Danny Boy
Rock n' Roll Doggie FOB
Just read the transcript of Trump's speech. Obviously someone convinced him to stick to the script this time. Still empty platitudes, though.
I strongly urge you to read this, which I think is an excellent and full summary of McArdle.If she said that, then it's pretty stupid.
You'll probably disagree with this in general, as someone far to my left - and that's okay. However, on a general note, I actually think that McArdle is a pretty good person to read if you're left-of-center, as a pretty intelligent right-of-center voice. I've been reading her on Bloomberg View for years for that reason. She's no GOP partisan - she comes out very negatively against Trump, and falls closer to Dems on some issues, such as climate change and a lot of social stuff. And a lot of her commentary is not so much anti-left wing economic policy as much as pointing out legitimate tradeoffs in left-right economic debates. Obviously, I disagree with her on plenty of things, and I think that some of what she says is not only wrong but clearly so (e.g. the aforementioned gun thing).
However, given the drivel that most of the American right-wing spits out nowadays, I think she's a pretty good voice for understanding generally-conservative arguments. Maybe you [general usage of the word "you"] don't want to do that, and that's okay. But, in my mind, the American right isn't going away any time soon, and I'd rather read someone like McArdle than, like, watch Fox News, in order to have an idea of conservative thought. And hopefully be challenged by it, even if I don't normally come to agree with it. Full disclosure that I consider myself moderate to center-left, but fall into the camp of never even considering voting for Republicans due to their general disconnect from reality.
As I said on the last page, that is not Nikolas Cruz wearing that shirt. That is the picture that InfoWars circulated yesterday before the dust settled to convince people it was Antifa-related. This tweet thread is a good summary of what InfoWars has done:I saw the pic of this murdering shitbird with the "communist" shirt, and it made me sad.
A good friend of mine has that same shirt, and I always love seeing him wear it because it makes me laugh. Communist party - one has a party hat on, one has a lampshade on his head, they're all drunk, ha ha.
Not anymore. Thanks for killing 17 kids AND also ruining that funny shirt.
upon learning that the shooter wears MAGA hats and was a member of a white supremacist group, Rebecca Solnit posted this on FB:
Also, another lively discussion on Aruna d'Souza's post prompted me to say: I guess what strikes me over and over is the entitlement to take another person's (or many people's) life, and though I don't have answers to how that correlates to the majority of mass shooters being white men (and all but one or two being men), it raises questions I hope we keep discussing. It's also striking to me that in theory guns are available to all of us but in practice the people whose identities are most wrapped up in them and who use them this way are white men and how now there's a whole culture built around it. Or maybe there's an old culture that's now expanding and growing more vicious.....
Of course, guns the weapons causing the killing, and this is a gun thread, but I do wonder if there's something even deeper than that going on.
The way they talk, they're treating this as though it were an action movie and they could ride in to save the day John Wayne-style.
I don't want to take away from the gun discussion, but there is something else going on here which is terrifying - the drive for notoriety. Such crimes are massively reported/filmed/discussed. If you're cruel and insane and want notoriety, this seems to be the best way to achieve that.
Are these people waking up in the morning and deciding they really hate children, and the best thing to do is to kill children? I doubt it. I think they're thinking only about themselves, and their psychotic sense of self grandeur. Where they are the star, they are the protagonist, they are the hero/antihero/lead actor. And the rest of the world doesn't treat them that way. And they can't handle it.
A lot of aspects of the computer revolution 35 years ago have kinda pandered to these personality traits. Social media and gaming are the two I'm thinking of. That ability to surround yourself with what feels like a big, real 'reality' - all the while becoming more and more angry at the rest of the world which still treats you like a nothing.
Of course, guns the weapons causing the killing, and this is a gun thread, but I do wonder if there's something even deeper than that going on.
this is what white heterosexual American men do, though. they save the day with their guns.
haven't you ever been to the movies? they are all capable of taking down shooters with their concealed weapons.
I fully agree that's a factor, too, kiwilad, and your point about social media playing a role makes a lot of sense.
I think that notoriety and your comment about somebody needing to be "the hero" is what drives a lot of the "we need to just arm the good guys" people as well. The way they talk, they're treating this as though it were an action movie and they could ride in to save the day John Wayne-style.
That shit is so frustrating. Yeah...arm all the teachers. Then the kid tosses a smoke bomb in a room, some firecrackers, and starts shooting. A bunch of "heroes" pull out guns and shoot the room up, because even weekend warriors can't hit shit in the fog of "war". Now we have 5 guns, confusion, and SWAT coming on site to shoot anything that looks like a gunman.
A fucking Tarrantino fever dream.
The "hero"...so fucking stupid.
The Washington Post hired Megan McArdle this week, who famously said we should not ban guns, but should rather train children to gang rush shooters in schools. I shit you not.
Democracy dies in darkness.
All indications are that this Cruz customer is a white nationalist who liked Trump, said he wanted to kill Antifa, and was extremely anti-Muslim. But MAGA Twitter found a photo of a young Hispanic-looking man in a Communist T-shirt and have convinced themselves a) it's him and b) he's an Antifa communist Muslim. I guess because his name is Cruz and MAGA chuds would have no earthly idea about the prevalence of white people in Spain.
The New York Times is not much better, although their hiring and subsequent firing of Quinn Norton was hilarious.
People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, but I'm fucking throwing them anyway. Fuck your sick, twisted, disgusting country.
People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, but I'm fucking throwing them anyway. Fuck your sick, twisted, disgusting country.
Fix your gun laws before you abuse me
I have zero argument against this.People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, but I'm fucking throwing them anyway. Fuck your sick, twisted, disgusting country.