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Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956
Guns are not a part of the culture of my homeland, except perhaps for the occasional Bollywood movie in which the bad guy meets his demise staring down the wrong end of a barrel.
My childhood in India was steeped in ahimsa, the tenet of nonviolence toward all living things.
The Indians may have succeeded in ousting the British, but we won with Gandhian-style civil disobedience, not a revolutionary war.
I grew up not knowing a single gun owner, and even today India has one of the strictest gun laws on the planet. Few Indians buy and keep firearms at home, and gun violence is nowhere near the problem it is in the United States. An American is 12 times more likely than an Indian to be killed by a firearm, according to a recent study.
It's no wonder then that every time I visit India, my friends and family want to know more about America's "love affair" with guns.
I get the same questions when I visit my brother in Canada or on my business travels to other countries, where many people remain perplexed, maybe even downright mystified, by Americans' defense of gun rights.
I admit I do not fully understand it myself, despite having become an American citizen nearly a decade ago. So when I learn the National Rifle Association is holding its annual convention here in Atlanta, right next to the CNN Center, I decide to go and find out more.
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/28/world/indian-immigrant-nra-convention/index.html
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday May 04 2017, @03:21PM (13 children)
A classic example of disagreement is the climate change debate. I'm strongly against strong global warming mitigation for a variety of reasons. But it is interesting how people repeatedly assume that means I don't believe in anthropogenic global warming at all. They can't even perceive that there's huge differences in opinion among the opposition and thus, don't have a clue about the basis for disagreement. I guess that's what happens when someone stumbles out of their echo chamber and runs into someone with a different opinion. All they've seen to this point are straw men.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Thursday May 04 2017, @06:04PM (12 children)
While I think it wouldn't be that hard for them to understand others, it's cognitive dysfunction from their beliefs that keep them from understanding others.
Many of us do understand the ammosexuals! There has been a nasty sea-change amoungst the gun owners of the United States, most pointedly in the right-wing Republican take over of the NRA. We despise and worry about these crazies precisely because we understand just how crazy they are.
I see it all the time on SN.
You don't say, khallow! Who do you think is the most egregious case of this?
People will post their surprise, sincerely, that I can reason and use logic.
When did this happen, exactly? I am surprised you would say this! Just because you think you are reasonably using logic does not entail that you actually are.
But the difference was that I wasn't disagreeing with them on that subject. Sorry, it's the same person, folks. I didn't suddenly become irrational just because I disagreed with you on something.
True, that. You are irrational all the time! You are unable to recognize your fundamental assumptions, let alone critically evaluate them. So the obvious rebuttal, my dear khallow, is that yes, you are always irrational.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by HiThere on Thursday May 04 2017, @06:18PM (7 children)
Sorry about this, but while your post is technically correct ... please note that ALL people are ALWAYS irrational, EXCEPT when they pay careful attention to logical steps...and often even then.
There are good reasons for this. Logic is slow, and takes a long time to work through, so people normally work on pattern matching, and from initial positions chosen in a non-logical manner...basically based on what you were exposed to when young.
THIS means that lots of different people will have different conclusions than you do when presented with the same evidence in any complex situation. And the conclusions are all "justifiable" from their normal thought processes.
WARNING: Even when one is reasoning carefully, and following precisely logical steps, the conclusions will still depend on the initial axioms, which are usually not known.
I generally presume that people are telling the truth as they see it unless there are good reasons to believe otherwise. It normally seems to work out well. So I believe that she really doesn't understand the fascination with guns. Of course, this is easy for me, because I don't understand it either, even though I can accept it. And I'm usually less worried about their fascination than with their actions, which aren't directly predictable from the fascination.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04 2017, @07:06PM (6 children)
Rational/irrational are not binary states.
Some people are further disconnected from reality than others,
Khallow is regularly found wandering around in the weeds.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04 2017, @08:13PM (2 children)
So easy to sling stones from the safety of anonymity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04 2017, @08:49PM (1 child)
What the parent says!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04 2017, @09:46PM
Yo momma!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday May 05 2017, @06:00AM (2 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 06 2017, @05:15PM (1 child)
Obvious answer: yourself.
On the house ;)
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday May 06 2017, @10:48PM
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday May 04 2017, @10:10PM (1 child)
I think that you got the causation factor fuckingly mixed up.
It's the NRA who took over the... ummm... "right-wing republicans"**, for the simple reason that NRA has money to buy vot... errr.... contribute to the election campaign.
** "right-wing republicans"** - that sounds almost tautological, given that US lacks a "left wing" entirely.
From the perspective of other countries, your electoral choice seems to be between "reactionaries" (republicans) and "conservatives" (democrats)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04 2017, @11:05PM
For decades the NRA used to be in favor of gun control. [salon.com]
That all changed after the civil rights era.
Same thing with abortion. Evangelicals used to be solidly in favor of abortion rights.
That also changed after the civil rights era.
Neither was a coincidence.
The former out of fear of meeting black people, the later because you could no longer officially use racism as a platform to unify the churches, so they needed a new cause to rally around.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by khallow on Friday May 05 2017, @03:11AM (1 child)
You don't say, khallow! Who do you think is the most egregious case of this?
You're in there near the top of the list (only some really crazy people are ahead of you). But for the climate change example, sjames [soylentnews.org] was the latest to make that mistake. I see you gave [soylentnews.org] the concept a spin as well.
Personally, I'm looking forward to your final good bye. I'm sure it'll be quite stirring and just as much a shitting on philosophical thought as your usual fare.
One thing you've never respected is that reasoning takes time. At times, you've indicated a desire for good discourse, and then crapped on anyone (particularly me) who tried. I'm no longer playing the game.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday May 05 2017, @03:23AM
Don't go away, khallow! I enjoy our little talks.
and then crapped on anyone (particularly me) who tried. I'm no longer playing the game.
Don't quit, khallow, try harder! I will wait however long it takes for you to learn to reason!