I’ve posted it before but the way to get “media attention” is to be controversial and a bit shameless
Republicans are great at this. “Ban immigrants”, “all weapons should be permanently legal for everyone”, “ban abortion in all cases”, “ban gays”, these extreme messages are embraced by the party. Algorithms pick up on content that is engaged upon. People engage on this content regardless of their viewpoint. Even if you hate these views you are more likely to click and view out of rage, to comment your disbelief and to say “fuck this stupid bullshit”
Democrats are terrible at this. They abhor the controversial messaging from the left. They embrace weak messaging that sinks like “maybe some mild economic reform”. They embrace weak counter messaging like “gay people are actually valid”, “abortion should be left alone”, “maybe regulate guns a little” and then it gets trampled by right wing commenters and voices.
They need to embrace the right wing formula, frankly. “90% tax bracket for income over 10 million dollars”, “state funded abortion mills”, “ban all guns”, “mandatory lgbt education in public schools”, “death penalty for oligarchs”, etc. stop softening the message because you’re worried about alienating 4% of old white voters. It’s clearly not working
Well for one it’s a bit of hyperbole, to a degree.
I’m legally blind and back I became legally blind the state pulled my drivers license. This is something that can happen in 13 states
However, I can still purchase a gun. Granted, legally blind doesn’t mean “without vision”. I can actually still see quite a bit. I still play videogames, read books, work, etc. However, I could be completely darkness blind, like no vision whatsoever, and I am still legally allowed to buy a gun.
Back when I had a reddit account I posted this anecdote as a joke and got dozens of replies about how “of course I should be able to buy a gun” despite not having the fucking prerequisite of fucking VISION. Several of them pointed me to some blind YouTuber who had a channel about being blind and shooting guns and owning guns
Like I am technically disabled. I work with the disabled, I work for the disabled. But the huge number of people who immediately jump on me to immediately reject the idea of any kind of regulation that would suggest someone who literally cannot see the world they are aiming a lethal weapon at shouldn’t have access to it make me think that the hyperbole isn’t that far off
And for the record I actually do own a gun. Well my household does, technically. I don’t use it, obviously, but my partner is trained to do so. We both abhor guns but are of the opinion that “pandoras box has been opened” so to speak. If shit hits the fan we need to be able to defend ourselves and guns beat pretty much everything else we could possibly do. If real legislation, reform,and regulation came through I would be extremely happy to be rid of it. It is a cancer on our home.