All my life I have been listening to the excuse, that the US had to be flooded with weapons, because if a dictator ever came to power, these weapons were the guarantee that the people could defend the US against the dictator.

They did not.

They voted for him.

@randahl
And will defend him when push comes to shove

@fondoffawns @randahl

When the orange Jabba runs out of people to blame for his colossal failures, most of the cult will gradually drift away from him, while denying that they ever supported him. We just need to sit back, endure, and let them stew in their own juices for a while. At this point, I can only wait in anticipation. They aren't smart so it may be a long bumpy ride.

@Savvyhomestead @fondoffawns @randahl Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.

They will NEVER abandon their Führer. They will rather claim that they didn't believe hard enough in him.

If you are interested why, google "sunk cost fallacy".
(That's not the only fallacy at work here. Always remember that there are people who believe in a literal flat earth.)

@Savvyhomestead @fondoffawns @randahl furthermore you don't run out of people to blame.

There were always jews in other countries to blame for our ancestors.
And gays, and communists and trans people...
(Greetings from Germany here.)

@randahl
Those of us who did not are mystified at how this could happen.
@stargazersmith @randahl Not all of us. I knew Biden was just breathing room. I also knew that any prosecution started after the midterms wouldn't make it to the finish line. But I was either treated like a crank or told not to worry. To trust the system.
Well, that worked out, didn't it?
NRA Accidentally Forgets To Rise Up Against Tyrannical Government — The Shovel

An embarrassed National Rifle Association says it totally forgot to do the one thing it has been saying for years it is solely there to do.

The Shovel
@randahl education would have been a more efficient weapon. So would a healthy fourth estate.

@harmonicarichard @randahl

Exactly! Education and critical thinking would have gone a long way to prevent folks from falling for Putin's social media psyops attacks, the corporate MSM failure and Republican's bullshit. Democrats were also hamstrung by Gerrymandering, voter intimidation, voter nullification and all the other Republican dirty moves. Democracy never stood a chance.

@Savvyhomestead
The fourth Estate never gave context to the lies before repeating them and I feel that this was a mistake. If you see a convenient lie in a headline you stop at the lie that suits you. The lies are blatant to informed people. Chris Whiley explained how Facebook was used to mislead just the right people. That's why I see FB as more dangerous than TikTok. @randahl
@randahl That takes bravery. They lack bravery.
@randahl Weren't all those weapons originally intended to put down slave rebellions?

@juergen_hubert @randahl Yes. Defending a white ethnostate. Even mainstream economics was formulated with this aim.

https://evonomics.com/how-to-disguise-racism-and-oligarchy-use-the-language-of-economics/

How to Disguise Racism and Oligarchy: Use Economics - Evonomics

James McGill Buchanan is a name you will rarely hear unless you’ve taken several classes in economics.

Evonomics
@juergen_hubert @randahl And the steel belt sold them to 'em. It's how The north, and Capitalist Republicans won.
@juergen_hubert @randahl Yep. Those 'well-regulated militia' were slave patrols. It's very openly described in contemporary documents. You know, the kind that could be explored in an educational setting...
@randahl 250 million didn't vote for him. Your country needs to get behind the concept of quorum. "Majority rule" and "mandate" are meaningless when the majority feels like there's no point participating because they will be left behind anyway.
@adamantichrist @randahl 250 million eligible voters, from roughly 331 million citizens?! 😮
@jnfrd @randahl yeah, 180 million didn't vote at all and 70 odd voted for the shit lite party
@adamantichrist @randahl and why didn’t they vote? (I know it’s frustrating to vote for the smaller of two evils but still …)
@jnfrd I see the “x number of USians didn’t vote, how/why?” and it is frustrating because while there were plenty of people who didn’t vote, this statement doesn’t take into account how suppressed the vote is in the US. States enact their own laws and even counties are allowed to set rules. People can have to travel over an hour to get to their polling place, wait hours and hours in line with laws limiting people from distributing food or water, deal with voter ID laws and hostile poll workers.
@LaLaOrange I know, yet don’t comprehend that. Nonetheless, I know many people don’t vote because they think it’s not worth the effort. Even in Germany where voting is the simplest thing imaginable (or bless you’re homeless). Is the some statistic s out that or is it impossible to measure?
@jnfrd agreed. I can’t comprehend people voting against their interests either. In my state a few years ago we voted on if we should switch to ranked choice voting and I was soooo excited but even in my educated blue state people voted it down! Infuriating! Sound bites and propaganda work and people are too busy and tired/lazy to put effort into educating themselves, I guess. Sucks.

@LaLaOrange yep. People suck. Persons don’t. ;)

Crossing fingers for you and me that this won’t end as bad as I fear …

@jnfrd Not coming down on you, particularly, just so frustrated by all of it. Grateful I live in a blue state but banging my head on the wall that red states have been so gerrymandered and education so gutted it’s almost impossible to pass fair regulations.
2/2
@adamantichrist @randahl That's an important point that appears to have been conveniently ignored of late in lots of places. Same here in the UK where a 52:48 split of those that actually voted in Brexit somehow morphed into an absolute "will of the people". It's something that the media appears to have just given up on challenging and as you say, leads to people disengaging as they well helpless and not listened to. That can also result in an increased populist vote.
@randahl As I've said for dogs years. Since seeing Milosevic in action in fact. Waaaay back in the day. "The most dangerous tyrant is the one you want to agree with".
@randahl I think most of us knew that's how it would happen in the end.

@randahl

When the Constitution was written, each state had its militias - there would be no national militias or standing armies. Stupidiest thing they ever considered good policy. The War of 1812 was an embarrassing disaster.

Come the American Civil War, all the state millitias were reordered into standing armies anyway.

The Second Amendment should have been abolished at that point and the entire constitution should have been rewritten at war's end.

@tuban_muzuru and I suppose now arms industry interests guarantee that a change to the 2nd amendment will never come.

I could understand how this could continue in a vacuum, but the US exists right next to Canada — the counter example is right there, next door — and still a majority of US citizens cannot seem to figure out why people die of gun violence.

@randahl

Here's what I know about constraints n markets - the obstacles define the parameters of the market. We don't think twice about requiring insurance on autos and licenses on drivers - as varies risk, so must vary regulation. Too much regulation is entirely possible, but we'll let the actuaries work all that out.

The largest cohort of people who die by handgun are middle aged white men committing suicide with their own weapons.

@tuban_muzuru could this be a way to lower the number of guns? By requiring insurance?

@randahl

That would be the net effect, over time. All these people, pro- or anti-gun - are missing the best argument of all -

As varies risk, so must vary regulation. Cars are risky, so we make people get licenses and now we make people purchase insurance. We regulate the food supply, nobody wants rat shit in the peanut butter.

So people have the right to own guns and society at large has the right to oblige risk creators to get insurance.

@randahl Yup! Conservative gunsturbators are the biggest marks on the planet while less armed thoughtful progressives are feckless bitches crying for "someone to do **something**." Republicans like to say, "The 2nd amendment protects the 1st." I usually respond, "They don't need your guns if they own your mind." Oh, well! Good luck in the coming crackdown on dissent! I'm sure our well-reasoned arguments will work just as well-armed resistance.

@MaierAmsden @randahl "gunsturbators", hah.

+1 neologism point.

@randahl I'm not fully convinced, frankly. Elected Democrats mostly had a mind to roll ovwer and play nice, like democracy is supposed to work. There's a deep wish for normalcy, there, and not to behave like the other side. If there was electoral fraud, the inclination to pursue it was weak, and doing so would have likely meant a lot of violence.

I'm not saying anything of substance, except that there's reason for doubt, and that the proletariat needs to unite.

@randahl Both Harris and Walz own guns. As a Minnesota Democrat, I'm going to say gun ownership isn't a partisan thing. It's really not where I am. Legislation is. Hording is. Ownership? I have my doubts (on that, too).

Don't raise your eyebrows at any black women.

@randahl @nat I pretty much posted this exact sentiment only days ago:
https://social.codeofamor.net/@codeofamor/113948603417490427
Code of Amor 💘 (@[email protected])

Content warning: USPol, guns

Mastodon @ Code of Amor
@randahl it was right kind of dictator. Most of them will keep silent part silent. Except for him of course. Although he was successfully mum enough before election.
America as democracy has tuck and has stuck for long time. This is why.
@randahl @dgar against the wrong dictator only, not against the chosen American orange one.
@randahl And that argument was used to justify doing nothing whatsoever about the near constant massacre of American school children.
@randahl The argument was always bullshit, because the premise is that the dictator does not come with a power base among the people they rule. That's never the case.

@randahl The NRA prior to the 1970s actually advocated sensible gun laws and regulations. The 1970s marked a turning point, as racial protests pushed the White Christofascist Nationalists into a coup at the NRA leadership and made it into a lobby group for gun manufacturers and a propaganda wing for the rise of militant fascists within the Republican Party.

This has been the path of the Republicans since the 1950s, with the inclusion of the Baltic Waffen SS emigres.

@ragle do you know a source where I could read about this "coup"?

(Otherwise I will just search for it of course)

@randahl @ragle

The event you are looking for was "the revolt at Cincinnati"

Here's a decent article by the Washington post from ... 10-12 years back (back when they were a good paper) that covers most of the important bits:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-nras-true-believers-converted-a-marksmanship-group-into-a-mighty-gun-lobby/2013/01/12/51c62288-59b9-11e2-88d0-c4cf65c3ad15_story.html

How NRA’s true believers converted a marksmanship group into a mighty gun lobby

The Revolt at Cincinnati in 1977 forever changed the course of the National Rifle Association.

The Washington Post

@randahl @ragle Looks like CharlieActual beat me to it! I'll add another line of inquiry for you with the Ron Paul newsletters that were being sent out around this time. They were sent out under his name and were remarkable for their open racism and none-too-subtle dog whistles which exemplified the kind of racial fears being stirred up among the white nationalists who were shaping the Republican party at that time:

https://newrepublic.com/article/61771/angry-white-man

Angry White Man

Kirchick: Ron Paul's bigoted past.

The New Republic
@randahl to be fair, the argument still stands with the understanding that leftists need to be armed as well as the reactionaries.
@randahl USA was always a dictator. And you always chose dictators. Now wake up and do something about it. Socialism is the only way.

@randahl
Dictators are often voted in. People write off fascist talk as “he just likes to throw ideas out there to gage reaction”.

Trump isn’t a direct fascist, he is an amoral grifter which makes him an indirect fascist, so we should still classify him as a fascist based on actions.

Zero tolerance and a show of strength from our side is the only response.

@randahl I am pretty sure we needed the guns so the slaves would not revolt. We liberals do not have the guns. Yet.

@randahl I know quite a few people who own firearms for many reasons including defense against their government. I'm quite sure none of them voted fascist.

(Edited to add politics hashtag)
#USpol #Politics

@randahl The silver lining is that MAGA isn't the only ones getting weapons.

@randahl

And the flood has morphed into some hideous ideas about equipping our youth as well..

War Veterans’ Advice On The ‘Mother’ Of All Bad Ideas – The JR-15 Children’s Assault Rifle

https://rosecoveredglasses.wordpress.com/2024/09/08/war-veterans-advice-on-the-mother-of-all-bad-ideas-the-jr-15-childrens-assault-rifle-2/

War Veterans’ Advice On The ‘Mother’ Of All Bad Ideas – The JR-15 Children’s Assault Rifle

 “Wee 1” JR 15 Children’s Assault Rifle THE ‘WEE 1 TACTICAL’ ‘JR 15’ A FULLY FUNCTIONAL ASSAULT WEAPON, marketed for use by children and identical to the AR 15, but redu…

ROSE COVERED GLASSES