The elites who dominate our culture
It’s the elites. That’s the problem. Not fanatical gun-worship, not psychopathic gun marketing, not copycat massacres by gun, but elites – and not your old-fashioned elites who are rich and powerful but those new elites who are elite in the sense of not agreeing with people like Ted Cruz.
Continuing where I left off –
The GOP speakers shifted blame for the latest tragedy from the availability of high-powered weapons to an array of other culprits, such as declining church attendance, physical and social media bullying, weak families, violent video games, opioid abuse, lack of mental health services, multiple points of entry at schools and unlocked doors.
The speakers also pivoted from condemning the evil of the Uvalde school shooter to vilifying “elites,” the media, Democrats, and “communist Marxists,” eliciting cheers from the under capacity but vocal crowd.
“The elites who dominate our culture tell us that firearms lie at the root of the problem,” Cruz said. “It’s far easier to slander one’s political adversaries and to demand that responsible citizens forfeit their constitutional rights than it is to examine the cultural sickness, giving birth to unspeakable acts of evil.”
So Ted Cruz is not part of the elites who dominate our culture? Despite the fact that he’s a Senator? A Senator who gets a lot of air time and news media coverage? A Senator said to have a net worth of $4 million?
Who decides which opinions are “elite” ones and which are the humble kind? Can we identify our way out? Can I be trans-humble even if I think people shouldn’t be able to buy AR-15s as easily as they buy lunch?
My church attendance declined to nearly zero at the age of ten, and to completely zero now. I have never shot anyone, never had the urge to shoot anyone (okay, maybe we all have the urge now and then, but we can control it without working up a sweat; it passes quickly), and have never even punched or slapped anyone.
My brother, who goes to church regularly, has shot someone (himself, by accident, because he was playing with his gun).
Sample size of two; hardly scientific. Just sayin’.
Church attendance? Western Europe has far lower church attendance than the US and also far less violence of all kinds, even in places like Scandinavia where guns are fairly common. Latin America is more religious than the US and also more violent.
If video games with violent content caused real-life violence, then Japan would be the most violence-infested country on Earth. Instead, it’s one of the least.
More mental health services would probably help, but Republicans keep voting against funding for that.
But he’s doing the exact same thing. He’s a) slandering his political adversaries; b) demanding responsible citizens forefeit their rights to life, liberty, etc. (which is in the Declaration of Independence, rather than the Constitution, but whatever); and c) avoiding the examination of a cultural sickness (gun fetishism) that gives birth to unspeakable acts of evil. Good DARVOing there, Ted. And if all these guns were actually being used to prevent government overreach and tyranny, why the fuck are you not blocking Donald Insurrectionist Trump from getting anywhere near the levers of power? Again. He may be a son-of-a-bitch, but he’s your son-of-a-bitch, right? I guess tyranny is fine as long as you’re the ones doing the tyranting. Real (White, Christian) Americans are allowed to violate the Constitution at will because they’re White and Christian. Others need not apply.