself, then you can talk yourself and other people into believing that the problem is "them," the outsiders. The problem couldn't possibly be your view of the world. There has to be a scape goat, the one we blame for everything and send out into the wilderness undefended to be killed on your behalf.
This is about as sick as it gets—not the people being targeted, but the people who are doing the targeting. There is no looking inside for these people. It isn't their own souls that needs repair, but someone else whom they can hate and blame. All this from social media which takes advantage of them.
It makes me sick quite literally. No difference between this and the vilification of minorities that has preceded most internal strife worldwide throughout history. Not only Nazis. It is rhetoric just like this that started and inflamed numerous episodes of genocide.
The right is both philosophically and morally bankrupt. I include in this outwardly-appearing normal people who froth at the mouth when real ideas to stop gun violence are proposed. The right certainly do not take their "freedom" and "individual responsibility" seriously at all, as they are the first to propose legislation banning this, that, and the other.
Way too many people are born into this gun culture and then are repeatedly stoked with fear-mongering and outright hate toward others in their own country. This is a powder keg that will blow up, and many "normal", well-meaning, peaceful people will die as a result.
It is no longer acceptable for me to look the other way on this issue. I mean the ones surrounding LGBTQ people. I'm an old-school liberal. I guess I'm woke, but not too woke, a Gen X straight guy with a wife and daughter. My parents were not protesters or hippies in the 60's. They are still just working-class Democrats who did not fall for Trump. I've been quiet for too long. This is absolutely what happened in Nazi Germany with outgroups. They were demonized by people in powerful positions.
Folks, we have people openly calling for violence against an already-highly-repressed group of people. It is appalling.
Agreed. See my reply to you above.
Question for Senator Vance and Tucker 'viewers can't take anything I say on my show seriously' Carlson: how do they explain these cases of gun violence against Christians -
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50952443
https://apnews.com/article/religion-shootings-california-1be9931f502664693afbdaa3f1cf6c57
https://apnews.com/article/business-religion-shootings-alabama-birmingham-38b71094e3cf58ac82a4745d3108da10
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/police-release-photo-suspect-charleston-church-shooting
I saw nothing about any of the perpetrators in the stories above targeting Christians because they were trans.
These hate dealers are complicit in the gun worship that creates a culture of death. Worse yet is their presentation of what they feel is most topical in a mass shooting report. They could hear about a multiple-car crash that began when a driver, intoxicated along with cocaine and methamphetamines found in their system, drove the wrong way on the highway and caused a fifteen car wreck resulting in 8 deaths. If an unsubstantiated report came out later that the driver recently received a flu vaccine, they would all blame the flu vaccine for the wreck. Totally imbecilic.
If Musk and sorts are talking about it being a transgender problem, then leave out the word transgender. They know as well as all who post here that gun violence is a problem, and they are telling on themselves by pointing fingers.
First, many thanks to Popular Information for ferreting out verifiable information buried in the firestorm of contemporary media reporting.
The thoughts expressed in these replies reveal the depth of concern felt by all of us. The tricky bit is the seductive appeal of the "us vs them" mind frame engraved in our DNA. As "us" seek political power, ascendancy, it is imperative to identify the "them" as a focus of exclusion, a handy tool for assertions of the "us" as ideologically, morally, superior. This obviously cuts several ways. The crux is in the fundamental constitution of our modes of thought. What in the forming of mind frames lead some folks to aspire to a consensus, compromise driven, democratic, construct of social governance and other to an ideologically, superiority, authoritarian, construct of social governance.
We do not have a gun problem.
We have a White Nationalist Terrorist problem.
The Anti-Trans Propaganda is just a BONUS for them.
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The systematic rightwing effort to make it easier to access guns, alongside policies and rhetoric that spew racism and bigotry, make the rightwing enablers of mass murder and inspirations to white nationalist terrorism.
While some think this shouldn’t be a political issue, it is. It is because the killers are telling us it’s political in their manifestos. It’s political because progress – getting legislation passed – requires politics. And it’s political because it is overwhelmingly one side of the political spectrum that is fueling the threat.
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From 2019:
"America must act. There are plenty of commonsense pieces of legislation and executive action that could be put into effect immediately to reduce gun violence. Congress and the executive branch could easily focus on combating white nationalist terrorism and provide the resources to do so. And the current president and his allies could stop talking like white nationalists."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/07/gun-violence-white-supremacy-right-wing
"The current narrative around crime and murder is convenient and wrong," the Third Way report concluded. "The data clearly paint a different story. The increase in murders is not a liberal cities problem but a national problem. Murder rates are actually higher in Republican, Trump-voting states that haven't even flirted with ideas like defund the police," the think tank said. "A more accurate conclusion from the data is that Republicans do a far better job blaming others for high murder rates than actually reducing high murder rates."
https://www.salon.com/2022/03/16/democrats-for--but-new-data-shows-higher-rates-in-red-states/
But of course the entire Trump phenomenon has nothing to do with policy or ideology. It has nothing to do with the Republican Party, either, except in its historic role as incubator of this singular threat to our democracy. Trump has transcended the party that produced him. His growing army of supporters no longer cares about the party. Because it did not immediately and fully embrace Trump, because a dwindling number of its political and intellectual leaders still resist him, the party is regarded with suspicion and even hostility by his followers. Their allegiance is to him and him alone.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2016/05/22/this-is-how-fascism-comes-to-america/
So, trans persons are the newest category of scapegoats for everything from bathroom use to mass shootings.
But the ammosexuals who drive around with guns pressed into their crotches are not a threat, oh no.
As an overview, sexuality is part of the human condition that most people have difficulty being at peace with. I remember when studying mental illness and doing field work with young schizophrenics, I learned how John N. Rosen viewed sexual adjustment and being able to form a relationship was a step in becoming mentally healthy. We have too many "unhealthy" people to ignore the need for wise and loving therapeutic learning and training. Guns are an obvious symbol of "male power" that is not bringing joy, peace, or health. We have SO MUCH WORK to do here.