A recent opinion piece at the Kansas City Star tells us: “We don’t have to accept the KC Chiefs rally shooting. And we should all be angry”
While this may look on the surface like just another anti-gun screed that divorces fact from context, I’ve noticed that authoritarian progressives have been using the “I want you to be angry!” bit a lot more in recent months. In this article, I’ll not only explore the problems with the piece’s facts and context, but explain why they’re so desperate for anger.
Category Errors
The whole argument that this shooting supports gun control stems from a category error. The piece conveniently never mentions that this was a gang shooting and not some mass killer with political or psychotic motives. So, when the piece goes through the usual laundry list of things anti-gun people want, none of it applies.
Just a tiny pinch of common sense tells us that criminals don’t care one bit about getting a permit for their guns, so the constitutional carry law in Kansas would not have prevented this shooting. The writer (a “researcher” at a Bloomberg-funded anti-gun institution) says that their research says constitutional carry is bad, so there’s no room left for common sense in her head.
What about firearms purchasing licenses like the FOID card in Illinois? She calls for bringing those back, but once again, this was gang members who wouldn’t get a firearms purchasing license. Again, endless studies funded by anti-gun donors are given without disclosing that important fact.
So, all that’s really left is a bogus emotional argument about “doing something” and putting all pro-gun arguments “to rest”.
The Effect of Anger On The Human Brain
Sadly, though, this stuff actually works on the uninformed. When someone brings up a tragedy and says that we should be angry, people who don’t know better and don’t keep context in mind will get angry. After all, think of the children!
But, people don’t have to be stupid to fall for this trick, just uninformed. Once a propagandist gets someone to be angry, heart rates go up and adrenaline gets into the system. When people get to that point, higher brain functions are diminished, and people just can’t think clearly.
Going back to ancient times, this was a very useful thing. When you’re facing a threat, you don’t have time to overthink anything. By shutting off the more thinky parts of the brain and activating more raw instinct, ancient people were better prepared for a fight or other dangerous situations where you need to act fast.
But, in 2024, this important human trait can be used against us. With less thinking and more fear to guide us, it’s easy to make mistakes, ignore context and get things flat wrong.
So, when you’re talking to friends and family, try to inoculate them from this. A person’s first reaction to “You should be angry!” should be skepticism. If someone wants you angry, they’re trying to manipulate and use you. So, you have to stop, take a few deep breaths and chill out to think clearly.
If we can get more friends and family to resist this kind of manipulation, they’ll have a harder time finding fertile ground for the seeds of propaganda.
