Debate about Gun Control

[Eric the Green]

(10-17-2017, 04:05 PM)noway2 Wrote: Your list makes me proud to live in a state that got a D- and as a pejorative, it's not so affectionately called "The California of the South".

I really, I mean really, hope this country Balkanizes into at least a "red" zone and a "blue" zone and the sooner the better.  I will gladly take freedom over your government and taxes; you say the blue zones are so much better off for it, but all it sounds like to me is stealing from productive people under the threat of force to give to the fat, lazy, and ignorant.

Must be North Carolina, since that's the only state on the coast in the South that got that grade. Fortunately, it's a purple state, and its people have not fully decided which way to go. But the state certainly has some of the most adamant and tyrannical Republican right-wing assholes in the country. And many more people die from guns, crime, suicide and accidents, all in the name of "freedom" and "the right to bear arms." Yes, I'm with you, I think. Break-up of the country into red and blue zones might be what we need so that the blue states can move forward, while the red states stew in their own resentment, intolerance and backward thinking and have to live with the results without us having to pay to rescue you constantly. Meanwhile, I don't think California is going to be known as "The Carolina of the West." We are better than that.

Well, that's the meme, and the slogan; yes. If your government imposes taxes on you, it's only to give to fat, lazy and ignorant people (and many would go on to say, or imply covertly, the black, brown, yellow, red people). But buying into this slogan, as red states do, means that you lose out on the benefits of taxation and government programs. The results are pretty clear, overall, that quality of life declines in those states. And you don't have any protection from the boss if (s)he decides one day that you aren't "productive" enough, and fires you. Or if Wall Street decides to gamble away everyone's wealth and economy and imposes a great recession upon us, and millions lose their jobs through no fault of their own. 

In a red state that resents "stealing from productive people under the threat of force to give to the fat, lazy, and ignorant," you are on your own in these situations. And meanwhile, you probably got inferior education, and now you can't afford healthcare, your environment is deadly, products you buy at the store are unsafe, your streets are full of potholes, your bridges are falling down, your drug epidemic is beyond cure, your prisons are full and expensive anyway, your freedom is impaired by the religious right, and many more gun deaths, massacres of innocent people and violence generally happens; just a bitchy, unsafe state with no hope and no cheer; that's what red states mostly are. That's the results of your people's resentment against "stealing from productive people under the threat of force to give to the fat, lazy, and ignorant."

And it's clearly the uneducated (and thus "ignorant") who vote for these Republicans in red states, and who disparage education and want to reserve it for the rich and strip it of all meaning and value. So, who's "ignorant"? I say, it's those who resent "stealing from productive people under the threat of force to give to the fat, lazy, and ignorant."

But thanks for your views; it's good to have alternatives on this board to mine and other liberals. I don't mind at all   

After all, your phrase "stealing from productive people under the threat of force to give to the fat, lazy, and ignorant" couldn't be a better example of the ideas that are wrong in America today! It makes my point very well.