US CE Spring 2022: I'm convinced it's useless which is why I argue about it all day every day

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > US CE Spring 2022: I'm convinced it's useless which is why I argue about it all day every day

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ImpAtom: May 24, 2007

Heck Yes! Loam! posted:

Legit question, how do you guys talk to your kids about this stuff? Is there any info out there on ways to bring this topic up and discuss it responsibly?

It is not easy. We have had to discuss with kids we tutor. All you can really do is run down the rules (lock door, under desk, wait for trusted person before emerge from hiding, don't try to be a hero)

You can't really explain why nobody loving cares when they get slaughtered.

# ? May 24, 2022 22:37

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# ? May 23, 2024 11:29

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

BonoMan posted:

At this point in our timeline, the fault lies squarely with the death cult and their fetishizing of weapons of destruction.

Without them in the way, we likely would have addressed the various root causes of a lot of this violence - or at the very least done a good bit to mitigate it where we could - as a country a long time ago.

Place the blame squarely on the GOP and the NRA and don't feel guilty about doing it.

10 Years old, but this article and the Onion one are still depressingly true.

https://twitter.com/samfbiddle/status/1529206582063403008

quote:

Our Moloch

We guarantee that crazed man after crazed man will have a flood of killing power readily supplied him. We have to make that offering, out of devotion to our Moloch, our god. The gun is our Moloch. We sacrifice children to him daily.

Few crimes are more harshly forbidden in the Old Testament than sacrifice to the god Moloch (for which see Leviticus 18.21, 20.1-5). The sacrifice referred to was of living children consumed in the fires of offering to Moloch. Ever since then, worship of Moloch has been the sign of a deeply degraded culture. Ancient Romans justified the destruction of Carthage by noting that children were sacrificed to Moloch there. Milton represented Moloch as the first pagan god who joined Satan�s war on humankind:

First Moloch, horrid king, besmear�d with blood
Of human sacrifice, and parents� tears,
Though for the noise of Drums and Timbrels loud
Their children�s cries unheard, that pass�d through fire
To his grim idol. (Paradise Lost 1.392-96)

Read again those lines, with recent images seared into our brains��besmeared with blood� and �parents� tears.� They give the real meaning of what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School Friday morning. That horror cannot be blamed just on one unhinged person. It was the sacrifice we as a culture made, and continually make, to our demonic god. We guarantee that crazed man after crazed man will have a flood of killing power readily supplied him. We have to make that offering, out of devotion to our Moloch, our god. The gun is our Moloch. We sacrifice children to him daily�sometimes, as at Sandy Hook, by directly throwing them into the fire-hose of bullets from our protected private killing machines, sometimes by blighting our children�s lives by the death of a parent, a schoolmate, a teacher, a protector. Sometimes this is done by mass killings (eight this year), sometimes by private offerings to the god (thousands this year).

The gun is not a mere tool, a bit of technology, a political issue, a point of debate. It is an object of reverence. Devotion to it precludes interruption with the sacrifices it entails. Like most gods, it does what it will, and cannot be questioned. Its acolytes think it is capable only of good things. It guarantees life and safety and freedom. It even guarantees law. Law grows from it. Then how can law question it?

Its power to do good is matched by its incapacity to do anything wrong. It cannot kill. Thwarting the god is what kills. If it seems to kill, that is only because the god�s bottomless appetite for death has not been adequately fed. The answer to problems caused by guns is more guns, millions of guns, guns everywhere, carried openly, carried secretly, in bars, in churches, in offices, in government buildings. Only the lack of guns can be a curse, not their beneficent omnipresence.

Adoration of Moloch permeates the country, imposing a hushed silence as he works his will. One cannot question his rites, even as the blood is gushing through the idol�s teeth. The White House spokesman invokes the silence of traditional in religious ceremony. �It is not the time� to question Moloch. No time is right for showing disrespect for Moloch.

The fact that the gun is a reverenced god can be seen in its manifold and apparently resistless powers. How do we worship it? Let us count the ways:

1. It has the power to destroy the reasoning process. It forbids making logical connections. We are required to deny that there is any connection between the fact that we have the greatest number of guns in private hands and the greatest number of deaths from them. Denial on this scale always comes from or is protected by religious fundamentalism. Thus do we deny global warming, or evolution, or biblical errancy. Reason is helpless before such abject faith.

2. It has the power to turn all our politicians as a class into invertebrate and mute attendants at the shrine. None dare suggest that Moloch can in any way be reined in without being denounced by the pope of this religion, National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre, as trying to destroy Moloch, to take away all guns. They whimper and say they never entertained such heresy. Many flourish their guns while campaigning, or boast that they have themselves hunted �varmints.� Better that the children die or their lives be blasted than that a politician should risk an election against the dread sentence of NRA excommunication.

3. It has the power to distort our constitutional thinking. It says that the right to �bear arms,� a military term, gives anyone, anywhere in our country, the power to mow down civilians with military weapons. Even the Supreme Court has been cowed, reversing its own long history of recognizing that the Second Amendment applied to militias. Now the court feels bound to guarantee that any every madman can indulge his �religion� of slaughter. Moloch brooks no dissent, even from the highest court in the land.

Though LaPierre is the pope of this religion, its most successful Peter the Hermit, preaching the crusade for Moloch, was Charlton Heston, a symbol of the Americanism of loving guns. I have often thought that we should raise a statue of Heston at each of the many sites of multiple murders around our land. We would soon have armies of statues, whole droves of Heston acolytes standing sentry at the shrines of Moloch dotting the landscape. Molochism is the one religion that can never be separated from the state. The state itself bows down to Moloch, and protects the sacrifices made to him. So let us celebrate the falling bodies and rising statues as a demonstration of our fealty, our bondage, to the great god Gun.

# ? May 24, 2022 22:39

Heck Yes! Loam!: Nov 15, 2004; a rich, friable soil containing a relatively equal mixture of sand and silt and a somewhat smaller proportion of clay.

ImpAtom posted:

It is not easy. We have had to discuss with kids we tutor. All you can really do is run down the rules (lock door, under desk, wait for trusted person before emerge from hiding, don't try to be a hero)

You can't really explain why nobody loving cares when they get slaughtered.

Its the latter part I'm worried about. my 8-year-old is smart enough to ask the questions of why this happened and I don't know what to tell her that isn't completely soul-crushing.

# ? May 24, 2022 22:41

BonoMan: Feb 20, 2002; Jade Ear Joe

ImpAtom posted:

It is not easy. We have had to discuss with kids we tutor. All you can really do is run down the rules (lock door, under desk, wait for trusted person before emerge from hiding, don't try to be a hero)

You can't really explain why nobody loving cares when they get slaughtered.

We've begun explaining to our 8 year old how the US government, specifically Republicans, are actively trying to rule what they do with their bodies and make women and minorities second class citizens.

Like, at this point, I'm not even dancing around it. "There is a group of people out there who think you aren't as good as them and they want to control what you do. They're Republicans."

Might as well throw the gun control argument on the pile as well.

They already run "Code Reds" at school (Active Shooter Drills).

# ? May 24, 2022 22:41

BigBallChunkyTime: Nov 25, 2011; Kyle Schwarber: World Series hero, Beefy Lad, better than you.; Illegal Hen

Heck Yes! Loam! posted:

Legit question, how do you guys talk to your kids about this stuff? Is there any info out there on ways to bring this topic up and discuss it responsibly?

I'm sure if you Google it you'd find something good.

The hell of it is that active shooter drills (or "lockdown" drills, as my school district calls them) are viewed as normal by my kids. Just like fire drills were when we were kids.

I graduated six weeks after Columbine. I never once had to worry about getting shot in school. This is loving nuts and if I didn't have kids already I wouldn't bring any into this godforsaken hellscape.

# ? May 24, 2022 22:44

Kirios: Jan 26, 2010

My oldest is five. Luckily I haven�t had to talk to her about it yet. I�m not looking forward to the conversation. It�s a sad, depressing world out there and I�m trying to let her be an innocent happy kid as long as she can. It probably won�t be much longer.

# ? May 24, 2022 22:45

Jaxyon: Mar 7, 2016; I’m just saying I would like to see a man beat a woman in a cage. Just to be sure.

BonoMan posted:

We've begun explaining to our 8 year old how the US government, specifically Republicans, are actively trying to rule what they do with their bodies and make women and minorities second class citizens.

Like, at this point, I'm not even dancing around it. "There is a group of people out there who think you aren't as good as them and they want to control what you do. They're Republicans."

Might as well throw the gun control argument on the pile as well.

They already run "Code Reds" at school (Active Shooter Drills).

Fascists and white supremacists are absolutely are not pulling punches talking to their kids. It behooves us to do the same.

Not that it makes it any easier. :smith:

# ? May 24, 2022 22:45

Charliegrs: Aug 10, 2009

Jaxyon posted:

Fascists and white supremacists are absolutely are not pulling punches talking to their kids. It behooves us to do the same.

Not that it makes it any easier.

I'm curious how fascists talk to their kids about school shootings. Especially when it happens in a school their kids attend.

# ? May 24, 2022 22:49

ImpAtom: May 24, 2007

I mean yeah the tragic answer is you have to be honest. And it loving sucks the elementary age children need to be told these things. As a society we loving suck but nobody is going to change because all political spectrums worship guns and most worship capitalism over mental health care.

Charliegrs posted:

I'm curious how fascists talk to their kids about school shootings. Especially when it happens in a school their kids attend.

Mysteriously they don't happen there as often. Can't possibly be connected though.

# ? May 24, 2022 22:51

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

The mass shootings and school shootings are terrible, but we also overlook the fact that about 46,000 people die from guns a year in the U.S. and that 117,168 people are shot on average in the U.S.

The mass amount of non-mass shootings is just background noise at this point.

Excluding suicides, 20,192 people were killed with guns in the last year in the U.S.

It's 30 in the U.K.

# ? May 24, 2022 22:51

Heck Yes! Loam!: Nov 15, 2004; a rich, friable soil containing a relatively equal mixture of sand and silt and a somewhat smaller proportion of clay.

What's even more hosed up is that the GOP and republicans seem to WANT these things to happen because it gives power to their narrative. they have no incentive to stop these events.

https://twitter.com/ryanlcooper/status/1529217866083483648

Hug your kids and prepare them for the hell that we are leaving them.

# ? May 24, 2022 22:53

Willa Rogers: Mar 11, 2005

Heck Yes! Loam! posted:

Its the latter part I'm worried about. my 8-year-old is smart enough to ask the questions of why this happened and I don't know what to tell her that isn't completely soul-crushing.

I was incredibly anxious as a child bc I was a precocious kid who devoured the four daily newspapers my dad brought home every night, and as a result I had a tough time processing all the political assassinations of the era as well as mass murders like richard speck's. A horrific mass shooting in Texas stood out back then, as well.

what helped me was being given the perspective on how small the chances were, in a country of x00 million people, of my being caught in any sort of crossfire, and reassured that while poo poo happens & it's ok (rather, necessary) to empathize with those who were affected, it's also important to realize the scale of this country & its population.

when my then-young niece was experience extreme anxiety after 9/11, this coping technique seemed to help her, as well.

I can't imagine that drumming up fear, whether of guns or types of people or of mental illness, is psychologically useful to either kids or adults, so maybe focus on coping techniques that are age-appropriate.

# ? May 24, 2022 22:53

Spiffster: Oct 7, 2009; I'm good... I Haven't slept for a solid 83 hours, but yeah... I'm good...; Lipstick Apathy

Charliegrs posted:

I'm curious how fascists talk to their kids about school shootings. Especially when it happens in a school their kids attend.

Most likely parroting the same things we here on fox. �Teachers should have been armed� or �more police presence in the school would have saved them� or �put God/Jesus back in school� or �dammit video games/tik tok/ [insert culture item here] warped their minds�.

Any of those will do and allow them to sleep easier at night knowing they don�t have to change a drat thing

# ? May 24, 2022 22:54

Heck Yes! Loam!: Nov 15, 2004; a rich, friable soil containing a relatively equal mixture of sand and silt and a somewhat smaller proportion of clay.

Willa Rogers posted:

I was incredibly anxious as a child bc I was a precocious kid who devoured the four daily newspapers my dad brought home every night, and as a result I had a tough time processing all the political assassinations of the era as well as mass murders like richard speck's. A horrific mass shooting in Texas stood out back then, as well.

what helped me was being given the perspective on how small the chances were, in a country of x00 million people, of my being caught in any sort of crossfire, and reassured that while poo poo happens & it's ok (rather, necessary) to empathize with those who were affected, it's also important to realize the scale of this country & its population.

when my then-young niece was experience extreme anxiety after 9/11, this coping technique seemed to help her, as well.

I can't imagine that drumming up fear, whether of guns or types of people or of mental illness, is psychologically useful to either kids or adults, so maybe focus on coping techniques that are age-appropriate.

Thanks Willa, that's very helpful and I appreciate it.

# ? May 24, 2022 22:54

Kalli: Jun 2, 2001

Spiffster posted:

Most likely parroting the same things we here on fox. �Teachers should have been armed� or �more police presence in the school would have saved them� or �put God/Jesus back in school� or �dammit video games/tik tok/ [insert culture item here] warped their minds�.

Any of those will do and allow them to sleep easier at night knowing they don�t have to change a drat thing

Yeah

https://twitter.com/ndrew_lawrence/status/1529218666310639623

# ? May 24, 2022 22:56

papa horny michael: Aug 18, 2009; by Pragmatica

Spiffster posted:

Most likely parroting the same things we here on fox. “Teachers should have been armed” or “more police presence in the school would have saved them” or “put God/Jesus back in school” or “dammit video games/tik tok/ [insert culture item here] warped their minds”.

Any of those will do and allow them to sleep easier at night knowing they don’t have to change a drat thing

Two of those responses are regularly given in response by Democrats. Police presence, and violence in media. Everyone wants a narrative to explain these terrible events that won't require larger effort.

# ? May 24, 2022 22:57

Jaxyon: Mar 7, 2016; I’m just saying I would like to see a man beat a woman in a cage. Just to be sure.

Charliegrs posted:

I'm curious how fascists talk to their kids about school shootings. Especially when it happens in a school their kids attend.

I mean, you know what they're saying to their kids.

# ? May 24, 2022 22:58

BonoMan: Feb 20, 2002; Jade Ear Joe

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

The mass shootings and school shootings are terrible, but we also overlook the fact that about 46,000 people die from guns a year in the U.S. and that 117,168 people are shot on average in the U.S.

The mass amount of non-mass shootings is just background noise at this point.

Excluding suicides, 20,192 people were killed with guns in the last year in the U.S.

It's 30 in the U.K.

Nobody is overlooking that. It's a large/main part of the "America has a gun problem" conversation.

# ? May 24, 2022 23:01

Willa Rogers: Mar 11, 2005

Jaxyon posted:

I mean, you know what they're saying to their kids.

They've begun explaining to their 8 year olds how the US government, specifically Democrats, are actively trying to make people like themselves second-class citizens.

Like, at this point, they're not even dancing around it. "There is a group of people out there who think you aren't as good as them and they want to control what you do. They're Democrats."

:wink:

# ? May 24, 2022 23:05

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

Cruz was asked for a comment on the shooting and made sure to get to the real problem.

https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1529221777360302080

# ? May 24, 2022 23:06

WAR CRIME GIGOLO: Oct 3, 2012; The Hague
tryna get me
for these glutes

If only there was an 8 year old with a gun who could have returned fire or possibly suppressed the shooter so the rest of the class could bounding overwatch to safety.

Ah well nothing can be done

# ? May 24, 2022 23:08

Jaxyon: Mar 7, 2016; I’m just saying I would like to see a man beat a woman in a cage. Just to be sure.

Willa Rogers posted:

They've begun explaining to their 8 year olds how the US government, specifically Democrats, are actively trying to make people like themselves second-class citizens.

Like, at this point, they're not even dancing around it. "There is a group of people out there who think you aren't as good as them and they want to control what you do. They're Democrats."

Yes, that's probably the least awful version of the way fascists frame it.

Racism gets taught.

# ? May 24, 2022 23:11

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

Just a reminder and context for how crazy the gun situation is in America.

https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/1529222990986194945
https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/1529210904188944384
https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1529224497626337286

# ? May 24, 2022 23:15

pthighs: Jun 21, 2013; Pillbug

Every time something like this happens it only makes pro-gun people more pro gun. The gun lobby has pulled off the greatest marketing success in human history.

And for those people with kids, as mentioned above, I always make sure to remind them that they are far more likely to get hit and killed by a car than killed by a gun (since we don't own guns).

But man I've been feeling some serious guilt the past few years about having children.

# ? May 24, 2022 23:28

Killer robot: Sep 6, 2010; I was having the most wonderful dream. I think you were in it!; Pillbug

BigBallChunkyTime posted:

I'm sure if you Google it you'd find something good.

The hell of it is that active shooter drills (or "lockdown" drills, as my school district calls them) are viewed as normal by my kids. Just like fire drills were when we were kids.

I graduated six weeks after Columbine. I never once had to worry about getting shot in school. This is loving nuts and if I didn't have kids already I wouldn't bring any into this godforsaken hellscape.

You spent most of your school years at comparable risk to children today. You just didn't worry about it.

That's not a statement of how appropriate it is to worry. It's just that Columbine didn't mark the beginnings of school shootings so much as the beginning of them being fed into the 24/7 news media, spurring copycats and all of that. Which is an unavoidable part of the problem aside from gun availability, lack of social safety nets, and all the other things driving violence. Culture drives how troubled people act out to hurt themselves or others, and in the US part of that is "go shoot a bunch of people" whether it's outright murder-suicide or some crazy plan to spark a revolution. There's a media driven feedback loop that I'm not sure there's a practical and responsible way to break.

# ? May 24, 2022 23:29

Dick Trauma: Nov 30, 2007; God damn it, you've got to be kind.

I don't think he realizes that being on his knees is what the GOP wants for all of us. Helpless and begging.

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1529215696777125888?s=20&t=0OrjwzfvU7CTS-JGguKYBw

# ? May 24, 2022 23:30

BonoMan: Feb 20, 2002; Jade Ear Joe

Willa Rogers posted:

They've begun explaining to their 8 year olds how the US government, specifically Democrats, are actively trying to make people like themselves second-class citizens.

Like, at this point, they're not even dancing around it. "There is a group of people out there who think you aren't as good as them and they want to control what you do. They're Democrats."

God gently caress you.

You're right. Maybe I should just "both sides" it to my 8 year old. Hell maybe I can make it her loving epitaph on her headstone when she inevitably gets shot by a mass murderer who explicitly has access to hate speech and guns because both of those are emboldened by the right wing.

# ? May 24, 2022 23:34

Nonsense: Jan 26, 2007

I don't give a gently caress what the chuds and their goddamn kids think quite frankly.

# ? May 24, 2022 23:35

pthighs: Jun 21, 2013; Pillbug

BonoMan posted:

God gently caress you.

You're right. Maybe I should just "both sides" it to my 8 year old. Hell maybe I can make it her loving epitaph on her headstone when she inevitably gets shot by a mass murderer who explicitly has access to hate speech and guns because both of those are emboldened by the right wing.

It's important to remember that the chances of dying to something like this are still infinitesimal compared to things like getting hit by a car, by "every day" gun violence (mostly suicide), or by drug overdose.

To be clear there's still a real emotional toll paid by those of us who even though we don't know any of these children, and we're all paying that toll every time this happens.

# ? May 24, 2022 23:38

Willa Rogers: Mar 11, 2005

Nonsense posted:

I don't give a gently caress what the chuds and their goddamn kids think quite frankly.

I also don't understand the first response to a national tragedy being "what will foxnews say? are they blaming video games or immigrants yet?" but that's the wide world of public opinion for you. :allears:

# ? May 24, 2022 23:38

Jaxyon: Mar 7, 2016; I’m just saying I would like to see a man beat a woman in a cage. Just to be sure.

Willa Rogers posted:

I also don't understand the first response to a national tragedy being "what will foxnews say? are they blaming video games or immigrants yet?" but that's the wide world of public opinion for you.

Was somebody here doing that?

Because I was talking about how it behooves folks to be honest about societal problems with their kids because fascists and racists are certainly explaining their version of the truth to their kids.

I dunno that Fox News ever got mentioned until you just did now.

# ? May 24, 2022 23:40

Willa Rogers: Mar 11, 2005

^^^ yeah, a few people were doing that; look over the last few pages & also see social media responses.

BonoMan posted:

God gently caress you.

You're right. Maybe I should just "both sides" it to my 8 year old. Hell maybe I can make it her loving epitaph on her headstone when she inevitably gets shot by a mass murderer who explicitly has access to hate speech and guns because both of those are emboldened by the right wing.

I mean, I'm not a parent so it's not my place to say how to parent, but from the pov of having been an anxious kid affected by murders in the news I can't say that my parents painting 80 million americans as lunatics out to get me would've been mentally healthy or reassuring, nor effective as a figurative call to arms.

# ? May 24, 2022 23:41

WorkerThread: Feb 15, 2012

Jaxyon posted:

Was somebody here doing that?

Because I was talking about how it behooves folks to be honest about societal problems with their kids because fascists and racists are certainly explaining their version of the truth to their kids.

I dunno that Fox News ever got mentioned until you just did now.

Yeah I try to be honest with my kid which is why I would never tell him that the democrats care a single iota about him and his friends.

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

# ? May 24, 2022 23:42

Jaxyon: Mar 7, 2016; I’m just saying I would like to see a man beat a woman in a cage. Just to be sure.

Willa Rogers posted:

I mean, I'm not a parent so it's not my place to say how to parent, but from the pov of having been an anxious kid affected by murders in the news I can't say that my parents painting 80 million americans as lunatics out to get me would've been mentally healthy or reassuring, nor effective as a figurative call to arms.

Yeah it certainly does suck but not sure what the point is hiding them from it?

WorkerThread posted:

Yeah I try to be honest with my kid which is why I would never tell him that the democrats care a single iota about him and his friends.

I support this too.

# ? May 24, 2022 23:45

BonoMan: Feb 20, 2002; Jade Ear Joe

Willa Rogers posted:

^^^ yeah, a few people were doing that; look over the last few pages & also see social media responses.

I mean, I'm not a parent so it's not my place to say how to parent, but from the pov of having been an anxious kid affected by murders in the news I can't say that my parents painting 80 million americans as lunatics out to get me would've been mentally healthy or reassuring, nor effective as a figurative call to arms.

I don't paint them as "out to get her" like they're hiding in her closet, but when the discussion becomes "why is it happening?" then a more honest discussion tying into the same party that wants to restrict her rights is warranted. We haven't even *had* the gun discussion yet so its hypothetical (beyond the Code Red "remember to hide, lock the doors, etc"). We also paint it in terms an 8 year old can understand and isn't really in the language I'm using here on the forums. We also restrict her access to the news.

But yeah you probably *should* have just stopped at "I'm not a parent."

# ? May 24, 2022 23:46

Jaxyon: Mar 7, 2016; I’m just saying I would like to see a man beat a woman in a cage. Just to be sure.

White folk slowly grasping the emotional pain of having to explain to your too-young child that much of the US wants them dead is certainly a thing.

# ? May 24, 2022 23:48

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

The pivot to shoehorning in "Dems bad too" happened almost as fast the pivot to "good guy with a gun" talk.

Willa Rogers posted:

^^^ yeah, a few people were doing that; look over the last few pages & also see social media responses.

I mean, I'm not a parent so it's not my place to say how to parent, but from the pov of having been an anxious kid affected by murders in the news I can't say that my parents painting 80 million americans as lunatics out to get me would've been mentally healthy or reassuring, nor effective as a figurative call to arms.

Nobody here is reading your social media feed, though.

And telling someone they are traumatizing their kids by not reminding them that Dems are bad too and being honest about gun culture right after two dozen kids were gunned down is pretty lovely.

# ? May 24, 2022 23:49

ImpAtom: May 24, 2007

"Don't have a discussion with your children about things they are actually facing in the world today" is, if nothing else, a loving cis male white-rear end view as if black children don't have to literally be taught how not to get shot by police or the children of gay couples don't need to have it explained to them that people don't think Daddy and Daddy deserve to be married or girls don't need to have it discussed how they need to be careful basically all the time.

# ? May 24, 2022 23:49

Killer robot: Sep 6, 2010; I was having the most wonderful dream. I think you were in it!; Pillbug

pthighs posted:

It's important to remember that the chances of dying to something like this are still infinitesimal compared to things like getting hit by a car, by "every day" gun violence (mostly suicide), or by drug overdose.

To be clear there's still a real emotional toll paid by those of us who even though we don't know any of these children, and we're all paying that toll every time this happens.

And people are really bad at judging risks even apart from media distortion effects. The same phenomenon drives other people to get a concealed carry permit so they're sure they can shoot back if someone attacks them at Wal-Mart, (which they drove to without a without a seatbelt.) And it makes them feel they're having something stolen from them when you say "maybe don't do that."

# ? May 24, 2022 23:51

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# ? May 23, 2024 11:29

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

The NRA and the underlying gun lobby are actually at the weakest and most fragmented they've been in a long time. There's a majority consensus in favor of at least baseline gun control reforms, improved reporting on gun violence (which has helped recent media coverage drive the issue), and executive rulemaking that helps clear the way for legislation. The issue remains the Senate.

Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 23:54 on May 24, 2022

# ? May 24, 2022 23:51

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > US CE Spring 2022: I'm convinced it's useless which is why I argue about it all day every day

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