There’s no reason that guns will become less important (in American culture) than they’ve been historically because the same things that motivated gun ownership, again, from the seventeenth century all the way until today, are likely to remain in place. Which is, again, social uncertainty, social unrest, and the problems guns help people to solve.
— Prof. David Yamane in Why Are Guns So Prominent in American Culture?
It’s so nice to see an Academic Person who is reasonable, rational, calm…….and honest.
I was beginning to think that wasn’t possible outside of the Engineering disciplines.
Lying doesn’t solve engineering problems (though it might cover some up for a while). They’re forced to see the world as it is instead of what they want it to be. That isn’t compatible with the progressive worldview.
I was in an interesting discussion along these lines just the other day. My classes in the 80s were grouped into sections (based on standardized-test scores), making it so much easier to teach at students’ own pace. Nowadays (at least in urban coastal CA, where my kids spent most of their schooling) this is anathema to leftist teachers, and even the special-ed kids are “mainstreamed” – so the class is always half hopelessly out of their depth / half dragging, wasting time, and bored.
Except math, which is still completely tiered. It turns out that, when it comes to the one subject where they can’t fluff and fudge and award extra credit for feelings and “diverse life experiences”, teachers jettison dogmatic egalitarianism because it would mean they’d have to work harder.
“Grub first, then ethics.”
“My classes in the 80s were grouped into sections (based on standardized-test scores), making it so much easier to teach at students’ own pace. Nowadays (at least in urban coastal CA, where my kids spent most of their schooling) this is anathema to leftist teachers…”
This is called “streaming” and in most places in the US is either outright or de facto illegal within public schools. It sometimes also has a bad name in private schools.
It was still used in NZ when I lived there and attended school there. It works well but it does breed a form of frustration/resentment. Kiwis seemed to deal with that via intramurals mostly organized through what we’d call “gym” in the US.
Overall, I’d rate the system as “vastly superior” to the US.
strych9,
The inevitable result whenever people indoctrinated with “everyone is the same and should be treated the same” as an absolute legal / philosophical truth are confronted with the reality that it is an absolute factual falsehood.
Umm…
I was probably unclear about this, the streaming itself produces this resentment.
Without writing a book or explaining the whole thing, what you end up with, at least in my high school, was a set of three basic social criteria.
Rank ordered by importance those would be Class (section, designated by a letter that told you the student’s general aptitude, all the smart kids are together in the “top” class which stays together as a “home room” throughout high school unless kids move)->House->Form (year, or grade level). Though I believe that school now calls latter “Year” instead of “Form”.
So, Section->House->Year.
This made it very easy to know who the “smart kids” were, in my school they had the designation of “L”. They did everything together and were even sectioned within Houses. While a House contained all Forms, letter designations were seated together. All the people in “L” would be seated together from 3rd to 7th Form within that House.
The result is that the L’s tend to hang out together, ditto the H’s, C’s etc regardless of House or Form. A “senior” was more likely to be with younger people of their own section designation than they were to hang out with people specifically of the same Year or from the same House.
This breeds a mild type of resentment because the smart kids are treated differently (which they are, in the US we’d say that class has an “accelerated curriculum). That resentment is dealt with by inter-section sports in gym.
So, for example, twice a week 4L has gym with another Section that rotates between the three “middle-tier” sections. Tuesday it’s full contact rugby with the kids from L and H. L doesn’t play “against” H, teams are mixed and obviously, both sides want to win. Or there are no teams because the day’s event is individual, like an obstacle course or 5K run.
This allows kids who might not have intellectual aptitude to have a place where they can have some wins because they’re really good at rugby or running or whatever. Therefore it prevents resentment from building between the sections because while classes are streamed for efficiency and this is obvious to all, no section receives across-the-board favoritism and ways have been found to take kids with disparate capacities and get them to work together rather than fight each other.
The result was, in my experience, a system with very little need for the kind of disciplinary issues we see in the US. The most common disciplinary action by far was the “Imposition”, and it wasn’t very common. Basically you had to write a paper on why you did something wrong, why it was wrong etc.
Seriously physical fights just didn’t happen.
We also had uniforms, think Harry Potter. They have effects and are useful but all of the benis you hear about of adding them to the US are bunk. Socioeconomic status is still visible at a glance and kids can easily find ways to be provocative with their dress if they like.
It just doesn’t matter as much because of other the other factors which modulate a lot of the behavior you see in US schools, like bullying, fights, vicious social cliques etc.
You did make yourself clear, and I was basically saying the same thing – so I apologize if I was unclear myself.
I can see the effort you described as a double-edged sword. Egalitarians like to claim “We all just happen to be good at different things,” and “jocks” vs. “nerds” is the closest real life gets to this argument. The qualities that produce academic achievement do not guarantee athletic achievement, or vice-versa (although there are plenty of scholar athletes).
Conversely, in the absence of exceptional natural athleticism (and sometimes even then), the indiscipline and lack of motivation that detract from grades also tend to produce couch potatoes – all the more so now that gizmos have eclipsed both organized sports and horsing around outside as preferred pastimes. Thus, an attempt at sporty self-esteem-building for the academically disinclined could turn into yet another undeniable, public reminder of how some just suck at life. A few may benefit from the wake-up call, while others will just whine “They’re shaming me!” Maybe it’s different in NZ.
Edited to Add: How did this get stuck in moderation?!
Make No Mistake About It, History Matters…Unfortunately and once again the video center of attention is, “Guns.” The center of attention or even a mention should be Gun Control and its laundry list of history confirmed racist and genocide baggage.
The professor’s approach like many on this forum is a roundabout attempt to explain Guns to knee jerk useful idiots who fall for Gun Control at the drop of a hat. Well tough love is telling such useful idiots that they are in camp with those carrying around an agenda that history confirms is rooted in racism and genocide. In the words of Private Gomer Pyle…Surprise, Surprise, Surprise.
Frankly the giant leap forward with firearms took place following Waco where America witnessed a month’s worth of Gun Control produced and directed by bill “the rapist” clintoon and janet “kangaroo court” reno. Same goes for Ruby Ridge, etc. Today Jim Crow Gun Control joe and his ilk who were also in bed with clintoon/reno are at the helm zeroing in on The Second Amendment all while coddling the criminals who misuse firearms, bricks, bats, knives, vehicles, etc.
Bottom line..The Second Amendment Stays and Gun Control and its rot Goes.
Professor Yamane was in Austin last week. We talked for a few hours over lunch and cigars. He is not your “typical” academic.
Check out his two blogs (Gun Curious and Gun Culture 2.0). He’s a breath of fresh air.
while engineering is one of the harder sciences, I’ve found that its adherents often fall into the trap of thinking that they are experts in all things, even those well outside their area of practice.
If I ever find an area outside of my practice, I’ll let you know.
Indeed … so very few of them these days.
all the civil unrest of 2020 did more to foster gun ownership than anything the pro-gun groups could do…they did it to themselves yet refuse to own it….
I can see th supposed logic but I have to ask the question here Why among all the civilised Nations it’s the Americans that seem to have a unique and possibly sick fascination with fierearms and are prepared to accept the 15/ 20,000 and counting Deaths by Gun Crime per annum Canada which has a very similar history to the USA and Australia and by the way most of the Old British Empire] that has at least as violent a past history do not have the same turn of mind.
In the UK [or Great Britain as it then was] even when the possession of firearms was basically uncontrolled [vaguely up to WW1] the possession of firearms was restricted by choice and the Police were unarmed.
It is, and was, the same throughout Europe. Switzerland where every male over 18 to the age of 65 has, at home an ASSAULT RIFLE and ammunition by Law and apparently it’s not that hard to OFFICIALLY gain acess to hand guns gun crime is practically unknown? In UKRAINE which awas anstill obviously is awash withg firearms once again gun crime is and was well down the concerns of the citizenry. As by the way it still is in RUSSIA of all places. Europeans in general would not consider themselves to be by any means less ‘free’ than Americans.
If the leftists didn’t restrict gun ownership in dem controlled areas the gun homicide rate would go down when the gangs get suppressed by the good guys.
AH —
We don’t have a gun problem in the US.
We have a criminal problem.
If you have any suggestions how to stop criminals, we’ll be just thrilled to pieces for you to enlighten us colonials.
Americans are fascinated with guns because
1. We had to kick you Limeys out, by force.
2. We had to steal our nation from the Natives.
3. We had to save you Limeys and all of Europe from doom, twice.
4. We had to kick Nipponese arse.
5. We’ve stared down the Soviet, and they blinked.
6. Hollywood indoctrinates us to believe that every problem in life is best solved with a gun.
7. We’re just badazzez, and don’t care what some Limey thinks about us.
Now, you just run along now, Albert, and kneel to all your royalty.
Well, you subjects sure were glad we had all those guns to “lend” you after you left yours on the beach at Dunkirk, didn’t ya, subject boy?? And then you graceless, ungrateful ponces, instead of returning them, melted most of them down.
But we saved your @$$es, anyway, so a polite “thank you” would be appropriate . . . but I guess you “civilized” Europeans are too “civilized” to feel gratitude. What a bunch of d***less ponces you are!!
And you “feel” free??? That’s a frickin’ comedy riot, right there. Of course, I’m sure your queen TELLS you to feel free. Sod off, swampy.
“In the UK [or Great Britain as it then was] even when the possession of firearms was basically uncontrolled [vaguely up to WW1] the possession of firearms was restricted by choice and the Police were unarmed.”
What?!?!? Are you saying that the entirety, or even the overwhelming majority of the British population CHOOSE to self restrict?!?!? If that were anywhere near the truth, then why would government need to ban and confiscate anything gun related?!?! Serious questions, not that I expect you to have anything resembling an answer.
He did forget to mention, perhaps the primary concern among free Americans, many of whom are financially and “socially” successful, that tend to press us to remain well-armed: Protection from a government, now filled with elites, that seeks to round up and tyrannize its citizens into becoming serfs and slaves.
I don’t think his answers were what she was fishing for. Very surprising to hear such frank, insightful perspectives from someone who seems to indulge in the unflattering stereotypes of conservatives.
“…social uncertainty, social unrest, and the problems guns help people to solve.”
And guns are fun when you know how to use them safely.
“…social uncertainty, social unrest, and the problems guns help people to solve.”
It is a delicious irony that the policies and behavior of the radical left are encouraging more-and-more folk to become gun-owners.
God does, indeed, have a sense of humor.
A sense of humor or a heavy drug user. Look at the platypus. The design and the name. Maybe he made shrooms first and everything after was a bit off.
The design, yes.
But according to Genesis, the names are from Adam and Eve.
Nonetheless, point taken!
I wonder if platipi think we are funny-looking.
+1 for taking the step of considering if the plural of “platypus” qualifies for “platypi”. That’s a fun one.
How about a group of ficus (trees)? 🙂
Humans are responsible for naming things.
Prndll, Yes, humans name things. That is because unlike the rest of the animal kingdom, we verbally communicate. (sigh)
@ Walter E Beverly III
The human species is one of MANY species that communicate verbally. But likely so many of us, they don’t all speak the same language.
JWM,
Regarding your thoughts on the creation of schrooms: Some Native Americans use shrooms to cultivate religious experience. If God uses shrooms, will he also have a religious experience?
That’s too heavy, dude. Maybe shrooms will help me get there.
“religioin”. from “re” meaning again, or back to. Ligion from ligio to tie or bind. God does not need to be reconnected to Himself again. So the answer to your question is a resounding NO.
The very word “religion” begins with the concept that we WERE closely boud to God but have been separated and are now trying, on our own efforts, to be restored. And shroomies won’t help one bit. Might make you forget about it all, but won’t fix a thing.
Shrroms did indeed get created before the platypus. Read the account. Makes sense, too. What would the critters He made eat of He had not first made all the growing plants?
As to te naming of this amusing and odd critter, the name WE use is most certainly NOT what Adam and Eve named them. Today’s name is latin based, a language that came round long long after even the flood.
Dunno about platypi but dogs will actively seek magic mushrooms once they discover what happens if they eat them.
They seem to greatly enjoy the experience.
“and the problems guns help people to solve.”
That about sums it up folks.
Antifa has taken that lesson. They are now embracing and encouraging their membership to buy and train with firearms. They have numerous courses and ranges teaching tactical weapons exercises and first-aid. Antifa, anarchists and socialists see conservatives as a problem and plan to solve it with firearms.
Something to think about when the subject of NICS background checks comes up.
People invented weapons to solve problems around a million years ago, because Nature didn’t see fit to provide us with built in ones like big sharp teeth and claws, horns, venom, and/or assorted camo and body armor. Modern weapons of any description are simply the logical evolution of a sharp stick.
NAILS IT !!!
Gunny —
IMHO Nature gave Man a brain as his best weapon. Then he thought up the sharp stick — and the rest, as they say, is history. And herstory.
A fascinating creature, this Man.
Gunny,
I like to troll idiots on Twitter and I really like your thoughts.
Mind if I copy this?
“Modern weapons of any description are simply the logical evolution of a sharp stick.”
And by extension, a sharp stick is little more than a longer arm than your opponent…
I have a slightly different take on the push for gun control by Liberal/Progressive Democrats. Their Ideology as To how it effects everything else in society is in direct conflict with any chance they might have to enact gun control. Especially in terms of Criminal Justice Reform i.e. No bail release of criminals, Prosecutors refusing to prosecute criminals for their crimes or reducing the charges to misdemeanors. That allow for little or no jail time. Judges who hand out slaps on the wrists for crimes committed. Parole boards allowing hardened criminals back on the streets. All of which allow criminals to again prey on innocent citizens Which in turn has brought about an explosion in the crime and murder rates across the nation. Which leaves law abiding citizens in constant fear of being a victim of crime and drives them to the purchase of more firearms for self protect and self preservation. So pretty much everything Liberal /Progressive Democrats do. regardless of intent is a self defeating action and more and more people are becoming Woke to that reality.
This professor is clearly not the garden variety leftist typically found on the modern American college campus. Note in the lead in he was talking about consulting in Texas about congregational security, and of note this was posted after the SCOTUS Roe leak so you can bet that church security is suddenly very important. Additionally there are rumors of leftist attacks planned against certain churches set for Mothers Day tomorrow.
If any day was ever a good day to carry in church, tomorrow is it. You might also want to talk to your preacher about security for tomorrow.
any church I enter I consider myself apart of the security team, as I carry my handgun everywhere. Since I am already part of the well regulated” entity “necessary for the serurity of a free state” its a done deal.
Had a fun visit with the church of some friends of mine in texas a few years back.. too long a tale for here and now, sufffice it to say nearly every adult male and above half of the adult females in the building were carrying. Such an interesting and engaging bunch I have rarely exerieinced. My bet (I do not know this) is that when the covidiocy came round they ignored it. Life is too short to live behind bars, either metal ones or mental ones.
The History of all countries including the U.S. has shown that as the human population explodes out of control the crime rate, social unrest, joblessness, food shortages, mental illness, and attempts to overthrow governments have all resulted in more and more draconian restrictions on firearms.
Pay attention to what Politicians in government DO not in what they SAY is an old adage worth repeating again and again. Governments do not want firearms in the hands of the proletariat for the above mentioned reasons.
In the U.S. we have seen the corrupt courts rule with an iron hand by banning the sale of new machine guns and restricting the sale of silencers by putting them on the NFA list.
The States in the last decade of dealing with daily mass murder by lunatics have put hundreds of new restrictions on military style weapons of mass destruction and most have been blessed by the gun hating courts.
Before 1776 and after 1776 gun control laws INCREASED and continue to increase despite a disingenuous Second Amendment that has proven to be not worth the paper it was printed on. The courts simply ignore 2A and have even ignored their own previous decisions on 2A as they almost always rule with the anti-gun laws.
Scream, rant and shout from the roof tops but this has been U.S. History and “Wishing the truth were not the truth does not change the truth” Dacian 2022.
“Wishing the truth were not the truth does not change the truth” Dacian 2022
And wishing that your truth was the truth but isn’t the truth … is the truth.
Are you saying you are ready to open the cartridge box to enforce your Right, Dacian?
to the Storm Trooper
quote—————-Are you saying you are ready to open the cartridge box to enforce your Right, Dacian?———quote
More gorilla chest thumping Storm Trooper except most gorillas have more commons sense than you do. They are also intelligent enough to recognize your rectum gas when they smell it. Too bad the Far Right does not
We live in a surveillance society and George Orwell’s book 1984 came earlier than what he predicted in his book.
You have no more freedom to elect people than North Koreans have only they realize their predicament while you live in a fantasy world. Gerrymandering and the Electoral College and Lobbying which is legalized bribery make a complete farce and joke of our fake democracy and keeps the ruling Oligarchy in power as it has since 1776.
As one Ex-Congressman once told me many decades ago as a young man “We all feed from the same corrupt trough and we do not give a damn what the people need or want, what matters is our pocket books”.
I might add since most corrupt Congressmen remain in power for life it should make even the retarded Far Right realize that money is why they became Congress people and a rigged system keeps them there usually for life.
Cool story, bro. You’re still a young man.
Reading what you wrote sounds like you are ready. I am not thumping my chest. Again you are wrong.
We all know you not some old hippie clinging to the commune fantasy. You are a young person who desperately believes that Socialism/Communism is your ticket to a free ride in life. Maybe when you mature you will see how wrong you are.
My offer still stands. When I am in Ohio again I’ll let you know. You can then prove who you are.
Yeah, North Korea definitely has more fair elections than the US Right? Fewer guns in the hands of citizens too, which is right up your alley. Have you considered moving there?
Paratrooper,
dacian the stupid has contradicted his own story too many times to count. He is living proof of the old adage, “Tell the truth, and you don’t have to keep track of your lies” (which he is wholly unable to do). My favorite dacianism is his frequent insistence that he is “educated”, which, when he is confronted about it, he runs away like the little b***h he is.
I agree with you; dacian the stupid is young, uneducated (probably dropped out or flunked out of college), does NOT belong to any “gun club” (even a racist one), knows f***-all about firearms, and most of his so-called “experiences” are transparent lies. His “philosophy” is a muddled, ahistorical mess of lies, and he’s as annoying as a rock in your shoe. dacian the stupid has exactly ZERO redeeming characteristics, other than his usefulness as a target for ridicule. He is a pathetic, deluded half-wit with delusions of adequacy.
this court may be different…based on what we’ve seen so far…
dacian, the Dunderhead. Well, if what you posted were true, how come the US is NOT experiencing a “population explosion”? The provisional number of births for the United States in 2020 was 3,605,201, down 4% from 2019. The general fertility rate was 55.8 births per 1,000 women aged 15–44, down 4% from 2019 to reach another record low for the United States.
The only “explosion” we are experiencing is ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION. In other words, you are full of donkey dust!
How put this simply. This is great but they are going to take the guns and we are going to turn them in.
Why? Fake conservatives won’t shut down their facebook accounts which puts forth 90% of the propaganda destroying our culture. If you asked 5 years ago if we would ever allow the federal government force us into our homes like prisoners, then attempt to force unsafe medial interventions and what did american’s do. They complied.
It won’t be any different with the guns. Wait until they create another big hoax to terrify the country through lies and misinformation that guns need to be eliminated. 6 months ago if Fauci said guns cause Covid 19 people would have been turning them in in droves. Sounds Ridiculous.
Who would have through we would have a stolen election and the republicans sat back and watched it happen. That’s a fact. Who would have through the the Supreme court Chief Justice would have worked in collusion with Democrats to make sure that Obamacare would remain constitutional. He absolutely did that. Told then how to reframe the arguments os they would side in the democrats favor. The same Supreme Court Justice that also refused to hear any arguments regarding voter fraud in spite of the massive amount of hard evidence.
So you have a corrupt congress and most politicians that are simply in it for themselves. We won’t vote them out of office, (Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy ) in spite of them ignoring the will of the voters. Then the other RiNOS push them into leadership.
You have a corrupted court. Guess which Justices spent time on Epsteins “pedophile Island”. And then we have voters who think screaming about it on forums, facebook and twitter somehow means we are involved. We still go to Disney. Sure there is a boycott and they scapegoated and employee but the rot is still there and we are still consuming.
If you think people that won’t cancel their facebook accounts are going to rise up against the tyranny and fascism that is creeping into our government you are delusional. Talk is cheap but we are judged by what we do. So we can keep deluding ourselves that they won’t take the guns but the day is coming. You will all see.
There will be a few speedbumps but don’t worry. When they tell parents that if they don’t turn in any guns they have in the house and turn in any neighbors harboring guns their kids will be removed from the home due it being unsafe. They will turn them over. And they will turn on each other. And the courts won’t step in to protect our rights anymore than the supreme court stepped in to protect the bodily integrity and right to be free from medical experimentation by forcing healthcare workers to receive a dangerous, ineffective vaccine.
Thats a load of shit your spewing.
11 people where I work only 2 got jabed. The rest said no way, same for their household.
We decided not to obey the mask mandate and we serve the public.
NO ONE will touch my kids, not the government not anyone. That’s what my guns are for to protect me and mine. Trying to take anything of mine will be met with a very bad outcome for all involved.
Be sure to send agents that are single, for the children.
[One of my long rants, 2017 style. TL;DR: Conservatives are their own worst enemy in a number of regards. Even when they’re right they manage to trip over their own shoelaces.]
The problem here is that he’s not spewing a load of shit. Statistically speaking, he’s right and that’s the problem.
The fact that you and yours are different is immaterial. You’re a minority. The majority will cave if the right pressure is applied. For some that might be playing on a fear of germs or some twisted sense of morals mixed with a fear of germs (don’t kill grandma!). For others it’s a job from which they derive a sense of self-worth or from which a desperately need income is gleaned.
The vast majority have pressure points and, statistically, those pressure points tend to line up along a normal curve. That’s just the way it is. Find and press four or five and you’ll turn the majority against the minority in a truly vicious manner. History teaches what happens in those cases. And while some say “Well then, cry havoc!” those people are fools and dangerous fools at that.
Conservatives, generally speaking (and this is gonna ruffle some feathers), have several serious weaknesses.
1.
Conservatives generally prefer to be left alone and to leave others alone. As such they eschew exactly the type of organization that leads to serious political power and are therefore anemic against the Left in many regards. Where they Right has used this to its advantage they’ve still failed because what they essentially did was hire mercs and then get sold out. The NRA comes to mind.
Mixed with the false consensus effect this leads to people on the Right just assuming that since they’d never seize power and wield it like a madman other people won’t either.
2.
Related to #1, the Right tends not to build culture but rather allows the Left to do this. Politics being downstream from culture this is a serious weakness. It is no different from how Socialism can be inserted into Libertarianism but the reverse is absolutely impossible. The Libertarian doesn’t care if you want to form a commune and be a hippie. The Socialist and the Communist do not reciprocate this view, and so, if they take over, they will exterminate the Libertarians.
If you let the Left build the dominant culture they will rid themselves of you. This was Mao’s tactic. It’s demonstrably effective.
3.
Conservatives tend not to be particularly well educated in certain areas. They don’t actually read philosophy or take a deep dive on Marx. The academic Left, OTOH, does do these things and then figures out how to use those things to market their overall philosophy. This is exactly how the Left figured out how to weaponize general psychology and left the Right thinking it was a joke.
4.
But it’s not a damned joke. 20 years ago people laughed and said “What will you do with that degree in Underwater Basket Weaving or [Female homosexual] Dance Theory? LOL!
The answer was “We’ll get jobs, we’ll take over HR departments, school boards, teaching in K-12 and university administrations and then we’ll be in charge of you and your kids”. Which is EXACTLY what these people then did. Who’s laughing now?
This is but one aspect of underestimating the enemy. Of not seeing how slights of hand and minor changes in language really do matter over time and how a snowball of massive proportions can be built right under your nose.
5.
Related to all of the previous four issues; The Right tends not to grasp the overall significance of institutions that actually protect Conservative principles until those institutions are undermined or seized. The Right allows the Left to take over courts, education, entertainment, sports, law enforcement and everything in between and then act *shocked* when the Left isn’t friendly in wielding its newfound power.
You can see this in the utterly short-sighted focus the Right now has on homeschooling. Why? Because taking the schools back is too much work? Because the Right is so practical that they can’t grasp an esoteric concept like parallel processing? Because they’re lazy?
For some it’s one or more of the above but mostly it’s an inability to truly grasp the enormity of the import of an institution and how dangerous it can become once corrupted. Homeschooling might work for 10 years but it’s a ticket to your children being, at best, lower caste for life or, at worst, shoved into a mass grave. But do Conservatives see this? Nope. Just like they didn’t see those Critical Theories majors taking over everything from the DOJ to Disney.
6.
An overreliance on some oddball form of morality. This leads the Right to a myopathy when it comes to seeing obvious and simple solutions. The things they must embrace are exactly the things they will not. And, in an amusing twist, if they’d just openly eye the possibility they’d scare the shit out of the Left and things would calm down. An odd form of Peace Through Potential Strength that they will not embrace because it would be “mean” or something.
7.
A paralytic tendency towards simple explanations that actually are far, far too complicated once you unpack them. “Conspiracies” and such. Elaborate explanations of deeply woven plots that clearly have no real bearing on reality is a hallmark of the fringes on both sides. The more the Left grows in power the more mainstream these ideas become on the Right side of the aisle.
Counterintuitively, this actually allows for conspiracies when institutions end up being captured.
8.
An obnoxious tendency towards mentioning religion constantly and suggesting it’s the cure for all ills while finding ways to make benign statements into incendiary political rhetoric. Yeah, I said it. It’s true. Get over it.
Most modern Christians don’t actually know sweet-fuck-all about their own religion’s history or base philosophy. Speak commonly understood Christian doctrine from 150 years ago and they’ll castigate you as an unbeliever or a heretic. Religious scholarly journals have bemoaned for decades that Seminary students are have 2000 years of philosophy drilled into them and then never speak it to a congregation because that congregation will run the Clergy Member out on a rail.
9.
Related to 3,5 and 8; A shallow understanding, at best, of many of the things that drive the Left and how the Left has operationalized those things.
For example, many here have argued with me that Nietzsche was a proponent of much of what he discussed (that is, he was a nihilist). Quite clearly they’ve never actually read more than snippets of the guy’s work. Anyone with volumes of written work can be made to say anything through the Power of Ellipses. That happened with Nietzsche and it was quite effective but it would be equally easy to turn Aquinas into an atheist or Blanchard into a pagan.
The same guy who warned you of how Postmodernism would undermine society is written off as a guy who supported such an idea.
Note that Nietzsche’s the one who articulated the idea that an undermining of the traditional Western concept of justice would lead to the rise of people replacing justice with vengeance. Well, that’s exactly how race-hustler and Critical Theory people work. They replace justice with vengeance and then call for justice. Racial justice, social justice, economic justice and other x-justices are all just forms of vengeance against people the proponents of “justice” happen not to like and to blame for something or wish to degrade and steal from.
The Left convincing most people to believe in a cartoon version of Nietzsche’s writings neatly sidestepped a need to actually discuss his writings critically so that you’d miss out on the warnings because you thought the guy wanted to kill God because he happened to be an atheist who could see the overarching goodness of Judeo-Christian philosophy very specifically because he looked at it from the outside. This is no different than how Antifa recruits, they just run in the opposite direction. Cherry-picking done right is a great way to set two sides of ignorant people against each other.
Control of the schools is damned powerful and the Left has had this since the early 1960’s. Conservatives have fallen for this every step of the way. To be fair, it was a well thought out ploy that the American Left didn’t actually devise, but here we are 70 years into the plan being executed and most of the Right still doesn’t see it.
10.
Conservatives tend to adhere to an oddly rigid scheme of thought. In that regard they are, somewhat, like the Left in being dogmatic and unwilling to accept other people who mostly agree with them. But then, Conservatives, generally, are not about maximizing Liberty because, related to 1, 3,5,6 and 9, the Right doesn’t really understand the concept. Instead most of the Right has a preference for what should be allowed and not allowed that, generally, follows the same basic rules as the Left. What I like should be allowed and what I don’t like should be banned. Most brook very little dissent on this topic. If they don’t like it then it should be banned and using the power of the State to do so is perfectly acceptable. That’s not Liberty, it’s just your preferred tyranny yet, when the prison’s in your own head, this is hard to see.
I could go on, but why bother, this is enough kicking of a hornets nest.
GWB had a huge Point 8 problem. He spent his whole presidency pandering to leftists to vote for his wars and accept him as “compassionate”, even to the point of promoting new entitlement legislation with Ted Kennedy, yet was still easy to portray as a rigid “right-wing extremist” because of his constant rhetorical preacherisms.
How is it “kicking the hornet’s nest” when it’s basically true?
“How is it “kicking the hornet’s nest” when it’s basically true?”
You’ve clearly missed the rhetoric that’s been leveled at me here in the past for pointing out certain things that, unfortunately, just happen to be true.
strych9,
OK, whatever. Your invidious generalities about Christians, and our supposed lack of knowledge, are as much bigotry as a KKK member. I studied comparative religion in college. I’ve read (at this point) seven different versions of the Bible, the Tanakh, various commentaries by various historic rabbis, the Bhagavad-Gita, the Analects of Confucius, the Book of Mormon, the Tipitaka, the Vedas and the Upanishads, the Aveda, the Quran and Hadiths, the Dao de Jing, and probably a few more that I can’t remember. In the course of that, I’ve attended religious ceremonies for many different religions (to the extent I was allowed). I also studied Philosophy (and you mischaraterized Nietzsche as badly as you accuse others of doing so).
People of ALL religions, faiths (like dacian the stupid’s pathetic, uneducated belief in Marxism), and creeds can be narrow-minded, just like people of all religions, faiths, and creeds can be educated, open-minded, and intellectually curious. Nice to know you think you’re so special; that degree of rampant narcissism is . . . impressive, I guess. Show us on the doll where the bad Christian touched you. Oh, and get the f*** over yourself.
Congrats Lamp, you prove my point. Stunningly well.
Because YOU did these things my general statement is untrue. That’s not how this works.
You’re several standard deviations from the norm yet you attempt to portray yourself as right at, or very close to, the mean. You’re not. Not even close. False consensus much?
Yet, you accuse me of being a bigot for simply pointing out the average because you don’t really like the obvious conclusion that acknowledging the average leads you to because, for no logical reason, you believe this to be some sort of smear when it is not. It’s a statement of fact based on observation over decades by not just me but by people who run Seminaries and religious schools.
That’s Lefty thinking there bud. It’s like I point out the standard of living in India and you accuse me of “racism” because Indian people tend to have darker skin than white people. Well, I never said they’re poor because they’re brown, so what are you on about, exactly?
You take personal offense and accuse me of being necessarily incendiary for pointing out facts.
If simple facts are going to set you off to the point that you must rate a statement of fact as “invidious” then the problem, good Sir, is with you. You’re letting your feelings get in the way of a rational analysis related to the political position of Conservatives in general based on averages for the population of Conservatives and how they are perceived by the rest of the country.
You’re getting mad at me for pointing out what amount to numbers? In the modern parlance it’s time to ask; Feelz over facts much?
Further, the discussion was about US political Conservatives and the distribution of behavior within that group. It has nothing to do with “all religions”. Out of 10 points, you seize on a single one and go apoplectic over it to the point that you end up wildly off topic.
I’m forced to wonder if I should be taking you seriously or not, particularly considering your closing reverts to middle school. Seems to me that causing you to revert to about 12 years old takes about zero effort
If this is all it takes to put you in a tailspin the Left’s going to have a field day with you. You can’t even take a mild criticism of a population average without taking it as a personal slight and resorting to ad hominem.
In short, I hand you part of playbook for winning, you throw it back in my face and call me names. You can’t even scratch the surface of being honest with yourself and you argue exactly like the people you claim to oppose.
Keep that lamp oiled, ’cause you’re sure not the person you’re looking for.
NO MATTER N DARN IT ALL AS GET OLDER CAN’T TAKE WITH ME . SO PAWN OFF OR LEAVE FOR ANYONE IN FAMILY THAT MAY WANT TO USE MY STUFF , HOPE DON’T LEAVE TO MUCH AMMO BEHIND , HA .
ONE DAY AT A TIME FOR NOW . MR DEATH JUST HAV A WAIT , I HOPE BIT LONGER . ??
JUST HOW TO GET RID OF THA CRIMINALS ? WHER’S OLD SPARKY WHEN YA NEED IT ?
FRY BABY FRY , CRIMINALS RUIN IT ALL FOR LAW-BIDING .
more guns in private hands than at any time in our history…and the left has no one to blame for that but themselves…
The only way they’ll remove our guns from Americans is from THEIR cold dead hands. What Charles Heston should have said.
Something the gun theft/control crowd don’t seem to understand. Guns, of any type, are nothing but a tool. And the majority of gun owners understand that fact. They don’t make anyone bigger, or badder. They don’t control or make people comit crimes. Nor do they comit crimes on their own.
Those who would prey upon their fellow humans will find a way to arm themselves. The problem is the anti gun folks don’t want to allow the law abiding the same chance. They seem to think if the law abiding were only to hand in their arms, then the government would step in to protect them. Never has giving government more authority, control, or power ever been beneficial to the citizens. And not having the means to defend ourselves from criminals and tyrants would be more destructive than all the guns ever produced in this country.
That’s why I say we have no hope for change except by force. This country has been taken over by corrupt politicians for over 45 years. Everyone one that in government from the past 45 years has baggage. They all need to be put on trial and investigated.i do home work ….. 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐤.𝐜𝐨𝐦
It’s interesting to read the comments here and realize how disconnected people actually are from the academic world.
Dr. Yamane is an extreme outlier within his own discipline (he’s a sociologist). He’s really not that far out at all, like not even a standard deviation, within the actual sciences.
It’s really a damn shame that all of higher education is thought to be a bunch of Critical Theory assholes.
It’s actually that the academic world is disconnected with how people are.
Not really.
You’re just being propagandized very heavily and falling for it because unless you truly go looking, that is actively working, you’ll only get what’s been filtered for you by people who have an agenda and an incentive for you to buy what they’re selling.
Sean Hannity and Rachel Maddow are naught but two sides of the same coin. If you believe the coin to be of value you’ll fall for one story or the other but, IRL, they’re the same story.
Just like the black pill is just the blue pill in a higher dose and with different packaging.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that people are being taught hate rather than 1+1=2. Hannity and Maddow (that coin) are not needed for such things to be seen.
What does 1+1=2 have to do with “the academic world” that resides in colleges and universities?
There is a connection but it’s not the one people seem to think.
We have the finest university system in the world. Bar none. The envy of the world. We have, at best, the 38th ranked “K-12” system and that’s when you basically cherry-pick the metrics.
Odd, huh?
There’s a reason the K-12 system was targeted and it is the root cause of what’s going on in Critical Theories departments. This is a supply and demand issue that someone like Hannity sees but gets backwards. Someone like Maddow like the way it is now for a variety of reasons but talks about it almost like Hannity does, just from a different angle.
Again, odd.
But is it? No, not really. I noticed this in high school. I openly talked about it. I racked up the suspensions and was nearly expelled for it. Other than my parents, both chemistry professors, no one would ever listen to me about it. Yet I called what you’re seeing today 20 years ago, long before I’d ever heard of Yuri Bezminov. It wasn’t hard. The pattern is obvious and the reason behind it is clear.
It’s gotten markedly worse since I graduated high school too. That’s why I spent weeks this last semester going over y=mx+b with 18-23 year olds as a TA in genetics when we were supposed to be doing chi-square analysis of multigenerational pedigrees.
Because nowhere in K-12 did they get that basic algebra. Dozens of kids from over 30 states all smart enough to pass intro bio and phage lab but they all somehow missed the equation for a line… Something nearly no university has a program to cover because it’s SO remedial to do so. And, therefore, you need it to be wedged in elsewhere and hope to Christ that you’re reaching the people who need the help.
But, ain’t it interesting, that the university which has a financial incentive and a host of administrators with Critical Theories degrees creates a “safety net” that just so happens to create more Critical Theories majors?
Curious, dontchathink? Almost like they’re intentionally making a self-licking ice cream cone?
strych9 Not hardly. the Academic world is all about theory most of which are nonsensical. There is an adage that applies. Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.
“Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.”
This oft used quote might be the apex of right-wing idiocy. An ode to ones own ignorance and inability to grasp much of anything.
Parents teach children to talk because the parents cannot talk?
Or perhaps physics professors teach physics they cannot do then run to design the next cryo-EM unit that doesn’t work but people still pay millions for each one because they’re so fantastically non-functional?
Professors get multi-million, sometimes multi-billion dollar contracts with private companies to build and maintain lab space at a university and do research because the private company is so interested in flushing away money on incompetent PhDs creating useless theories? ThermoFisher just inked research a deal with the department I’m in because ThermoFisher thinks we’re going to figure out exactly fuck all about cancer and waste that money?
You Sir, debase yourself with nearly every comment you make here. Quite frankly, most of your comments are so ignorant that I’m embarrassed for you.
Now, please, tell me again how foreign law is applied inside the US because the Guatemalan national legislature is so on-fucking-point about contaminated shellfish that we just have to protect public safety by applying their import/export laws on exotic animals in Maine.
strych9 That quote is unfortunately true. I have seen it first hand. If you were being honest you would admit you have too. Parents are more than teachers, or didn’t you Lefties know that. We have thousands of teachers failing our kids. Why do you think we have the past few generations who can’t read at grade level, write a complete sentence using proper grammar and spelling, and can’t even balance a check book. That just about says it all.
Most of your “physics professors” are not in the real world because they can;;t make it out there. Most of your so called “learned” professors do nothing more than vegetate and pollute the minds of their students with Leftist gibberish.
I could give a rat’s behind what the Guatemalan national legislature does. that is their business.
Now who is debasing himself?
“The human condition is being held back by 500,000 average algebra teachers”.
-Michael Saylor.
How did that come to pass? How did we go from teaching Greek and Latin in High School to teaching remedial English in college?
How are there LOADS of people in their 50’s and older who can’t do basic math that every high school kid in 1940 knew by heart?
These are not insignificant questions and the fact that kids are showing up to colleges wholly unprepared when this was not an issue in the past tells you that the root cause here comes before the university. (By which, btw, I do not mean physical buildings or credentialed institutions).
The University has existed for 1000 years. It is the institution that ended the Dark Ages. Enormous effort has been poured into it by many, many generations because it works.
Suddenly it doesn’t. That’s because it’s part of an ecosystem and major portions of that system have been captured by people who mean you harm.
If there’s a bandit camp in the woods it’s utterly insane to burn down the woods to get rid of them. That’s a broadsword where a scalpel is called for.
The root of the problem resides in two major places. The rest are symptoms of the disease. The roots go to Schools of Education and Critical Theories departments.
Boiling this down to pithy little statements is a fool’s errand. There’s a war (apologies to JWT) afoot. It has many fronts and myopathy will unsure that the hard Left wins that war.
That outcome, in my estimation, is wholly unacceptable. The Left falls into two camps. Ignorant people who don’t know what they’re asking for and those who know what they’re asking for; complete chaos and civilizational decline.
Perhaps you haven’t been paying as close attention to academe as you think. While MANY “hard science” academics retain intellectual rigor, there is an active, and increasing, movement to inculcate “social justice” into ALL disciplines. Nice that you can dismiss this; my two youngest (my daughters) are still in college, so I get to experience the increasing brainwashing in ALL disciplines pretty much daily.
But I’m sure, like on EVERY subject you address, you are far more knowledgeable and “civilized” than we mere parents. Seriously, your sense of self-importance is quite . . . remarkable. Perhaps you should run for absolute dictator of Earth, since you are so much smarter, more sophisticated, and more knowledgeable than ANYBODY around, amirite?? As I said in a prior comment, get the f*** over yourself. You ain’t all that.
I’m quite well aware of it. I deal with it daily.
As for the rest, *yawn*. More insults and bullshit from someone who’s apparently dedicated to being unserious.
What, you trying to troll because you’re jelly that Dacian and Miner get more play than you do from the other TTAGers? Hurts your wittle feelz that no one pays that much attention to the dude with the fancy literary name that you think should get you some attention?
“Social unrest”? No, that’s not the ultimate purpose of 2A, though the Founders certainly would agree you could defend yourself from a lawless mob with firearms. No, the most important reason for firearm ownership among the people is for use against a tyrannical government, and since human nature hasn’t changed in 2000 years, neither has the tendency of power to be abused and therefore governments to become tyrannical.
Here’s why you’d better hope “gun culture” continues. In 2012 The CDC doing research on “Gun violence” discovered that law abviding gun owners stop 500,000 to 3 MILLION violent crimes every year. If gun control laws make it harder and more expensive to keep and bear arms some or all of those crimes won’t be stopped. There will be MORE violent crime, not less.
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