• raccoona_nongrata@beehaw.org
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    11 months ago

    Guns are not a political tool. The only people who want an armed insurrection in the US are outside entities like the Kremlin or CCP because they know it would be catastrophic for the US.

    For progressives to abandon every principle they espouse and start using violence as a political tool and direct threat would mean the very last nail in the coffin. You think progressives have a hard time convincing Americans of their policies now? Wait until some progressive shoots a MAGA chud. It won’t matter if it’s in self-defense, it will just make people more certain that progressives are “just as extreme” as the MAGA lunatics and push people towards the non-existent center.

    The left has “fostered a hatred of guns” because everyone idiot on the street has one and we get yearly kindergarten shootings. People see very, very clearly that gun violence only degrades our safety and democratic institutions, not builds them up.

    • NattyNatty2x4@beehaw.org
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      11 months ago

      Guns are not a political tool.

      They absolutely are and pretending they’re not is stupid. They’re a last resort, but they’re still a tool that needs to be on the table if worst comes to worse. Soap box, ballot box, jury box, ammo box.

      For progressives to abandon every principle they espouse and start using violence as a political tool and direct threat would mean the very last nail in the coffin.

      Please, I’m engaging this conversation in good faith so don’t take my words out of context. I am not encouraging the use of violence out of hand and I think you know that. I’m encouraging a healthy respect for a tool of last resort, and a deterrent against things progressing to the point where we want to use that last resort. Armed but peaceful protests often result in less violence from the cops and alt right counter protesting, because at the end of the day they see disarmament as an invitation for violence.

      There’s a reason that if you go far enough left, you start to get your guns back. Some people still understand that right wingers and the elite would prefer fascists and genocide to losing control.