The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
No bio...
User ID: 174
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
11mo ago
Isn't the point here that the law enforcement system is too EASY to change by voting?
No. Voters not paying enough attention so dedicated activists can elect soft-on-crime DAs is part of the problem, but only part. NYC has been doing nothing about the problem for far longer than Alvin Bragg has been in office.
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
11mo ago
I find this to be one of the more beautiful aspects of Christian thought. Life isn't always fair. Coming to an understanding of the intense burdens that have been placed upon your shoulders simply for existing, burdens that you didn't ask for and had no foreknowledge of, offers a powerful antidote to the modern obsession with rationality without thereby causing a descent into total nihilism.
If you pair this with the modern tendency to demand that life be fair for others, this sort of thing just results in the believer accepting all the burdens of the world -- not just those placed on themselves, but those placed on others who refuse to bear them -- on their own shoulders. It's asking to be taken advantage of.
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
11mo ago
Sure... aside from physical damage, would you feel worse about being beaten up by a professional wrestler or a 10-year-old boy? Being dominated by someone weak is even more humiliating than being dominated by someone strong.
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
11mo ago
That just makes you smell like the bums, it likely won't repel them.
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
11mo ago
There's broad consensus for not wanting aggressive drug-addled mentally-ill homeless people in the subways. But you can't vote just for that.
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
11mo ago
Doesn't work on the subway.
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
11mo ago
BLM was calling for the arrest of all of them. Consistent, if wrong.
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
11mo ago
No cameras showing the start of the incident here. Not that that will help Penny; the general rule of authority is that it started when they saw it.
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
11mo ago
Same world, different screens? I don't know how to reconcile these two comments with my personal experience.
Check the poster's username and history. They're a fish not noticing water.
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
11mo ago
They are correct to think so and that is not the proper way to prosecute the culture war. When the free speech left was at its height, they were defending literal Nazis.
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
11mo ago
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
11mo ago
While it's fashionable to sneer at this today, it is not a new idea that one solution to evil is to fight it. While it's a truism in many circles that the only appropriate things to do when an unhinged mentally-ill drug-addict is acting aggressive towards you are to help them and to walk away, there are no stone tablets from God setting that out as the Truth. (or if there are, I've never heard of them).
Similarly, it is received wisdom -- but not necessarily true -- that every such problem needs a systemic solution which puts no onus on the unhinged person in question, but all of it on "society", government, or those around them to somehow fix their problems without impinging on their agency.
As for "safety nets", the name of the concept is itself deceitful. A safety net is something you fall into after screwing up, then get out of and climb up and try again. What we have today aren't so much safety nets as permanent support.
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
11mo ago
If you had a free hand, what WOULD you do about it? Other than police state stuff (in which I include effective gun control), I don't see what you can do. Having the FBI pay special attention to Hispanic neo-Nazis probably won't work.
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
11mo ago
Most of this I'd class as police state stuff, and most of it wouldn't help for these sorts of mass shootings. Straw purchasers are a different problem, ordinary criminality. Two week waiting periods don't help with people who plan (which is a lot of these mass shooters).
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
11mo ago
As a practical matter, no one knows where the guns are; they’re not registered and a fair number of states are constitutional carry states meaning that you don’t have to have a CCL.
The government knows where all the guns an "instant check" were required for are. Yes, they're supposed to destroy the records; they don't. And even if they did, the NSA would keep a backup. That accounts for a lot of them.
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
11mo ago
Is using a systematized solution to stop evil not fighting it?
Systemizing the solution isn't what makes it "not fighting". Demanding that the solution be restricted to "helping" is what makes it "not fighting". Systematizing it does tend to make it too big to solve and removes the responsibility of anyone to solve it. The idea seems to be "to keep the homeless person from assaulting people, you must first solve drug addiction and mental illness".
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
11mo ago
I don’t know why gun rights advocates don’t just admit that yes, if all guns were confiscated and a very strict licensing regime was put in place gun homicides would likely drop substantially.
What advantage would attain to gun rights advocates for "admitting" this?
Anyway, you underestimate state capacity. US state capacity against its own citizens is effectively unlimited, COVID proved that.
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
11mo ago
Estimate about 50 million gun owners in the U.S., conservatively estimate 1% of them decide to put up a fight rather than comply.
It will be much closer to zero than that. Especially after they shoot the first one who gets physical with them (without even using the gun). And destroy the houses of the first few who give "boating accident" lines.
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
11mo ago
It's weird to hold the idea that some portion of legal gun owners are ticking time bombs willing to throw their lives away to kill random people if pushed to far, but that there WON'T be some amount of violence and deadly if the government sustains a campaign of door-to-door confiscations.
I think in both cases the "some" is very small. The US government declares "Mr. and Mrs. America, turn them all in" and enforces it through door-to-door confiscation, they'll do it with very little bloodshed. What little there is will be almost all on the formerly law-abiding gun owner's part.
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
11mo ago
Not clear why the flip-side, a dozen or so cops getting capped in the process of serving warrants during the initial weeks of the confiscation effort wouldn't also demoralize their side.
There won't be a dozen or so. There might be one. They would respond with overwhelming force, and further confiscation would be done by cops in full riot/stormtrooper gear, and that would be the end of that.
Why do we assume the unshakeable will of LEOs vs. the meek compliance of the American citizenry?
It's not the will of the LEOs, it's the will of the confiscators giving them orders. There will be enough LEOs who won't push back on their orders.
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
11mo ago
Those cops have to go home after work, yes?
Like, you're aware that these policemen have lives and families which are not hardened against attacks?
Sure. And your decent, formerly law abiding gun owners will not take advantage of that.
I'm really curious as to what your precedent is for assuming there's not some significant portions of the population that is willing to get froggy even if the cops go full Waco.
COVID. January 6. Hell, Waco itself; the ATF walked in and made a dog's breakfast of things. The FBI covered for them by burning the place down with most of the Branch Davidians dying in the fire and the rest being prosecuted. Only two men even tried to do anything about that, and they're pretty universally hated.
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
11mo ago
And at that point, gun rights are a revolution-complete problem.
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
11mo ago
Legally enforced equality, or legally allowed special treatment. Pick one.
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
11mo ago
it makes pro-gun people sound like lunatics when they deny that getting rid of the guns would reduce murder
The proposition here was that getting rid of the guns would reduce gun murder, not murder in general.
If you don't have an affirmative case for why gun rights are more valuable than X dead kids per year, I hate to tell you, but you're going to lose.
If it's framed that way, gun rights have already lost.
No, they can't. Demonstrably. Political systems turn out to be really hard to change by voting, since a vote both has little effect and that little effect covers a whole host of issues.
Your analogies miss on many salient points.
More options
Context Copy link