I know

Elderly White man out to suppress people.

I thought it was a misandry and racism thread, but seems as though could be gunz too.

I don't know.

got out of it.

Lot of that going around on DU lately.

'some driver' to 'all drivers'. I haven't seen that happening in the pie wars on site. Once you've qualified it with 'some', there generally is no way to make that particular misinterpretation of the speaker's intent.

That leaves it open to the misinterpretation that gets you into the whole 'some/all' back and forth.

"Why are you so mad?"

"I watched on the news. Someone got deliberately run over by a crazy driver."

"Oh, that's sad. Does anyone know why?"

"He was a psychotic, under diagnosis. He also killed three of his six victims with a bicycle."

"Well maybe we can make it so that psychotics are watched more closely. Give courts the ability to take away the keys or something."

"SCREW YOU, YOU DRIVER! YOU'RE RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS!!!!"

"Wait. What?!?"

"OH, AND YOU'RE MALE TOO. THE PSYCHOTIC WAS MALE. HE HATED WOMEN. JUST LIKE YOU."

"I don't follow. Yes, there are quite a few asshole men out there, but that doesn't mean all..."

"OF COURSE NOT BECAUSE YOU HATE ALL WOMEN!!!!!"


There. Much more analogous to the arguments I've seen.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

If this post is an example of the "Reality Based Community" including the hyperbole, false equivalence and the screaming, then no, I'm pleased I am NOT a part of that "Reality Based Community", thank you very much.

In the real world there are tests & licenses & laws & restrictions & checks & balances in place to ensure bad drives don't drive, and to stop them from driving if they do. And every car enthusiasts club and association, and every car manufacturer approves of & promotes them.

There aren't such in place in the real world for bad gun owners. And nearly every gun enthusiasts club and association, and every gun manufacturer disapproves of the & fights against any suggestion of them.

tests, and licenses, and laws. And cops get far more training than most. They pulled the plug on the kid a few hours ago, never regained consciousness.

Sheriff said he had right of way with a green light, but then they always have an excuse when they kill an innocent citizen who hasn't done anything. I don't think his right of way extends to 60 fucking miles an hour on a city street with no emergency equipment in the dark. Kid didn't stand a chance.

They said the cop was shaken up.

RIP Ryan Holyk

Laws and rules and tests and restrictions are no better than the people who choose to obey them. Or not.

You don't have to. Just look at what the minority of Americans with guns have done.

instead of letting little boys build up an army that squishes the occasional innocent citizen as nearly always excusable.

That whole line about how much worse it would be if it wasn't for keeping the ass clowns at the top well fed, whether it is banksters or cops or politicians, has lost any ring of truth for me.

Guns don't scare me. Bad ideas scare me, lack of thought and flimsy evidence scare me. Self-righteous citizens on their big white horse looking down at everyone who doesn't conform to their vision of a perfect world don't scare me, they just bore me.

Guns are just a symptom, and a convenient one for some. There are too many, but the fight is about ego (on both sides), not about healing the culture.

What an armed society is, is a fearful one. And it certainly isn't a free society. It's a fear that the RW gun-hugging nutbags of the world carefully nurture & exploit.

I grew up in an armed society which wasn't particularly fearful partly because they had jobs because the government was structured to help them more than bankers so they didn't have to be so scared, until it was made this way by those who we continue to let run the plantation. The increase in guns is a symptom of that, not a cause.

"I saved a thousand slaves. I could have saved a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves" - Harriet Tubman knew it to be true then, and it is true now. One could take all the guns and this still wouldn't be a free society. We are aren't chained by our guns, (well, some of the gun and anti-gun "nutbags" choose to be), and we aren't chained by our chains.

We are chained by our minds, and the first place we have to set ourselves free is there. If one ignores that and tries to leap on past like so many do, they wind up working very hard for very little return. And they will likely be the next target of that fear, and should be.

What needs work is what's broken in the culture. We need to know why the stories we learned from were the bad ones, and how that gets fixed. When it does, without a law, and without firing a shot the guns will simply begin to gather dust, because they won't be needed as the crutch many seem to think they are. How many people have you seen healed from a broken leg who insist on walking with a cane after they no longer need one?

Without that all most of the activity I see on both sides is simply ego stroking, and I don't care to waste much time on it.

and how, since you weren't the shooter (or "the driver&quot it's just somebody else's problem and part of the price we all just have to pay, because, freedom.

The conversation is thorough. Gun restrictionists just aren't getting much of what they want.

But then again, misogyny, racism, and gun love do tend to travel together.

But I suppose there are other ways to interpret the graphic.

And as someone utterly opposed to guns, who would cheerfully see them taken away, I very much get the point that not all gun owners kill, just as well as not all car owners ever run over someone.

Excellent.

Too many people just won't take responsibility for their action; it's gotten so bad that a lot of people now pre-emptively try to come up with alibies/excuses - just in case.

Notice the thought of helping the victim does not come up!

-Laelth

Avoid binary thinking. Qualifying words like "some" have meaning and are important.

Read carefully.

And if you are like me and don't read every thread on DU every day, you might miss the context (white / male privilege discussions) though I got this one. I do wish people would include context!

But I felt the cartoon could stand on its own. A good point, though.

It really restricts a person's freedom and injures their sense of independence. We have an elderly relative who suffered multiple strokes. Of all the problems this has caused him, losing driving privileges is the one he gets most upset about.

And drivers don't even have a Constitutional Amendment to call their own.

something I'd read in a magazine or heard on TV (this was before the Internet) and the subject was something the listener didn't think positively about, I would get yelled at or ridiculed for "believing something that stupid."

Example:
Me--I read in BlahBlah magazine that (scientific fact/theory).
Other person--That's stupid. Why would you believe something that stupid?
Me--I didn't say I believed it. I just said I read it.
Other person--Of course, you believe it. Why would you tell me if you didn't believe it?

I noticed this pattern and didn't understand it, so I made sure I chose my words carefully the next time I volunteered some info on something I read. Same results. My mind didn't work that way, because I understand the ability to be aware of a concept without believing it. However, I learned some people (and in my socio-economic class it was many) weren't able to do this.

To this day, I find it baffling.

that sounds like every conversation I've ever had with my parents (obviously I'm not the 'other person' in this conversation, lol).

Some people just don't want to think about anything that doesn't pertain to them. Ever. And they have no clue why you would (because it's not what they would do) so in their minds, you must believe it pertains to you or your beliefs. I don't get it either. I think it ties in with a bit of narcissism myself. It's super frustrating.

killing more people than guns ever will. Even when you calculate gun deaths in war they don't come close to the number of people killed by automobiles.

people, but it was just this one particular driver, not representative of all drivers, nor am I intending to disrespect or judge all drivers as a group -- ran over me."