by dexeron » Sun Jun 07, 2020 2:03 pm
That's why I'm so torn about it. The idea of the folks who think they'll "water the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants" being able to actually win against the military is absolutely laughable; but at the same time, there are other forces beyond the military who are armed and want to commit violence against marginalized groups, and against those forces it makes sense to be able to protect oneself. To really grossly oversimplify: Lynching didn't end in the U.S. because of stricter laws or non-violent protest. It ended when the members of lynch mobs started getting killed by those they were trying to lynch.
And it's really not about defeating the military (if the military is firing on civilians, we've already gone way beyond the point where America has ceased to exist in any meaningful sense) as it is about deterring potential violence. It's about giving that little bit of pause to those who give the orders, both in an official capacity and those in "unofficial" groups. It's about creating an opportunity cost for those who otherwise would not see any negative consequence to behaving badly.
I know this must seem absolutely bonkers to folks in sensible nations where the worst sorts of folks don't have easy access to firearms, and thus no one needs to be able to defend against them. Unfortunately, they do here in the U.S. and so it can be argued that at least one sensible solution (in a nation where the police force that's supposed to protect us has often been already infiltrated by those aforementioned groups, and even if not, their response times are far too slow) is to arm oneself. It's absurd and ridiculous and honestly it's probably not that bad.
It's not Mad Max over here.
At the same time, though, we do have instances where members of the Proud Boys or other alt-right nationalist/racist groups have doxxed folks, gone to their homes, and tried to intimidate/threaten them, and in a few cases bring violence against them. We do have vulnerable folk who aren't going to be protected by the cops (and calling the cops is more likely to get them killed or at least harassed.) Folks do have the right to defend themselves, although exercising that right is just going to bring law enforcement attention anyway, which leads to its own problems, of course.
In other words, my nation is absolutely bonkers and broken, and it probably always has been, but now it's just a lot more obvious.
I mean, we've got police openly beating journalists and peaceful protesters, and not even caring that they're on camera. They're not going after looters. They're just openly wailing away on folks who aren't any possible threat.
Land of the Free. Home of the Brave.