Guns, Terrorism, and Why I Hate Both Sides

THIS IS NOT IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM SAYING THAT THE VEGAS SHOOTING WAS A GOOD THING, NOT AN ACT OF TERRORISM, OR ANYTHING ELSE THAT CAN BE CONSTRUED AS IT NOT BEING THE TRAGEDY THAT IT IS.


This IS however, a vent/rant about how both sides are using the Vegas shooting to their own petty ends and only making things worse for the nation TOGETHER. Alright, let's get started.

To anyone reading this, yes, you random NSA worker who has nothing else to do but check inconsequential Blogger posts, you should know that I'm not putting this somewhere like Facebook, because I am friends with people on both sides. I like these people as people, even when I don't agree with their opinions. However, this means that posting these thoughts on Facebook would result in a mini-WWIII on my post. I won't have that. So it's here, for you poor NSA worker who has to read this to make sure I'm not some terrorist threat. You're welcome.

That out of the way, let's really start. I've been seeing a lot of stuff on Facebook about the Vegas shooter. A lot of it from the Liberal side is pointing out that he's an older white man who had something like 42 guns, and that that makes him a terrorist. He is, and 42 guns is a lot of guns for one man to own, I'll admit both of those points. However, they are putting it in a way that makes it seem like anyone who is an older, white man with a gun collection is a potential terrorist. This is in stark contrast to how they want us to view Muslims, Blacks, and other minority groups.

Newsflash Liberals: if you want people to not generalize people, DON'T FUCKING GENERALIZE PEOPLE. There are bad people of every damn stripe out there, and there are just as many, if not more, good people in those EXACT same stripes. YOU INVALIDATE YOUR ARGUMENT BY DOING THIS!

It's times like this where you actually see the humanitarian concern for people from the Conservative side of things. Sure, the way that they are saying it is by asking for prayers, but it's not just Christians who pray. Jews pray, Muslims pray several times a day, people of all religions pray. Though when not asking for prayers, or pointing out that there were POLICE doing their jobs of protecting people (Yes, Liberals, not ALL cops are power-tripping douche bags), they are freaking out over the whole kneeling during the Anthem thing.

Get the fuck over that people, respect is shown in different ways. There are many reasons why kneeling could be seen as MORE respectful than the hand-over-heart salute that we were taught in school. Sure, it's not the standard, but don't you kneel before images of God? The flag is a representation of our nation, just as a statue of Jesus is a representation of God.

One of the biggest reasons that I am writing this post today is because I saw a post saying that we should "re-think" the Second Amendment because guns are so much scarier today then they were in the 18th Century, posted by a Liberal. I get really angry with them when they start showing that they are NO FUCKING BETTER than the Conservatives. If they want to be something other than Conservatives with different ideals, then they should grow the fuck up and start acting the way they want other people to act. It only takes a few people ACTUALLY doing things different to spread that around, then it'll be the new norm. As Ghandi said: BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD. This isn't a hard quote to understand. Want to normalize LGBTQ+? Don't make a big deal about there being gay characters on shows/in movies. Be happy that they are there, but don't shove it EVERYONE'S faces.

Sorry, tangent. Liberal's have really got my goat today. If we were saying anything about altering/repealing/restricting the FIRST AMENDMENT like the Liberals want to do to the SECOND AMENDMENT, they would be crying that it was the end of the world. Sound familiar? It should, because that's what the Conservatives are doing right now. This also means that Liberals, and Conservatives on some level, have forgotten the actual point and meaning of the Second Amendment. Let's fix that for you, my captive NSA audience.

The Second Amendment reads thus: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. 

Thank you Google and the Constitute Project. "A well regulated Militia" what is that? A militia is any informal military like group that is made up of normal men and women within a given community. At least, that's what it meant when I was taught in school. Typically, in the time that the Constitution was written, and the Bill of Rights, a militia was used for defense of a community in war time. These militia were regulated by the societal norms of the time, and a call to arms mobilized the entire town to various duties. This does indicate that the Founding Fathers weren't planning on society becoming focused around such large cities as we have today. THE FOUNDING FATHERS WEREN'T PERFECT, they weren't some form of Eldar Farseers from Warhammer 40K, they were just men. Militias can still be formed today, it would just take a different form to mobilize people. 

Question: What is this well regulated Militia for? Answer "security of a free State". What does that mean? The most straight-forward answer to that question is that it is a way to legally coup the Federal Government. Everything in the Constitution is aimed at making America the best country that it can be, and not like England at the time. This means that there are checks and balances within the branches of government, and the PEOPLE for whom the government is supposed to work for, have to power to end governments that do not suit the needs of the PEOPLE. 

That's right Liberals: YOU SHOULD BE WANTING THIS TOO, IT'S HOW WE KEEP FROM ENDING UP LIKE COUNTRIES IN AFRICA, OR SOUTH AMERICA, OR THE MIDDLE EAST WHERE IT'S JUST A REVOLVING DOOR OF DICTATORS. 

Yes, guns changed, they are scarier. However, we shouldn't be rethinking the Second Amendment, we should be working within it. Ending the Second Amendment really puts the entire Bill of Rights on the chopping block. This includes the First Amendment for anyone not remembering that the Bill of Rights is our first ten Amendments to the Constitution. The First Amendment, the one that allows me to write this post, Liberals to say that the Second Amendment needs to be changed, and Conservatives to ask for prayers for a community struck by tragedy. 

The Vegas shooting, along with all other mass shootings, is a tragedy. We should be pulling together as a nation to move through this. Instead, Liberals and Conservatives are driving a wedge into society along partisan lines, keeping people away from the open and honest discussions that are needed in these times. To those who say that the war for gun control was lost when we "Decided that killing children was alright" in reference to Sandy Hook, that wasn't gun control that failed. That was access to appropriate mental health care, that failed that man. He didn't own that gun, his mother did, he killed her too. Saying that Conservatives view the killing of children as acceptable is a stain on the memories of those children who died, and the janitor and teacher who died defending those students who survived. You dishonor yourself when you say that, and you dishonor them. 

Go educate yourselves people. Learn what the Amendments do, actually learn them, what they are for. It's not as simple as they make it seem in elementary school. That seems to be when we learn the Bill of Rights, and any expounding on it just gets tossed straight out the window, even when it's the nuance that holds the real meaning. 

The main issue with Communism/Socialism: We're only equal at the bottom

There is a lot of stuff I'm seeing on social media that is communistic/socialist leaning. I understand that there are people that are frustrated with our (America's) current economic set up. It's far from perfect and anyone saying otherwise is pretty well deluding themselves. That being said, there are no perfect economic systems, just like there aren't any perfect ANYTHINGS in the universe. Everything is flawed in some way, what we need is the way that least screws us over.

Communism/Socialism sounds great on paper, everyone working together to help each other. That's what we want for the world right? Not really. The issue is that people posting these things want their own lives to matter.

That leads to the biggest issue of all: we all want our lives to matter. We want to be important, we want to have a purpose, a meaning to our existence. We feel that it is our right to have more meaning in our lives.

To be truly equal we all have to be on the same level: the bottom. It can be the prettiest bottom we can make it, but it will be the bottom. We cannot have true equality without a base for society.

I'm currently reading a book that demonstrates just how hard it is to make the bottom a pretty place. It's called Faith of the Fallen written by Terry Goodkind. It's a whole society that believes that people are evil, sinful creatures that can do no good. They have committees and lines miles long to ensure that everyone who can work has some work, and that those who "can't" work are still able to "live". It makes things nearly impossible to do anything, and people are just accepting of it. They don't really help each other to make anything better. They just suffer through what is put in front of them every day.

That isn't what we want for our society, that isn't even what those people want for our society, yet it is the road they would try to lead us down. We need to remember that Communism only works in small numbers where everyone can find meaning in helping each other. 

What to do now: #thelonggame

Donald Trump has been sworn in as President of the United States. A lot of people are very upset about it. One of my uncles is very vocal about his displeasure. At least one other friend is alright with sharing a post saying that Trump is a dictator just from his first week. I know that Trump is not going to be a good president, unless something really strange happens, however I think it's still a bit early to say that he is a dictator. I know that he has done some things that I don't agree with and can be seen as dictator-esque. However, there is nothing that can be done about it now. Some may say that we should impeach Trump, however that would make Pence the president. The new Vice President would be selected by Congress from the active members of Congress. This has multiple issues, starting with the impeachment itself. The House of Representatives needs to ratify Articles of Impeachment and then the Senate tries them. There is much legal debate as to what is actually an impeachable offense. With the Republican Party in control of Congress there is no way that an impeachment will happen.

What does this mean for the millions of Anti-Trump people? It means we need to start a long game. For Democrats at the least it is times to look towards the mid-term elections in 2018. It's only a year away, so viable candidates are going to need to be selected for states that have mid-term elections. If the Democrats can get Congress back it will stall much of what Trump might try.

 For supporters of third party, and truly want change in the political landscape; the 2016 race really started in 2015. That means it's really only two years before we can expect the 2020 race to start. This means that grassroots movements need to start now so they can grow. Third party candidates need to have more attention going into the race to truly become viable presidential candidates to nose in on the scene that the Democrats and the Republicans have held for so long.

Also, liberals, could you please stop being like the conservatives were for the whole time that Obama was in office? It's driving away people that you need in order to bounce back from the loss in November. If you want to be seen as better than the conservatives, you need to actually act like it. At this point in time, there is nothing you can do about Trump that will actually solve anything. I know that we live in an instant gratification world, but sometimes the long game is the only way to achieve what is needed for the greater good.

#thelonggame starts now.