This kind of symbolic reasoning is a protest of the global nature of life in the 21st century. People with a cowboy mentality used to be able to be cocooned in their community. There is no shelter from the outside world these days, so these folks have to resort to denial and performative opposition to reality to maintain their cowboy fantasies.
We have fallen to the Tyranny of the Easily Counted.
Most folks have to budget and make priorities with the money we have. We're not counting the damn stuff, because of all the things we're having to do with it, and how much we have to stretch it.
But for the 1% and the folks with generational wealth, it's a different story. They have no budgets, they don't have to worry about food or gas or rent or mortgage payments or health or child care. For all but a few, the only measurement that they can comprehend is that their total worth on $$$ keeps increasing.
There are exceptions: Dolly Parton, Bill Gates, Mackenzie Scott, Warren Buffet.
But the shallow-minded one percenters or global corporations that are blind to value that can't be counted, they are happy to take a shit right in our drinking water if it means they have more $$$.
I'm very much reminded of Benjamin Franklin's pithy response when asked what the result of the Constitutional Convention was. "A republic, if you can keep it."
I am not over praising you and BestNetTech when I point out that you and Franklin are cut from the same cloth- having finely tuned BS detectors, being unafraid of communicating complexity, and having a visceral appreciation for solutions that have many owners.
We must all hang together, or we will surely hang separately.
You repeatedly mention "framing the debate" and speak of the Democrat's inability to engage.
There is no real debate about gun control.
The Republicans just feed the wannabe cowboys some red meat and they vote like Pavlov's dogs.
The Democrats don't even have to change anyone's mind. Most polls show that a majority favors reasonable gun control. But they're not passionate about it, and not enough of those folks vote.
Perhaps you mean getting folks in favor of gun control to outvote the folks who believe that guns equal liberty. That'd be good, but debate isn't the answer.
Hannah Arendt called this the Rule Of Nobody back in 1969.
In a fully developed bureaucracy there is nobody left with whom one can argue, to whom one can present grievances, on whom the pressures of power can be exerted. Bureaucracy is the form of government in which everybody is deprived of political freedom, of the power to act; for the rule by Nobody is not no-rule, and where all are equally powerless, we have a tyranny without a tyrant.
I've made my life easier by filtering all "news" that
a) wargames stuff that hasn't yet happened
b) forecasts the negative long term repercussions of what happened
That way, when I'm reading a news site, I can focus on the actual news.
No place for wannabe cowboys to hide
This kind of symbolic reasoning is a protest of the global nature of life in the 21st century. People with a cowboy mentality used to be able to be cocooned in their community. There is no shelter from the outside world these days, so these folks have to resort to denial and performative opposition to reality to maintain their cowboy fantasies.
TL, DR
TL, DR: We live in a society, not an economy.
The tyranny of the easily counted
We have fallen to the Tyranny of the Easily Counted. Most folks have to budget and make priorities with the money we have. We're not counting the damn stuff, because of all the things we're having to do with it, and how much we have to stretch it. But for the 1% and the folks with generational wealth, it's a different story. They have no budgets, they don't have to worry about food or gas or rent or mortgage payments or health or child care. For all but a few, the only measurement that they can comprehend is that their total worth on $$$ keeps increasing. There are exceptions: Dolly Parton, Bill Gates, Mackenzie Scott, Warren Buffet. But the shallow-minded one percenters or global corporations that are blind to value that can't be counted, they are happy to take a shit right in our drinking water if it means they have more $$$.
A republic, if you can keep it.
I'm very much reminded of Benjamin Franklin's pithy response when asked what the result of the Constitutional Convention was. "A republic, if you can keep it." I am not over praising you and BestNetTech when I point out that you and Franklin are cut from the same cloth- having finely tuned BS detectors, being unafraid of communicating complexity, and having a visceral appreciation for solutions that have many owners. We must all hang together, or we will surely hang separately.
There is no "debate"
You repeatedly mention "framing the debate" and speak of the Democrat's inability to engage. There is no real debate about gun control. The Republicans just feed the wannabe cowboys some red meat and they vote like Pavlov's dogs. The Democrats don't even have to change anyone's mind. Most polls show that a majority favors reasonable gun control. But they're not passionate about it, and not enough of those folks vote. Perhaps you mean getting folks in favor of gun control to outvote the folks who believe that guns equal liberty. That'd be good, but debate isn't the answer.
It's the Rule Of Nobody
Hannah Arendt called this the Rule Of Nobody back in 1969.
In a fully developed bureaucracy there is nobody left with whom one can argue, to whom one can present grievances, on whom the pressures of power can be exerted. Bureaucracy is the form of government in which everybody is deprived of political freedom, of the power to act; for the rule by Nobody is not no-rule, and where all are equally powerless, we have a tyranny without a tyrant.
Filtering the 24hr cycle
I've made my life easier by filtering all "news" that
a) wargames stuff that hasn't yet happened
b) forecasts the negative long term repercussions of what happened
That way, when I'm reading a news site, I can focus on the actual news.
Tombstone cam
Dead drop? Drop dead!
Roomba Vision Statement
All your baseboards are belong to us!
"Biglie"
It's the latest incarnation of the Big Lie... the Bigly Lie, aka Biglie.