Double Down Doublespeak
Dear Editor,
The “double-down” lie is a significant ingredient in the deterioration of productive political dialogue. Critical thought has been replaced with the sound bite. The idea is when caught in a lie, DO NOT be contrite; become indignant and repeat the lie and keep repeating it. Today, there are no consequences for lying; ergo a lie is as good as a truth. Somewhere Orwell shakes his head. The lie as a tool to control and manipulate the citizenry is as old as human civilization itself, however with today’s myriad means of dissemination of information and our willful buffet selectivity of data we are, at best, hobbled when it comes to making informed decisions and at worst incapable.
An essay in another local Key West publication’s op-ed page was a sterling example of the doubling down of right wing nonsense. I read with stunned incredulity Thomas Sowell’s diatribe on “gun control zealots” and their lack of factual evidence in making the case for gun control legislation. Mr. Sowell uses the word “zealot” numerous times (9) to drive home his belief that anyone advocating for sane gun laws is a traitorous unbalanced fanatic. He goes on to describe “mountains of data” that gun restriction has no affect on gun death and that “restrictions actually increase gun deaths”. Balderdash.
A few minutes of web searching and you soon discover Mr. Sowell is nothing more than a shill for the highly lucrative gun industry. In reality the mountains of actual data disputes the entire thrust of his essay. Sure, one can find obscure sites that proclaim the virtuousness of guns and their owners, but the consensus from respectable bona fide sources consistently bears out the connection between stricter gun laws and less murder and mayhem. In the real world there are no absolutes. No laws end crime completely, but they sure as hell can reduce it.
It disgusts and saddens me that I have to even write this letter in defense of rational thought.
http://www.businessinsider.com/americas-gun-problem-2015-6
Alex Symington
well, the big lie here is that gun control has anything to do with safety and saving lives, or crime. gun control is, and has historically been about social control. this is true not only here, but around the world. in the U.S. gun control has from its inception been a tool to suppress a class of people. the history of gun control in america has largely been an excercise is oppressing black americans, pure and simple.
and when you see some of the avowed trumpeters of gun control like bloomberg and feinstein running around with armed bodyguards and conceal permits, it’s just another hoax on the american people, and just another distraction as they pick your pocket of yet more of your rights.
now i do not own a firearm, have no interest in owning a firearm, but i also have no interest in being led by the nose by these people into yet another argument for a cause that does not exist.
look, people are people. we are basically the same the world over. yet it is only here that we “have” these mass shootings. why is that? its certainly not the prevalence of guns. there is a military grade weapon in virtually every home in Switzerland yet they have hardly any gun related crime. the only place in the entire world where these mass shootings occur is right here. and we have them a lot.
or do we??
Keysbum, The Swiss analogy is not good. I know Switzerland, have stayed with Swiss, and the general rule is that after serving in the military you can bring your weapon home. Now, what kind of weapon that is I do not know, but those who have their military weapon are intimately known by the authorities and I’m sure, anyone considered a risk would not have such. ciao, PCM
Mr. Grapel, the Swiss are right behind us in terms of per capita gun ownership. and with all due respect, I think we can safely assume that if you bring back your military service weapon, that weapon is of military grade. But that’s beside the point. the Swiss are a gun loving culture and own many more firearms than the one the army provides. my point is that if we accept that people are the same the world over, despite certain obvious cultural and physical differences, the question has to asked why one phenomena is almost unique to one people alone. my argument is that it is not. the gun control issue is no different than the questions of prohibition, the red scare, the war on drugs, the war on poverty, and the war on terror. none of those things were/are as presented by the government. prohibition had nothing to do with temperance, the red scare had nothing to do with the commies, the war on poverty had nothing to do with income inequality or poverty eradication, the war on drugs has of course been a war to proliferate drugs and incarceration, and of course the war on terror is farcical save for the murderous destruction it has wrought. all these mass shootings are as real as 9/11. and if you do not believe that your government and their masters do not engage in these false flags, then there is no hope for you. gun control is just another means to distract you, socialize you, put fear into you, and diminish you and your rights. you cannot honestly believe that your government gives a fig about public safety. police kill far more then these “shootings” but they do nothing. Our government, in our name, wantonly roams the earth killing millions. And you think they are concerned about gun violence here at home?
They are concerned about control.
Believe in that.
Alex, Have you ever heard the expression a “post-truth world”? Welcome to it. I think what happened in Germany during the 1930’s is perhaps the most clinical proof of how twisted “truth” can be, but our country is certainly playing in the Big Leagues with regard to truth distortion. The gun debate is only one example. Health care is another, as is the idea of “socialism” and what it means or is. Most people don’t have the faintest idea that all organized societies have elements of socialism … otherwise they would not be organized societies. And yet, their concept of “truth” gives it a place somewhere below Beelzebub in popularity. Thanks for your efforts Alex, ciao ciao,
Total Gun control exists in Australia where the Government told the BIG LIE that gun control would create a safer environment and then confiscated 640,000 registered firearms from honest citizens and spent $5million destroying them. So how safe is Australia now? Murders up 9%, armed robbery UP 44%. Why does the FBI continue to State that violent crime rates drop in areas where concealed carry is prevalent. Do erasers on pencils cause miss spelled words. Trying to prevent evil by passing laws is a fools folliey. It’s apparent that Governments are one of the two biggest brainwashes on the planet. Guess what’s the other one??
“It’s apparent that Governments are one of the two biggest brainwashes on the planet. Guess what’s the other one??”
Very faulty premises Doc. The two are religion and right wing propaganda, [FOX IOW].
The best cure most likely is Secular Humanism… 🙂 pip
http://secularhumanism.org/index.php/12
Dr. Geno, Wayne LaPierre? Seriously doc, there is a difference between crime statistics and generalized death thru gun use. There is no developed nation anywhere with less gun control and more gun violence than the U.S. … by far!
http://dailycaller.com/2015/10/06/chicago-shootings-reach-2349-this-year-someone-shot-every-2-8-hours/
Someone in Chicago has been shot every 2.84 hours this year for a total of 2,349 shootings during the period of January 1, 2015 to October 6, 2015, according to crime stats published by the Chicago Tribune.
This year, Chicago is expected to eclipse the 2014 milestone of a shooting every 3.38 hours in 2014 with a total victim count of 2,587.
Chicago ranks as one of the most regulated cities in the nation for gun control. Concealed carry is almost nonexistent. To purchase a gun or ammunition requires a Firearm Owners Identification card in the entire state of Illinois, and additionally, a Chicago Firearm Permit – which is required to possess a firearm in Chicago.
Not only are the people heavily regulated in Chicago, but guns are also heavily regulated. Any long gun with a grip protruding from the stock or a firearm with a telescoping stock is prohibited and classified as an “assault weapon.”
Magazines are limited to a 12-round capacity.
Even a spring-powered pellet gun with a muzzle velocity of 700 feet-per-second is classified as a “firearm,” although it does not use gun powder, the component that puts the “fire” in “firearm.”
A stun-gun — a non-lethal device with no projectile — is considered a deadly weapon and cannot be carried for self-defense.
Chicago, for all intents and purposes, is a “gun-free zone.”
But all the state and city regulations associated with firearms in Chicago have failed to produce a safe city, and these are the policies that President Obama and Secretary Clinton wish to extend to the rest of the country.
While saying that “criminals go out-of-state to places where it is easier to obtain guns” is often used to push gun control, it illustrates that criminals ignore gun laws in every state and that onerous access to Second Amendment rights on law abiding citizens doesn’t stop crime.
Clinton’s campaign platform includes a call for federal legislation mandating background checks on all private firearms transfers and sales. Clinton also wants to repeal the “Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.” That law protects firearm manufacturers from lawsuits for negligent use of firearms.
President Obama, through is spokesman Josh Earnest, has announced, “The president has frequently pushed his team to consider a range of executive actions that could more effectively keep guns out of the hands of criminals and others who shouldn’t have access to them. That’s something that is ongoing here.”
Per the president’s policy, Chicago has taken every action “that could more effectively keep guns out of the hands of criminals and others who shouldn’t have access to them.”
Yet the shootings continue to rise.
Alex,
It’s hard sometimes, looking at the effects
of concentrated lies and the Stockholm
Syndrome-ization of so many gullible FOX
viewers, the self-induced paranoia of all
the gun nuts, the preying on the fears of
our older peers.
BUT!
There are the newly aware millennials, Black
Americans and Hispanic Americans who may
begin to vote hugely as a block of progressive
Americans in the next few years.
AND,
As our peers grow older and pass on, possibly
their aging replacements will remember how
things used to be. Maybe a good percentage
of the Evangelicals will become ashamed of
themselves for what they have allowed. No,
I’m not expecting hell to freeze over, [what
with global warming], but neither am I quite
giving up… 😉 pip
Pip, I wish I could be so optimistic. Blacks and Hispanics actually coming out, actually participating, actually learning the issues and voting in their own interest? Woo, that is asking a lot. But hey, that is why I keep writing. Hope … it’s a beautiful thing. ciao, PCM
Keysbum, Conspiracy theories aside (you just don’t convince me), there are some good points made here, mainly having to do with social environment. Before getting into that, regardless of that, the guns that proliferate in Switzerland are well accounted for. That is not the case here. But let’s get back to the environmental thing. Gun control in Switzerland is most likely not as necessary as here due to the socio-economic makeup of the place. It is a nation far less encumbered with marginal places, the kinds of places that breed crime and disorder. America is out of control in this sense, and one of the reasons IS our lack of sensitivity to gun possession. Comparing the Swiss experience with the American experience is the old apples to oranges thing. Respectfully, PCM