We win in the long run by creating a society that doesn't value, accommodate, and incentivize Fascist power-hoarding and -wielding. A society that values and prioritizes Community wellness and success over Individual gain and triumph. The protests and the calls for Defunding and Abolishing the violence-driven carceral police state, and the conversations these are stimulating, are a real positive step in working toward that. The desire and the Will is absolutely there in the populace, but it is being purposefully, systematically derailed and hampered by the people that presently hold great power (most principally FINANCIAL power) over the masses. No species that is at the point of being relegated by Evolution simply goes away without putting up a frenzied fight.
In the immediacy, the problem, yes, is that we have in our populace a sizable element of violent, zealous extremists with whom there is no path for discussion or diplomacy, and deescalation is an impossible task. They WANT a fight to the death - they LUST for it. And to meet this challenge, there has to be some contingent of people that are willing to step forward and take that fight that cannot be avoided or escaped head-on. That doesn't, though, require EVERYONE to take up a firearm or weapon of some sort, and in fact, to try to force that position on people who are completely adverse to it is COUNTER-productive - you don't MAKE a person a fighter by just putting a weapon in their hand and saying "get in there" when they have no Will for it.
I am a person willing, practiced, and prepared to be a fighter - a shield between those who are not and these people that want to see their blood fill the streets. What people like me need is for everyone else to identify what THEIR skill and lane is, and work in THAT. The work of a Revolution is not JUST fighting, it requires an entire SUPPLY NETWORK. There needs to be medical helpers, there needs to be people that provide food and water, there needs to be people that can provide shelter to the needy, there needs to be people that can provide financial support, there needs to be people that know how to engage against the court system, there needs to be people that handle organizing, logistics, etc etc - there are SO many different angles that this problem MUST be approached from, not just ONE! But what is MOST important is that at least EVERY PERSON be willing to courageously SPEAK OUT the weariness we have all suffered under this broken system, and declare a desire to take a new, completely different approach to how we view and respond to societal ills, in ways that embrace Dignity, Empathy, Understanding, Compassion, Appreciation, Encouragement, Love. And ultimately, to withdraw their acceptance and consent for the continuance of this broken, predatory system of malice and wickedness.
Leaning into the notion of a mass firefight is playing directly into the state of affairs THEY want to fight on. WE have to create a state of affairs that their desired position is untenable, unviable, unachievable. They can't just start openly gunning people down in the streets or their homes and be able to try to lay claim to a mantle of legitimacy. Yes, I understand that the Police have been doing PRECISELY this, but that has only been possible because of State Power being willing to both fund and turn a blind eye to it as it upholds their personal positions, and we are seeing the veneer of duplicity and complicity begin to fade. We have found an opportunity to call the bluff for what it has always been and there be no more dark corners for them to hide in. A mandate to govern can only be derived from the consent of the people living under it; that consent is finally being withdrawn in masses, and accountability and change not just being asked for, but DEMANDED. "Government OF the people, BY the people, FOR the people." WE are the people that make this country what it is and what it can be - not the leach oppressors who take up and exploit the work we do to live lives the rest of us could only ever dream of.
As I said in the beginning, we are not going to get out of this until EACH person decides to start finding ways to elevate and sow into the success and well-being of the Whole more than our own tiny lives. There is SOME way in which YOU CAN get involved! THAT is the work - the DAILY work - of being part of a collective.
Nobody is helpless, and in fact, each and every person is exceedingly important and desperately needed right now.
One huge part of the gunner fantasy you mention is GEAR GEAR GEAR. The kid's wearing a 5.11 tactical shirt in the photo. His AR-15 is pretty basic, but obviously, he's been brought up in the community. So much of our gun culture points back to the military-industrial complex figuring out that it could make a pretty penny by selling tacticool garbage to individuals. Just take a look at right-wing Instagram and you'll see it: everybody wants to look like a spec ops action hero. It was only a matter of time before their warped internal psychosis started bleeding out into the real world.
Neverending war always finds its way back from the imperial periphery to the imperial core. Profits must be made and minorities must be suppressed you see
one pretty weird example of this is how the industry has grown from pretty standard tactical accouterments to t-shirts and morale patches. stuff like this: https://www.gruntstyle.com/products/commie-killer
Spent a year sailing down your Eastern seaboard. Never again. I do not need to see armed, small fucked men in grocery stores. When I sail back to Canada my provisioning a fueling stops will be the Bahamas then Bermuda. Honestly, I feel safer in third world countries than I did in the United States.
The left/progressives better start getting armed. The right will not deescalate and with the open melding of State security forces + militias they will become more emboldened to enact State sanctioned violence on all fronts.
No one is going to save us but ourselves. And realistically since we are vastly outgunned this is probably not going to end well. But still..if you can id recommend buying weapons. Legally of course.
I get where you're coming from, but I REALLY DON'T WANT TO. I don't want to be in a household that owns guns. I don't want to live in a country where a bunch of jackoff morons with masturbation-induced erectile dysfunction own personal armories the size of a small garrison. It's so fucking depressing how feckless Democrats have been on gun stuff, and it's even more depressing to think about the only real option being Arm The Left.
As I said in my (admittedly tl;dr) comment, if that is the position you hold, THAT IS OKAY! Taking up a firearm when you know you don't have the desire to utilize it is abjectly pointless. It's not your lane, you have a different thing that you are able to contribute to the movement - DO THAT THING in a place or for a group that needs it but is lacking it!
I hate guns too. Always have but I see no path forward that doesn't include being heavily armed. I live in a virulently right-wing, gun nut heavy spot within a blue state. The white ppl here are sure as fuck armed for the boogaloo uprising. I'm going to meet that.
The malheur guys lost their shit when they couldn't get french vanilla creamer. All these guys are massively overcompensating for shortcomings. They've been shooting at people with water bottles and maybe plywood shields. Sounds like the protestors in Kenosha are getting smarter, they had guns they just didn't use them.
IN THE LEGS OF COURSE, with live rounds. Which isn't incitement or anything, since it's the platform of the Democratic Presidential candidate espoused on national TV.
With the Symbionese Liberation Army as its excuse, hundreds of police departments in the nation created SWAT teams. When the first War on Iraq occurred, Hill & Knowlton - a PR firm - manufactured 'truth' to sell it. A Hill & Knowlton exec became the Pentagon spokeswoman selling the second War on Iraq.
Along the way, media reports were compartmentalized. They had to be 'embedded with military units to limit access to what they were allowed to see. FISA Courts came into being after the first one. The Patriot Act came into being after 9/11. Both major parties at the Senate level and above consented to this.
Torture - previously constrained some by the Geneva Convention - become common and openly defended. A secret gulag was created that extended all over the world, not just at Guantanamo. A special extra-judicial system of permanent detention was created for those given the label of stateless terrorist.
Excess Military equipment was then given to police departments far in excess of any real policing needs.
All the structures exist common to fascism. The kids in cages helps normalize it.
So it should be no surprise about the purpose and intents. There's nothing pro-life involved.
And the pandemic has further normalized the acceptance of hundreds of thousands of collateral damage victims.
In America, we live in an extremely violent society. Some leaders are openly fascist. Others prefer not to use all the tools at their command but understand how to, should they deem it 'necessary' to contain civil unrest.
Some legislative evidence that may back your argument.
I live in Illinois 16th District and our Republican House representative and rabid National Guardsman co-sponsored H.R. 38 'Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 19'. I wrote him about it (taxpayers footing the bill for liability purposes kinda pissed me off), but he doesn't give a shit let alone read any correspondence from his constituents. Him, Gaetz and Crenshaw are the bro-downs from hell.
We win in the long run by creating a society that doesn't value, accommodate, and incentivize Fascist power-hoarding and -wielding. A society that values and prioritizes Community wellness and success over Individual gain and triumph. The protests and the calls for Defunding and Abolishing the violence-driven carceral police state, and the conversations these are stimulating, are a real positive step in working toward that. The desire and the Will is absolutely there in the populace, but it is being purposefully, systematically derailed and hampered by the people that presently hold great power (most principally FINANCIAL power) over the masses. No species that is at the point of being relegated by Evolution simply goes away without putting up a frenzied fight.
In the immediacy, the problem, yes, is that we have in our populace a sizable element of violent, zealous extremists with whom there is no path for discussion or diplomacy, and deescalation is an impossible task. They WANT a fight to the death - they LUST for it. And to meet this challenge, there has to be some contingent of people that are willing to step forward and take that fight that cannot be avoided or escaped head-on. That doesn't, though, require EVERYONE to take up a firearm or weapon of some sort, and in fact, to try to force that position on people who are completely adverse to it is COUNTER-productive - you don't MAKE a person a fighter by just putting a weapon in their hand and saying "get in there" when they have no Will for it.
I am a person willing, practiced, and prepared to be a fighter - a shield between those who are not and these people that want to see their blood fill the streets. What people like me need is for everyone else to identify what THEIR skill and lane is, and work in THAT. The work of a Revolution is not JUST fighting, it requires an entire SUPPLY NETWORK. There needs to be medical helpers, there needs to be people that provide food and water, there needs to be people that can provide shelter to the needy, there needs to be people that can provide financial support, there needs to be people that know how to engage against the court system, there needs to be people that handle organizing, logistics, etc etc - there are SO many different angles that this problem MUST be approached from, not just ONE! But what is MOST important is that at least EVERY PERSON be willing to courageously SPEAK OUT the weariness we have all suffered under this broken system, and declare a desire to take a new, completely different approach to how we view and respond to societal ills, in ways that embrace Dignity, Empathy, Understanding, Compassion, Appreciation, Encouragement, Love. And ultimately, to withdraw their acceptance and consent for the continuance of this broken, predatory system of malice and wickedness.
Leaning into the notion of a mass firefight is playing directly into the state of affairs THEY want to fight on. WE have to create a state of affairs that their desired position is untenable, unviable, unachievable. They can't just start openly gunning people down in the streets or their homes and be able to try to lay claim to a mantle of legitimacy. Yes, I understand that the Police have been doing PRECISELY this, but that has only been possible because of State Power being willing to both fund and turn a blind eye to it as it upholds their personal positions, and we are seeing the veneer of duplicity and complicity begin to fade. We have found an opportunity to call the bluff for what it has always been and there be no more dark corners for them to hide in. A mandate to govern can only be derived from the consent of the people living under it; that consent is finally being withdrawn in masses, and accountability and change not just being asked for, but DEMANDED. "Government OF the people, BY the people, FOR the people." WE are the people that make this country what it is and what it can be - not the leach oppressors who take up and exploit the work we do to live lives the rest of us could only ever dream of.
As I said in the beginning, we are not going to get out of this until EACH person decides to start finding ways to elevate and sow into the success and well-being of the Whole more than our own tiny lives. There is SOME way in which YOU CAN get involved! THAT is the work - the DAILY work - of being part of a collective.
Nobody is helpless, and in fact, each and every person is exceedingly important and desperately needed right now.
One huge part of the gunner fantasy you mention is GEAR GEAR GEAR. The kid's wearing a 5.11 tactical shirt in the photo. His AR-15 is pretty basic, but obviously, he's been brought up in the community. So much of our gun culture points back to the military-industrial complex figuring out that it could make a pretty penny by selling tacticool garbage to individuals. Just take a look at right-wing Instagram and you'll see it: everybody wants to look like a spec ops action hero. It was only a matter of time before their warped internal psychosis started bleeding out into the real world.
Neverending war always finds its way back from the imperial periphery to the imperial core. Profits must be made and minorities must be suppressed you see
one pretty weird example of this is how the industry has grown from pretty standard tactical accouterments to t-shirts and morale patches. stuff like this: https://www.gruntstyle.com/products/commie-killer
3XL is sold out. Dying 🤣
Spent a year sailing down your Eastern seaboard. Never again. I do not need to see armed, small fucked men in grocery stores. When I sail back to Canada my provisioning a fueling stops will be the Bahamas then Bermuda. Honestly, I feel safer in third world countries than I did in the United States.
The left/progressives better start getting armed. The right will not deescalate and with the open melding of State security forces + militias they will become more emboldened to enact State sanctioned violence on all fronts.
No one is going to save us but ourselves. And realistically since we are vastly outgunned this is probably not going to end well. But still..if you can id recommend buying weapons. Legally of course.
I get where you're coming from, but I REALLY DON'T WANT TO. I don't want to be in a household that owns guns. I don't want to live in a country where a bunch of jackoff morons with masturbation-induced erectile dysfunction own personal armories the size of a small garrison. It's so fucking depressing how feckless Democrats have been on gun stuff, and it's even more depressing to think about the only real option being Arm The Left.
As I said in my (admittedly tl;dr) comment, if that is the position you hold, THAT IS OKAY! Taking up a firearm when you know you don't have the desire to utilize it is abjectly pointless. It's not your lane, you have a different thing that you are able to contribute to the movement - DO THAT THING in a place or for a group that needs it but is lacking it!
I hate guns too. Always have but I see no path forward that doesn't include being heavily armed. I live in a virulently right-wing, gun nut heavy spot within a blue state. The white ppl here are sure as fuck armed for the boogaloo uprising. I'm going to meet that.
Yea but then again:
https://mobile.twitter.com/lukeoneil47/status/1284611106204459010
The malheur guys lost their shit when they couldn't get french vanilla creamer. All these guys are massively overcompensating for shortcomings. They've been shooting at people with water bottles and maybe plywood shields. Sounds like the protestors in Kenosha are getting smarter, they had guns they just didn't use them.
Next time just shoot the fat little twerp.
https://www.kptv.com/news/local/police-confirm-identity-of-man-killed-in-downtown-portland-shooting/article_b6f54e1e-ebd2-11ea-9b46-77ddf1e4e3f4.html
Fuck yeah. Dunno how I missed that till now. Looks like the Tac Gear cosplay doesn't do a whole hell of a lot does it.
IN THE LEGS OF COURSE, with live rounds. Which isn't incitement or anything, since it's the platform of the Democratic Presidential candidate espoused on national TV.
Alex, thank you. I wasn't aware of this.
With the Symbionese Liberation Army as its excuse, hundreds of police departments in the nation created SWAT teams. When the first War on Iraq occurred, Hill & Knowlton - a PR firm - manufactured 'truth' to sell it. A Hill & Knowlton exec became the Pentagon spokeswoman selling the second War on Iraq.
Along the way, media reports were compartmentalized. They had to be 'embedded with military units to limit access to what they were allowed to see. FISA Courts came into being after the first one. The Patriot Act came into being after 9/11. Both major parties at the Senate level and above consented to this.
Torture - previously constrained some by the Geneva Convention - become common and openly defended. A secret gulag was created that extended all over the world, not just at Guantanamo. A special extra-judicial system of permanent detention was created for those given the label of stateless terrorist.
Excess Military equipment was then given to police departments far in excess of any real policing needs.
All the structures exist common to fascism. The kids in cages helps normalize it.
So it should be no surprise about the purpose and intents. There's nothing pro-life involved.
And the pandemic has further normalized the acceptance of hundreds of thousands of collateral damage victims.
In America, we live in an extremely violent society. Some leaders are openly fascist. Others prefer not to use all the tools at their command but understand how to, should they deem it 'necessary' to contain civil unrest.
Some legislative evidence that may back your argument.
I live in Illinois 16th District and our Republican House representative and rabid National Guardsman co-sponsored H.R. 38 'Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 19'. I wrote him about it (taxpayers footing the bill for liability purposes kinda pissed me off), but he doesn't give a shit let alone read any correspondence from his constituents. Him, Gaetz and Crenshaw are the bro-downs from hell.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/38?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22H.R.+38%22%5D%7D&s=1&r=1
The Democrats are just *falling over* themselves to stop it too.