this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2023
586 points (100.0% liked)

196

16441 readers
1674 users here now

Be sure to follow the rule before you head out.

Rule: You must post before you leave.

^other^ ^rules^

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
top 28 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 80 points 1 year ago (1 children)

These are the people that keep taking funding from education and put it towards more guns.

I can’t possibly lower my expectations any further.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not opposed to guns, but the idea of a less educated population having more of them doesn't quite sit right with me.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Neh. The stupid people are getting way too many of them and will use tragedies to justify owning them.

How many more mass shootings need to happen before it’s finally too much? And a good guy with a gun is not the answer. The Uvalde police had guns but that didn’t change anything.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Cops are not "good guys". They have a duty to protect property, not life.

Plus they're the only job where they can refuse to hire you for being too smart.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

they can refuse to hire you for being too smart

wait what? like, this is completely on brand, but who the fuck thought this was a good idea?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's irrelevant. If firearms were outlawed tomorrow it wouldn't stop mass shootings.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

While it wouldn't stop them entirely, saying it's irrelevant is completely wrong. There's enough data out there from countries not buried in gun violence to prove there would be a difference.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Sure, it might have made an impact in other countries, but there are over 300 million guns in the US. That's almost 1 gun per living human in the country. In the event of a firearms ban those guns don't just go away, they go underground. The black market for firearms in an America where guns are outlawed would be massive and easily accessible, so I think the mass shooting angle of this argument is actually pretty irrelevant.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What makes America different from other nations that didn't spring up a massive black market for guns

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

it's mainly the overwhelming presence of guns prior to the proposed ban on them, and the culture built around them.

besides, how many mass shootings happened on the balkans which are also flush with leftover guns from the yugoslav wars? how many happen in the czech republic where you can legally own and carry firearms similarly to the american system? i'm not even gonna compare it to switzerland because while they have tons of guns, they heavily regulate ammo. something is just deeply broken with the united states and simply banning guns wouldn't fix it.

the real question imo is what drives a person to essentially end their life by shooting up some place? because whether you end up shot to death on sight, paralyzed, or simply stuck behind bars, that's the end of the road. a society that pushes people to do something this drastic will not stop being problematic if you just take the drastic tool away from people. they'll just stop taking roughly one other innocent person with them when they snap (which is the average if you consider a mass shooting as anything that injures 4+ people, which is the criterion by which the often cited "one mass shooting per day" works), which is, yes, an improvement, but it only masks the underlying problem.

i know "it's a mental health issue" is a right wing dogwhistle but that's because the statement is stupid, because it falls for the standard conservative bullshit of positing there are no systemic issues, just bad people. this is absolutely systemic. if predestined "bad people" in this sense existed there is no reason they'd be born at a vastly higher frequency in the united states than elsewhere.

the answer is likely deeply rooted in economic inequality and the total lack of a social safety net. which is probably why anti-gun rhetoric is pushed by rich organizations, and is therefore allowed to permeate mainstream culture and isn't stuck on the sidelines like right to repair or privacy legislations. not because it is actually a good solution but because it is cheaper than addressing the root cause. which would be ensuring people always have something to lose, like they have in all the other countries where we see different effects.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I hate this argument, that criminal people sonehow have the ability to do anything anywhere unhindered by everything, and so making laws will only cause more crimes. It is the same type of thinking when people say "masks don't work", 90% efficacy is WORTH HAVING.

It is asinine. Making laws and properly enforcing them would absolutely reduce mass shootings. Some people certainly could still purchase unregistered guns illegally, but it would be a small fraction of the people who would/will do it under our current laws.

[–] [email protected] 77 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Pick one? They all look like red flags to me. 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

All flags are black when they burn 🏴

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you imply they are commies?

[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 year ago

Confederacy lasted 4 years. Star Trek lasted more than 50.

The United Federation of Planets is more my heritage than some slack jaw redneck slavers.

Also I know some people rep the confed flag cuz "I'm a rebel" well um maybe use the flag of the OG rebels aka The United States? Or the black flag🏴‍☠️ that's cooler.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago

“I don’t get all choked up about yellow ribbons and American flags. I consider them to be symbols and I leave symbols to the symbol minded.” — George Carlin

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago

white supremacy loadout

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago

Racist losers

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago

top one is an american flag. a bit cliche and redundant but nothing wrong with that one. or at least, would be nothing wrong, had you just flown that by itself.

the second one is a heinous crime against the very concept of vexillology. beyond F-. a toddler could redraw the flag of wisconsin using mismatched leftover crayons from the MRE of your cousin at the marines and it would look official than this bullshit. do not ever desecrate a flagpole again with that crap. what the fuck do you think this is, a linustechtips video with sponsor spots?

the third one outright violates the US flag code. i don't know what the hell your goal was but unless it was to make a mockery of the country, this ain't it. there is no blue line in the american flag there and there is no black anywhere in it -- are you a pirate? is that what you're trying to say? are you trying to establish the united states as an estonian colony? are you dividing what the original flag declares as indivisible? do you just hate delaware? this is the flag equivalent of a one hour business presentation by middle management: technically coherent and rich in vocabulary but completely devoid of any meaning. i guess it's better than the billboard above but you managed to underperform the average minecraft banner. D for not breaking the basic rules and nothing else.

the fourth one is outright treason, especially with the american flag on top, and the pretendo-american above. i mean why the fuck are you flying the flags of two nations that were at war the last time both of them existed? are you just an edgelord who likes to play both sides? or are you serious about staging a coup, which is what your flags communicate? pick a side already, you're not switzerland.

and the fifth one is a cheap knockoff. it's extremely disrespectful to take the no step on snek flag and change the motto on it. plus your font choice suggests you made that in MS word. what the hell. this was a fun, albeit at best C+ tier flag that you managed to shove down to D- category through seriousposting some moronic crap.

overall, this flag pole conveys nothing but ignorance. are you an enemy of the united states, mocking its flag (#3) and flying the flag of its enemies (#4), or are you an american patriot (#1)? what the actual fuck is that ad break in #2? and pay up for the og flags, don't be cheap.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

So many flags, the only thing they’ve picked is a supreme race

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"Don't tread on me" for them always refers exclusively to the oppression from the federal government - especially towards state government, and not specifically people. Oppression from state government might as well not exist for them

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Oppression to them simply means that they can't control their irrational anger and that's somehow gay people's fault.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

You don't understand it's about history. Stop trying to revise my family's contribution to the American confederacy. They are more American than a bunch of liberals like you! /S

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Trump flag is also a contradiction of the american flag

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I have a friend who flies both a Black Lives Matter flag and the Thin Blue Line flag. He thinks he can support both. shrug

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

"my ideology is racism. which type you ask? All."

load more comments
view more: next ›