Capitol Hill Blue Forums Misc. Topics Ain't This America It's now official: Rightwingers are free to kill you and claim sefl-defense

The Gun Culture isn’t exactly rational. As with many things human, it’s shortsighted and not at all thought out. It also stems from a bouquet of wildly contradictory personality disorders - fear, authoritarianism, paranoia, narcissism, emotionalism, hard heartedness…

Vigilantism and self-defense are a rising dichotomy that needs to be addressed - it’s a real slippery slope. I don’t see that it will be addressed in a mature and logical way, though. These things, viewed from a historical perspective, appear to be ruled by unconscious mass movements and are unlikely to be managed by cooler heads in leadership. The general condition looks a lot like contracting a serious illness that works its way through the body with lots of fever and vomiting, which eventually resolves after the fever subsides in recovery or death! A good system of government is one that has robust enough protocols to weather the frequent illnesses of mass insanity.

But enough of that, let’s get back to Fabulous Fungi… I just started reading “Finding The Mother Tree”, by Suzanne Simard. I recommend it highly. Fungi can teach us how to live on this planet.

Nope, but if you're stupid enough to chase, kick, hit, and armed vigilante then perhaps you shouldn't count on validation by the courts. Or living through the night.

Ritterhouse is no buddy of mine. Those folks he killed were absolutely nobody as far as I'm concerned either. There are 7 Billion people on this planet and I mostly don't care what happens to any of them enough to get emotionally involved in their circumstances or their politics.

It was perfectly legal for the boy to be there and be armed. Attacking him was assault and he had every right to defend himself if he feared for his life.

Fearing for your mailbox isn't quite the same.

A few weeks ago when I was posting on the Original Liberal Forum I got into an exchange where I had revealed that I have some guns left over from my youth but I haven’t shot any of them in 45 years, and that I never in my life thought of my guns as self-defense weapons. I also jokingly said that I’m not even sure where they are.

The first scattershot of replies were: I was lying about having any guns; I wasn’t competent enough to have guns; I was putting the lives of everyone within spitting distance in danger because my guns aren’t properly stored. My opponents actually seemed to know more about me than I do (and it turns out I’m a pretty bad character!)

But one GC guy asked a serious question, “Are you saying that you don’t fear what’s out there and that’s why you don’t have a gun for self-defense?”

“Yup.”

Well, that set him off on a sometimes heated, always passionate, sales pitch on why I should be afraid, so much so that I was being foolish and irresponsible by not being prepared to pop a cap in the evildoers at the drop of a hat.

I knew that ‘discussion’ with the guy was a dead end, but of course I wanted to take coup if possible, so I said I was sorry to not be afraid, but that the numbers just don’t indicate that I need to be - and packing a gun probably wouldn’t get me out of the trouble that was statistically never going to appear anyway.

I bit my tongue on adding that I hoped he would open carry so that it would be easier to identify him as a dangerous nutcase, giving me more opportunity to avoid him and a potentially bad situation.

And you didn't once have to fight the urge to kick him or hit him with a skateboard?

Logtroll - I’ve had that same conversation - that I don’t live in fear of the statistically remote chance hence don’t need to protect myself from it - nice to know there are others.

This is not intended as any kind of legal opinion, it’s just me, but - if I am in a public place (hell, if I am in a private place) and you show up openly armed, my brain will slot you immediately into “aggressor,” and absolutely not as “protector.”

Fear is what sets Conservatives and Liberals apart. There is even scientific evidence for this. Brain studies show that Conservatives have a larger amygdala.

From the link:

Given the information above, why are Conservatives free to walk around carrying AR-15s? The slightest scare will cause them to pull the trigger.

Rick, I'm not afraid of conservatives carrying guns around. Are you?

And to answer your question the 2nd amendment gives them that right, and a modern supreme court solidified and extended that right. Every day, millions of conservatives walk around armed. Only a few are killed every day. Their record is really pretty good.

Your real issue seems to be that conservatives are allowed to walk around free at all.

No. However, common sense tells us that this will not be the last Rittenhouse-like episode. There's are reason why Rightwingers are known as (f)righties.

Simply because I find Conservatives to be as useful as teats on a boar, doesn't also state that they should have their freedumbs taken away. Society needs Conservatives alive and kicking, free to roam to country to simply exist as examples of who and what not to be or emulate.

Should society hold Raphael "Ted" Cruz, Jim Jordan, Rand Paul, Paul Gosar, Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, Stephen K. Bannon, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, Margarie Taylor Green, Lauren Bobert, Anton Scalia, Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones, Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavenaugh, Aaron Rodgers, Kyle Rittenhouse, as folks we want to emulate? Of course not! These are deeply flawed, deeply intellectually dishonest, intellectually lazy, and deeply loathsome and conniving individuals who border on, if not not fully submerged in sociopathy.