I have a problem with online dialogue regarding tragedies like the Aurora shooting and now the shooting in Wisconsin. My problem is I don't believe these dialogues reflect the true belief of the people involved. I think they have these dialogues for the sheer purpose of getting themselves noticed and gathering a following. The reason I think this is that these dialogues begin with someone posting information about the tragedy that may not be the entire truth and then continuing the embellishment of the truth until they've stirred the outrage of others. Once the inflammatory rhetoric has begun, lines are drawn, sides are taken, follower counts increase and it's ON!
There is a total disconnect, a disregard for the grief experienced by the victims and their loved ones. It's ALL about who has the loudest voice, the most followers and who can be the nastiest in putting down those voices that don't agree with every pearl of wisdom uttered by those at the center of attention. Even those that say they're going to offer a prayer have to follow that statement with an attack on those who don't march in lockstep with their view.
No one on either side ever tries to understand why they hold the views they do. How can someones Second Amendment Rights be so important that they bring a gun into their own home despite the fact that most of these shootings happen with legal guns? Why is it necessary to have the right to own an assault weapon? Why don't they see that gun ownership shouldn't have a basis in fear and anger? Guns are weapons of destruction. They are designed for one purpose, that purpose is to kill. How far from the desire to kill is fear and anger? Evidence suggests those emotions create the desire to kill, and you want the tool by which that can be accomplished in your own home?
None of these questions are ever asked, or answered. There's just the incessant online fighting that lasts for a few days and then is replaced by the next big issue. Aurora got dropped entirely when the Olympics began. Yet these same people who dropped their push to bring gun control in favor of the current topic sat there last night complaining about those who said three weeks ago, less than 24 hours after that shooting, that then was not the time.
I said that they were politicizing the grief of others. I still say that. If they weren't doing so, they would have allowed time for these people to come to grips with the tragedy that occurred in their lives and THEN they would have begun a dialogue. One that included an honest attempt at trying to create a compromise between the opposing sides. See? That's what it's going to take to create gun control. Cooperation and compromise to work out something that can be presented to STATE governments. Oh! But! PRESIDENT OBAMA needs to DEMAND a gun control law.
I live in the real world. In that world I know Conservatives who feel the same way I do about gun control. They believe in it and don't understand why anyone would want a gun in their homes unless they enjoyed hunting and did so to augment the food they feed their families. They don't believe guns belong in public places like restaurants, theaters or churches. They are quite willing to lend their voices to the gun control issue in a positive way. Only, no one has spoken to them and asked them nicely for their support. I wonder why?
I like what you have written here. I will be thinking about some of these things.
ReplyDeleteYou may not agree with everything I say, but if you're thinking about it, you're listening. Something that doesn't happen much online.
DeleteIt's always "too soon" after this shooting or that shooting, never "too late" when one happens. I don't have an answer for this problem, only know that those voices of reason on either side of the debate aren't heard. I fear we'll never be able to come to grips with the madness of a gun culture run amok, we'll just hunker down and wait on the next tragedy.
ReplyDeleteIF and I say that with little hope, the gun control dialogue was something other than a way for attention whores to grab more of the spotlight, I'd agree with you. The problem is everything is just one more chance for bloggers on both sides to be first and loudest. Aurora was so important it was overshadowed by the Olympics. Gun control dialogue was nothing more than kicking around ideas on how to make President Obama do something. In an election season. Right. Then, of course, the bloggers would have one more I'm soooo disappointed in him meme to push.
DeleteCan't they give the victims and their families time to grieve before they use the tragedy to make their reputations? That's all they're doing, they're furthering a reputation. Making damn sure nobody listens to any voice but theirs, which is why reasonable voices don't get heard. Glenn Greenwald buries them under a ready supply of his sock puppets unless they spread the word according to Greenwald.
Buzz Feed had a headline stating that the shooter mistook the Sikhs for Muslims. Like it's OK to shoot Muslims? Even the Sikh's were appalled by that and there are many of them that use the internet.
These professional left and right bloggers are disgusting and the sheeple follow along like the woolyheaded flock they are.
Give the victims time to grieve and then sit down, get heads out of asses and COMPROMISE until something gets done.
I was in Hannaford grocery store lately and there was a young man accompanied by what appeared to be his mother. He looked late teens to me but may have been older. He was perhaps five foot six inches, wearing pressed dress slacks, a white dress shirt with a tie (in a rural community it is unusual to see young people dressed like this) - and he had a pistol strapped to his belt.
ReplyDeleteI am retired military and have been around weapons most of my life; but I felt damn uncomfortable in that situation. My wife and I left our cart and headed for the door.
Technically this is legal in Maine - but why?
the Ol'Buzzard
I think I'd head out as soon as I saw someone packing a gun in a store myself. If I hear "guns don't kill people, people kill people, one more time I may just scream. Guns were invented as a weapon of warfare. They have 1 purpose and that is to kill. To me, carrying a weapon says you're declaring war on someone and I'd rather not be collateral damage when someone takes them up on the challenge.
DeleteI live in NYS, we have very strict gun laws, which isn't stopping the death of people from gun violence. It's the people that need regulating, they need to get over the feeling that they must resort to a gun for every single slight handed to them by life.