A Windegg
And here is an example of stupid thinking, the Regress Problem in action:
Shen quotes Chairman Ward on CNN:
FOCUS | Arming Black People Would Have Prevented Slavery?
Aviva Shen, ThinkProgress
Shen writes: "Larry Ward, chairman of Gun Appreciation Day,
argued that if African slaves had been armed,
they would have been able to prevent slavery from ever happening."
Aviva Shen, ThinkProgress
Shen writes: "Larry Ward, chairman of Gun Appreciation Day,
argued that if African slaves had been armed,
they would have been able to prevent slavery from ever happening."
"[I]f African Americans had been given the right to keep and bear arms from day one of the country’s founding, perhaps slavery might not have been a chapter in our history."
How does one even begin to address this absurdity? Would the slaves, which of course they were, have kept their flintlocks in their Plantation shanties? No -- slaves do not get to own guns. Maybe Mr. Ward can work from that premise and construct something.
But MAYBE, if you did not deal in slaving -- if you did not OWN slaves -- they would not have had to fight not to be slaves. But once in America, they could not retroactively have prevented themselves from the facticity of their slave-ness.
Now, maybe if they had guns in Africa (prior to enslavement), those might have trumped spears and any other wiles their captors imposed, and they might have avoided ever becoming slaves. And if pigs had wings ...
It just hurts my head, these weak attempts at imposing potential historical revisionism based upon stupidity. The National Rifle Association needs to ally itself with some vocal intelligent people; gun owners are not all, or probably even mostly, ignorant buffoons as the liberal press would wish to portray them. Ward's statement is so embarrassingly ignorant and transparently exploitative, it simply reinforces the stereotype and keeps the divide in place.
It seems the "best" refutation the conservatives can front is of the sort done by Alex Jones versus Piers Morgan (CNN; Piers, Mr. Rescind-the-2nd-Amendment -- Alex, Mr Let's-Run-Piers-Out-of-the -US-on-a-Rail.) It is terrible, sloppy, and such grotesque show, but the people eat it up. As a staunch Civil Rights advocate, I am embarrassed for my Republic when I see such things, on both sides. Where is the rigor? The respect, for any thing or any one?
Per the hapless Mr. Ward, it is Blaxploitation redux.
But MAYBE, if you did not deal in slaving -- if you did not OWN slaves -- they would not have had to fight not to be slaves. But once in America, they could not retroactively have prevented themselves from the facticity of their slave-ness.
Now, maybe if they had guns in Africa (prior to enslavement), those might have trumped spears and any other wiles their captors imposed, and they might have avoided ever becoming slaves. And if pigs had wings ...
It just hurts my head, these weak attempts at imposing potential historical revisionism based upon stupidity. The National Rifle Association needs to ally itself with some vocal intelligent people; gun owners are not all, or probably even mostly, ignorant buffoons as the liberal press would wish to portray them. Ward's statement is so embarrassingly ignorant and transparently exploitative, it simply reinforces the stereotype and keeps the divide in place.
It seems the "best" refutation the conservatives can front is of the sort done by Alex Jones versus Piers Morgan (CNN; Piers, Mr. Rescind-the-2nd-Amendment -- Alex, Mr Let's-Run-Piers-Out-of-the -US-on-a-Rail.) It is terrible, sloppy, and such grotesque show, but the people eat it up. As a staunch Civil Rights advocate, I am embarrassed for my Republic when I see such things, on both sides. Where is the rigor? The respect, for any thing or any one?
Per the hapless Mr. Ward, it is Blaxploitation redux.
Labels: blaxploitation, guns, rebellions
posted by Lisa at 6:47 PM
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