Just when you think the anti-gun left has moved as far, well, to the left as it can, you discover acres of new ground way out there on the fringes.
As an indication of Jacob Bacharach‘s view of American society, the sub-head on his piece is, Despite the upswing of progressive politics, little has been said about our country’s problem with guns. Seriously.
In Bacharach’s orange-skied world, Eric Swalwell and Kamala Harris are too embarrassingly right wing on the subject of civilian disarmament.
The proliferation of “stand you ground” laws and the insane efforts to arm teachers, too, are reflections of a culture that is intensely eager to kill, a society that accepts chaotic violence not just as endemic but as inherent, and which desires to meet it with a righteous violence of its own. The fantasy of being “the good guy with a gun” is a fantasy of homicide, even if in the dream that homicide is a justified one. It is a longing for an exculpating reason to kill.
A left position on gun violence must therefore move beyond a narrow fixation on guns as implements and to a broader, moral argument about militarism, imperialism, and acceptable violence, just as the left is trying to move beyond narrow fixations on “good jobs” or health savings accounts or tax incentives to think in very broad terms about economic equity.
So far, candidates and officeholders have done and said very little in this vein. Among major Democratic contenders, Sen. Bernie Sanders has talked about “gun safety,” and Sen. Elizabeth Warren has talked about using something other than our “military might” in constructing a foreign policy. Many of the well-known candidates have, as yet, avoided policy altogether. And while former Vice President Joe Biden has professed his support for greater measures on guns, the task force to which President Obama appointed him after Sandy Hook failed to accomplish anything meaningful. Only Sen. Cory Booker has outlined a gun-control proposal in any detail, issuing today a 14-part plan to ban assault weapons and establish a gun-licensing program.
– Jacob Bacharach in Where is the left on gun control?
Read the whole thing. If you can manage it.
I couldn’t manage it.
Jesus, what a head-case; talk about your paranoid projection and repressed violent tendencies. “I’m better than all you crazies who harbor thoughts of murdering everyone around you and are only stopped from acting on those impulses by the legal consequences!” I have to say, I *really* wouldn’t want to be disarmed around this guy if he ever got emotional.
You just described around 1/3 of NY democrats.
You think it’s only 1/3?
Trying to be optimistic (live in denial) re NYC
According to NYS Democrats, I’m not to be trusted with plastic bags now, much less guns. I am thinking of mailing my soon-to-be-unbagged cat crap to our esteemed governor so that he can deal with it. Sigh.
Don’t forget Styrofoam depending on the county……. are straws on the ban list yet?
We use these awful paper straws on campus. They turn to mush in about five minutes. Might be a law, or maybe just over zealous do-gooders. The irony is they replaced perfectly acceptable biodegradable plastic (or plastic-like) straws that were much better.
Picked up 30k plastic straws for general use and to leave out spitefully next to acceptable versions later. I would feel bad about the waste but honestly the hysteria is great entertainment. Especially around SUNY Albany
I notice that while he praises Booker, he failed to comment…on Booker’s failure to comment on whether he’d actually enforce his dream plan against us.
The irony of pushing a ideology with records set for body counts of its own people trying to call out the idea of self defense is a bit too much this early in the workday. I will have to try rereading again after a lot of coffee……. maybe some whiskey this looks like a separate breed of stupid.
“The irony of pushing a ideology with records set for body counts of its own people…”
Pfttttpt.
If there’s one thing that Leftists are all about, it’s the need to crack a few eggs to make that utopia omelette.
Really strange how the side that claims we’re fascists are the ones who are actually the fascists…
Geoff there isn’t enough flexibility in the world to make those mental gymnastics work let alone stick the landing.
Peaceniks like that are living in a complete fantasy world. He’s certifiable.
Pacifists can only exist due to the luxury of having others willing to perform acts of violence on their behalf. Be it military, police, or a good citizen coming to aid. This privilege has ran for so long they take it for granted and confuse it for the natural state of humanity.
Is there a name for the world this freak lives in?
Probably starts with “Committee” may include some inclusive pseudo liberty related buzzwords and will end with poverty misery and a lot of death.
Back in the day, people like him walked around the downtown areas wearing sandwich boards proclaiming all kinds of nonsense. I hate the internet; at least back then you could throw eggs and things at them or just point and laugh. Now all you can throw is 0’s and 1’s, and you’ll get arrested or sued for “hate” language or some such bullsheet. Wataworld.
Could only imagine the screeching of lynching if we got back to basics with tar and feathering
The name of the planet is New York City. And you know how disassociated that place is from the rest of the country (except for the Left Coast) and most of the State of New York, for that matter.
Did a quick Wickie look at The Outline. It is a new start-up by a neo-marxist CEO who is clearly trying to find his niche in the literary leftie world by out-leftying the rest of them. Based on this gun control article, the views expressed in this on-line journal seem to be the typical NYC elitist crap looking down on the proles. He borrowed $5 million (chump change in NYC) as start-up money and seems to already be having difficulties. Hope he fails miserably, but in NYC that just means he’ll be free to seek another gig.
Watch it with that rest of the state idea there buddy. While I think you are spot on with the rest (sadly) the majority of counties and noncity population opposes and generally ignores the SAFE act. Granted the city runs the state via population and money but don’t go lumping us in with those commies we have enough issues as is.
Agreed , we certainly have enough problems as is. I should know , I’ve spent most of my 55 years of life in upstate. Ugh !
“Did a quick Wickie look at The Outline.”
Dug slightly deeper –
“Nearly two years later, The Outline is half the size it was at launch. It’s the subject of freelancer boycotts and subtweets. It took venture capital and then it laid people off, not once but twice.”
https://www.niemanlab.org/2018/10/the-outline-built-itself-on-being-weird-but-is-it-weird-enough-to-survive/
Uh, huh, yep, that’s not surprising…
It’s called “Venezuela 2.0”. Funny how “nobody needs a gun” until government thugs start running over protestors with MRAPs.
Having rolled in MRAPs they better hope that gun starts with .50 BMG or better
I think he dreams of living in The People’s Socialist Democratic Republic of Venezuela, where the government has the people’s best interests at heart, there is no crime because only the police and military (who also act in the people’s best interests) have guns, and a booming economy with wealth and prosperity for all.
And all pigs are fed and ready to fly.
Maybe we need our few friends in Congress to introduce bills regulating cutlery as guns are regulated.
Require manufacturers and dealers of cutlery to have FCL – Federal Cutlery Licenses. Require manufacturers to mark their products with make+model+serial-number. Require dealers to complete 4473 forms and keep them for 20 years.
Require permits to carry cutlery in public places. That they be issued only upon specific showing of “need”; e.g., chefs and drywall installers.
Cite the developing threat of cutlery-crimes in London. Explain how important it is to look to our English leaders who have gotten something of a handle on firearms control and now find that their success has led to means-substitution to cutlery.
We MUST get ahead of this looming problem. America is being flooded by undocumented immigrants; London identifies immigrants as the source of cutlery crimes.
The parody won’t be lost on American voters. Knife-Rights will put forward all the criticisms we advance for guns. (We can supply the numbers of letters-to-the-editor and to Congress-critters based on our larger ranks of “woke” 2A defenders). Americans will realize that their way-of-life will be affected when they can’t get a butter knife in a restaraunt without filling out a 4473 form.
I support comprehensive background checks on all congress office holders that expouse socialist principals.
From early in his article:
“In fact, the only machines in American life that kill more people than firearms are cars. I’d be perfectly happy to ban those, too.”
Says it all.
Forceps. And whatever they call that suction machine. 650,000 people are killed every year in this country with those. I’d be fine with banning those.
The Amendment process is still waiting, has anyone even started, or are you in a tiny minority?
Amendment to what?
Yikes! Is this dude a member of a certain tribe?!? Mebbe he’s OK with having no armed security protecting his temple? What a paranoid azzwhole…
This “guy” finishes his utopian screed with this…”I suppose that what I am saying is that a word I would like to hear more often in the expanded moral rhetoric of the socially democratic left is: peace.”.
A few things to note; his abstract quest for “peace” is as admirable as it is useless. As long as man has walked the earth, there has never been peace. He should consider then that it isn’t in man’s nature. (Which is why I’m sure he’s just outraged over toxic masculinity, lol).
Furthermore, included in his article is several, repeated mentions of the far right’s evil inclinations, as if that is THE global problem. He fails to acknowledge that socialism/communism is responsible for the most murders in human history. The most recent example is currently unfolding in Venezuela. I’m sure that was just an oversight on comrade Jacob’s part.
And that leads me to my final point, for those that are uninitiated, the new term “socially democratic” is nothing more than a replacement term for socialist/communist because those words poll very poorly in the US. These democrat terrorists have a way of rebranding themselves quite often. We see it used frequently by the filth who promote “gun control”. I’ll offer only one recommendation to Jacob, and that’s just because I’m feeling particularly magnanimous today, and because I’m thinking about the practicality of safety over the impossibility of peace….. buy rifle plates for yourself and loved ones. I have a feeling that when you and your fellow domestic enemies force righteous Americans to DEFEND ourselves and our Constitutional Republic against the “War of Leftist Aggression”, they’re gonna come in handy.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.
Quote:
“He fails to acknowledge that socialism/communism is responsible for the most murders in human history. The most recent example is currently unfolding in Venezuela. I’m sure that was just an oversight on comrade Jacob’s part.”
In today’s world I suspect very few of the “woke” left know about the 20th century murders of communist/marxist/socialist countries.
Not that it would make any difference in their thinking.
Facts are not a factor.
Be Prepared !
It’s scary how much you actually covered there. Well said.
“In today’s world I suspect very few of the “woke” left know about the 20th century murders of communist/marxist/socialist countries.”
They know. Not the casual followers, those that spent a little time learning the history know. What should terrorize you is that they are just fine with it.
Eggs, omelette…
Those who forget their history….
There is no return to Eden.
I am not willing to consider being disarmed as long as there is any form of government that cannot be responsible to average everyday people, upon penalty of death. The writers of the Constitution had the foresight to recognise abuse of power would be a common and constant problem and wrote specific limitations to the power our government could exercise. Mr. Bacharach needs to consider his argument in a full logical circle.
Praise God for the wisdom of the founding fathers. Who recognized in writing the civil right of the people to keep and bear Arms.
The primary reason democrats and other left wing nutjobs don’t like guns is because they lose a vote with every justifiable homicide.
Chicago’s zombie constituency would like a word, but that is a small part of their opposition. They also don’t like the idea of victims having power of veto
It’s not that they don’t like guns. Despite their hysterics, they are fine with guns AS LONG AS THE GUNS ARE IN THE HANDS OF PEOPLE WHO THINK THE SAME WAY THAT THEY DO. And only those people.
I forced myself to read the entire article,what a load of CRAP !
He berates American “society that accepts chaotic violence not just as endemic but as inherent.” As we all know, in a truly free society chaotic violence IS inherent. That is just part of the cost/befit trade off. Considering how this genius also pushes “economic equality”, we see that he is, in fact, the very definition of a Communist.
there is great irony that communists are pushing gun registration and confiscation. when are they going to learn they’re the first up against that wall.
Well when they all think they will be a part of the leadership committee and not working like the equal underclass it does create a surplus of leadership that needs to be properly used to the best of its ability… fitting it tends to be fertilizer given how full of bs they are
They do always seem to picture a future where they’ll make decisions, and only icky people will be carted off in trains. Someone should let them know that it doesn’t work that way – there’s nothing communists like torturing and killing more than other communists.
Yep. About a million of the 2 million people Stalin purged were active members of the communist party.
oh geez…..see now you’ve gone and made me throw up in my mouth. UGH!
so what gathered was give everyone milk and cookies and they will be nice and everyone will hold hands and there will be world peace.
ahhh if only reality were that simple.
“UGH!
so what gathered was give everyone milk and cookies and they will be nice and everyone will hold hands and there will be world peace.
ahhh if only reality were that simple.”
It is if you live in Hawaii.
“whirled peas”
Look at how he’s telling the Left to sell this. Look at how he’s tugging on those emotional strings to help make the sale.
This is a good example of a Leftist’s “How to make an anti-gun advertisement that actually sells our position” article.
That’s a message soccer moms will lap up like a kitten with a saucer of milk. Not because they’re stupid but because this message is appealing to someone who 1) believes the world is more violent than it really is, 2) desires safety and 2) doesn’t really know what to do about increasing safety where it’s possible.
This is their “I’m your huckleberry” ad model. It works rather well with certain demographics and given that people like Hogg didn’t sink a bunch of Dems last time around and Democrats took the House (which was historically nearly unpossible for them to fail at) you can expect to see the fringe Left push this among all the Democrats this time around because the fringe thinks this means that their taking of the House means gun control sells. And remember, if they win on other issues we get gun control just as surely as if they ran flat-out on gun control and gun control alone.
strych9,
I agree with your comment (as I did before when you touched upon the same idea).
We need to craft an equally compelling message to counter the Leftist emotional deception. What is that message? How do we incorporate powerful emotional incentives into our position and messaging?
” We need to craft an equally compelling message to counter the Leftist emotional deception. What is that message? How do we incorporate powerful emotional incentives into our position and messaging? ”
I think we’ve already been down that road and found out it’s a dead end. How much more powerful can we get than ideas like “When seconds count, the police are only minutes away?”
Both sides of the issue are arguing security and the fear of not having it. The Civilian Disarmament Cartel argues that all guns are dangerous and compromise security, no matter who wields them. The 2A supporter argues that guns in the wrong hands are dangerous and compromise security. The Cartel says the police can handle it. The 2A supporters say the police cannot handle it. Either way, both sides are appealing to the fear of being attacked– they only differ on how to handle it.
So now matter how anyone comes at the issue, it’s the emotionalism that carries the day for everyone. Somehow, the Cartel gained the upper hand and took control of the conversation (the result of decades of gun-owner complacency, I suspect) and it’s they’re emotional appeals that, for some reason, outweigh our emotional appeals.
Sorry I can’t tell anyone how we turn this around– I wish I knew. The key, I think, is to take back the conversation so that we are not always in a reacting position– like trying to explain why an “assault weapon” is not an assault weapon. It seems the Cartel is the first ones out of the gate with a new meme, and we are left with trying to defuse it. Not a good position to be in.
‘How much more powerful can we get than ideas like “When seconds count, the police are only minutes away?”’
You only see that as a strong argument because you are interested in facts and, quite frankly, because you already bought the opposite product. You’re like a Ford guy talking about towing capacity while someone else talks about heated seats.
Advertising doesn’t sell things based on facts. It does this based on emotion. That’s how you sell a $400 coffee maker when a $25 coffee pot will get the exact same job done. You appeal to people’s emotions. Just like beer.
Part of that is selling people an image of themselves. You bought this expensive coffee maker because YOU’RE smart, educated, and classy with a touch of sophistication but you’re certainly not a snob. YOU appreciate the better things be cause you GET IT. You understand what your $400 is buying and you taste it in every cup. As such, you’re part of a special group of people that are on the “in”. Those other people just don’t get it because they’re not as good as you.
[You’ll note that you could replace some words in there and perhaps throw in the word “erudite” but that’s an appeal to people who are actually smart and educated and shit. Most people don’t know what the word means and are confused by it. They don’t know how to feel about what you said and because human beings are naturally a bit timid about novelty, they shy away from your product.]
That’s emotional salesmanship and it works more than we’d like to think. Starting from facts is a very poor way to do this because there is no emotional hook to “reel” people to the facts. You need people to want what you’re selling, otherwise the utilitarian is the only thing that sells and there is no beer market.
uncommon_
So, I’m not some master marketing/advertiser here. However I’d suggest that we look at things that already sell products in a similar vein.
Subaru harps on their safety record because it makes people feel safe, for example.
As such, I’d steal a page from Subaru and also the playbook that Chavez used in Venezuela to sell Bolivarianism, that is a play on historical things about this country that make people feel good. I’d attempt to link the 2A to things like the civil rights movement, the BoR, freedom, voting, apple pie etc. but do so in a subtle way.
Subaru sells a lot of cars by “keeping your kids safe” even though they never explicitly say that. Everyone loves their kids and wants them to have a future. If you paint the 2A issue as a freedom in the future while suggesting that the other side isn’t just attacking guns or dumbass rednecks but the whole BILL OF RIGHTS(!!!) and, honestly, the American Way of Life(!!), I think you’ll start to see headway because people already generally have a pretty warm and fuzzy feeling about those things and that’s your hook.
Maybe I’m picking the wrong bait, again, I’m not some marketing guru here but there quite obviously has to be a way to do this. We live in a country where people who think college is a joke still save up huge piles of money to send their kids to a good school or work extra hours to buy a Kureg, or blow massive amounts of money on alcohol and other shit they quite obviously do not need. If you can sell a Vegas vacation where mommy and daddy drop a couple house payments at the tables because it “feels good” you can sell civil rights the same way. The very fact that the antis are as good at it as they are proves that it works. It can be done both ways otherwise there wouldn’t be Chevy and Ford and Trump wouldn’t be POTUS, we’d have HRC.
The real issue is finding that set of issues that hits as much of the target audience as is feasible within the constraints of the resources at hand and crafting the message carefully. Also key is selecting the target audience. We’re not going out to win over Bloomberg or Watts, we want soccer moms and center-of-the-road dads who just want Sally to come home from school without bullet holes in her.
We have done exactly NONE of this yet we wonder why we’re unsuccessful.
Like I said to Sam yesterday, successful athletes watch tape after they lose. We don’t do that. We find a gun forum on the internet and form a circlejerk pity party and call anyone who has a minor disagreement with us names. Fuck, we even attack the 2A rights organizations themselves.
Meanwhile the antis are sitting in a room with consultants and data analytics software doing a post mortem on their losses and figuring out how to come back at us next week. Then they test that shit with focus groups.
The antis know that in a game of attrition the smarter team is going to win eventually and they also know something I hammer constantly and get hate for: It does not matter if you’re right when you’re playing into a stereotype set up for you by the other side that suggests you’re untrustworthy. They work very hard at setting up those stereotypes just to pigeonhole us and it works consistently because we allow it.
strych9,
I think you hit on the answer in your post just above. We can adapt that to self-defense along these lines:
David Hogg—now THERE’S a name that seems to have fallen off the radar since the last election cycle. I hope he has used up his fifteen minutes.
He’s back in full force on Twatter these days… Gun control ad nauseam, and his latest rant about “fuck the patriarchy” ( as he heads to Harvard)… Slimy cockroach…
Hogge Boy must be having one of his “gender fluid” days.
IMO, the extreme gun control Dems don’t seem to have a grasp on what their Dem voters prioritize as most important issues. I know some Liberal voters and gun control is not a high priority; gun control is not a selling point for the Lib voters i have talked to. This constant Dem Politician oversight Fail will be a Win for gun owners.
Or, those are reflections of a culture that is intensely eager to SURVIVE and recognizes that armed self-defense is sometimes necessary to survive.
As for the “intensely eager to kill” comment, that is psychological projection and reveals Mr. Bacharach’s inherent propensity/desire to murder people that he does not like.
Next …
Or, we have a society which desires to survive, has no desire to effect violence on anyone, and is nevertheless willing to repel violent attacks with righteous violence when absolutely necessary.
As for the “… desires to meet it with a righteous violence …” comment, that is once again psychological projection and reveals Mr. Bacharach’s inherent propensity/desire to violently respond to people that he does not like.
Next …
Or, we have a deep desire to SURVIVE, use deadly force if (and only if) absolutely necessary, and not go to prison for effective self-defense.
As for the “… longing for an exculpating reason to kill.” comment, that is once again psychological projection and reveals Mr. Bacharach’s inherent propensity/desire to murder people that he does not like.
Next …
In summary Mr. Bacharach illustrates exactly why we need effective self-defense: so that we can defend ourselves from his ilk, especially if they end up controlling our government.
These people have it backwards. We have Stand Your Ground laws and are arming teachers not because we want to kill. We do it so we, and ours, will not be killed by gun toting thugs and goof balls. These are purely defensive actions. They are not designed to let someone go out and kill for no reason.
Gun Free Zones are Victims Only Zones. Only if you are armed can you react to a law breaker.
Creating and maintaining a gun-free society is totally dependent on men with guns.
Shhhh you will give away the ending to Papa Stalin’s story time………. huh children’s book to demonstrate the dangers of runaway government officials, gossip, and lying …. may need to see if anyone wrote such a thing.
Well, if you don’t like our ‘militarisitc’ culture, why don’t you disarm the gangs, law enforcement, and military first, then we’ll talk about ‘We the people’
Out in the streets there was violence. Lots of work to be done. Working so hard like a soldier. And we still can’t kill everyone.
Electric Avenue?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtPk5IUbdH0
Then maybe a European should run for U.S. president. Sounds like they want Pierce Morgan or maybe that lady from New Zealand.
1) Who?
2) Mainstream democratic figureheads ranting about guns are walking a careful line. On one hand, they want the fundraising support and primary votes that far left issues carry. On the other hand, they don’t REALLY want to alienate everyone in the middle. This cycle we can count on it being worse than usual because the middle has eroded. They’re banking on the anti-Trump vote being enough to make up for the anti-guns issue. They might be right.
Does this big dummy realize he is pushing to have the need for the Second Amendment ratified? And that being anti-Constitutional is synonymous with being anti-American? He’s batting zip for three.
His girlfriend called, and wants her vagina back…
Just another smug liberal asshole belching noxious gasses from his hermetically sealed echo-chamber. Oh well. I suppose they have some kind of purpose on this planet, though for the life of me I can’t make out what it might be.
All knowledge will die with this moron. Only he knows the answers to every question
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