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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 8, 2023

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As long as it's a significant factor it's worth doing something about.

If it's not the most significant factor, then almost by definition you shouldn't be prioritizing it.

My position is that there are at least a couple more significant factors that are studiously ignored when it comes to this issue.

merely that rebellions can incidentally also be 'pro-tyranny', which is hard to dispute in the case of the U.S. Civil War, given what was being fought over.

I don't think there was any stated intention for the Confederate States to extend their authority over any other nations, so hard to claim they were 'tyrannical' with regards to the North, nor that they were somehow flouting the actual laws of the country at the time.

And to the extent they were tyrannizing their own people, well you're hardly going to suggest that slaves enjoyed expansive gun rights, are you?

i.e., my point, that tyrannical powers generally prefer disarmed populaces.

If it's not the most significant factor, then almost by definition you shouldn't be prioritizing it.

My position is that there are at least a couple more significant factors that are studiously ignored when it comes to this issue.

This circles back to our comments above on tractability.

well you're hardly going to suggest that slaves enjoyed expansive gun rights, are you?

No but the point is that an armed population, if they are ever able to resist the state, will not always be doing so to benefit of the population. As another commentor has observed, the latter and post-Reconstruction era South would have been a much freer place were the entire population disarmed.

tyrannical powers generally prefer disarmed populaces

Maybe true, but I don't think it holds any lessons for modern day America.