Monday, August 05, 2019

What Does the Right Say?


The Right says young white men murdering people in mass quantities is the fault of the Left -- because we're pro-choice, which teaches young men that killing is okay.

The Right says it's because young white men are "bullied" in school.

The Right says it's because of video games.

The Right says it's because young men are "devalued" in society.

The Right says it's because young women won't date these specific young men.

The Right says it's because "family" has been "corrupted" (I bet you can guess by who).

The Right says it's because women have jobs.

The Right says it's because immigrants have robbed young white men of the belief that their culture (the culture where all Americans are white men) is the culture of America.

The Right says it's because of cell phones.

The Right says it's because of feminists.

The Right says it's because of public schools.

The Right says it's because of Satan.

The Right says it's because of the Left.

The Right says it's because of porn.

I mean, guns don't shoot people. Porn shoots people.






3 comments:

kablammeaux said...

Hi-

I've been following your blog through Inoreader since I read and admired a story of yours in MF&SF.

I read this post when it first went up and have found it rattling around in my head since then. I come from a loving conservative family but personally identify as center-left. I've voted democratic since 2000.

I think the bogeyman version of the conservative argument against increased gun control in the US that you evoke in this list really misses the point. The 2nd Amendment is unambiguous in its language: "Congress shall make no law..." If we can, without amending the Constitution, decide to simply ignore the 2nd Amendment, then why can't we decide to ignore the 1st or the 5th or the 14th or any of the others that provide protections we actually like?

I would get behind an effort to repeal the 2nd Amendment, because it would give the federal government legitimate authority to fix this problem. But without enacting an additional amendment to repeal the 2nd, I will remain much more frightened of measures that might erode the authority of the Bill of Rights than I will of being affected by a mass shooting. As Neils DeGrasse Tyson pointed out, on the day of the El Paso shooting there were 200 suicides in the US that didn't make headlines because they were unspectacular. If we're going to advocate for change, why shouldn't start by addressing the much more statistically significant mental health crisis in this country?

delagar said...


Hi, Sean,

Welcome to the blog!

I definitely don't think we should repeal, or ignore the 2nd Amendment. I'm a gun owner myself.

On the other hand, I do think plenty of people ignore the "well-regulated" part of that amendment. We've already decided, as a nation, that we can pass some laws regarding what weapons people can own and where they can bear those weapons. (Try taking a machine gun into your local courthouse, for instance.)

But my post wasn't about gun control, though I guess I can understand why it came off that way. It was pointed at White Nationalism and the racist panic being stoked by White Nationalists in general and Trump specifically.

It's true that it's easier to slaughter dozens of people with AK-47s. But as Timothy McVeigh showed us, hate will find a way.

delagar said...


BTW -- every one of those "The Right says" was from an actual RW blog or tweet I saw last week, sadly enough. :(