Name: pluto
E-Mail:
Subject: RE: No Mumbo Jumbo, just important, needed talk!
Date: Wednesday, June 01, 2022
Time: 2:27:29 PM
Remote Address: 8.41.160.9
Message ID: 321222
Parent ID: 321215
Thread ID: 321215

RE: No Mumbo Jumbo, just important, needed talk!

Note: I'm posting this for pluto since the board isn't working right for him. As I have noted, it can take a long time to make a post for the few of you who still have passwords, but if you want to reply on this and can't get it to post, or you no longer have a password that works, email me and I'll be happy to post your reply for you, like I'm doing now for our friend pluto.... Here is his reply:

Depressingly enough Keno, it doesn't seem that long ago we were discussing gun control after an atrocity in the U.S.. I find myself agreeing with gomper that chances are, in another year's time, we will still be talking about it in the wake of yet another outrage.

I don't think Americans are any more or less rational than anyone else on the planet. I can think of no reason why they should be. I would imagine that the vast majority of the U.S. public regardless of who they vote for, or whether or not they are a gun owner, are distressed by the almost daily mass shootings taking place (god forbid we become inured to such events). Even more so when young children are involved. So why does nothing ever seem to change?

Vested interest, more than anything else, is the answer of course. A lot of the green manalishi to be made in weapons production and sale. I have no doubt that up there on Capitol Hill on both sides, there are powerful people who are in hawk to the gun lobby. Extend that to include the 'Industrial Military Complex’, and you are talking serious money, serious corruption.

I admire your willingness to get active on this and to encourage others to do likewise, Keno. I think perhaps some reform of the laws around 'lobbying' might be suggested. I'm saying that without even knowing what laws exist in the U.S. vis a vis that practice. Whatever they are you can bet your last centime that there will be ways to circumvent, legal and illegal. The whole thing will be opaque, and murky, precisely so that money can be pocketed.

From the outside, and via my own understanding of events, I see the United States as a deeply polarised society, one which is sliding inexorably into civil war. How else can you view a society where politicians openly call for the jailing of one another... a society where a significant percentage of the population believes that their vote can be stolen, and that their Government actively works against their interests (they may have a point)...a society where armed neo fascist/ white supremacist militias intermingle with the working class, in what on the surface at least, looked ever so much like an insurrection?

There has to be something driving all of this, and of course there is....the on- going ever deepening, and intractable crisis of capital. US capital in particular. At home this means ever increasing attacks on the living standards of ordinary Americans, and more controls over them. In the wider world the decline of US economic hegemony means US Imperialism in the face of the emerging challenges from elsewhere, has to try to grab a greater share of the wealth of nations...that inevitably sees the drive to war (economic and actual)...war is good for business. When it comes to war you wouldn't be able to slide a cigarette paper between Democrat and Republican up there on the Hill. You would hardly be able to distinguish between the two when it comes to propaganda, and the shite that get’s pumped out. To keep people on board it’s necessary that they actually swallow it. Consensus is becoming harder and harder to achieve in a post truth technological world. The increasing polarisation in our societies perhaps speaks to that.

Anyway, long story short. I think the last time this topic came up we talked about gun amnesty, and handing in weapons. You were not for handing in your gun (s), and your reason was pretty much for one of the reasons gomper has given as to why after every mass shooting gun sales go up i.e. the need to protect yourself from those who have guns, and might mean you harm.

Dispiriting as it is I think that might be the reality now. As a socialist/communist I think if I was living in the United States, a country awash with weapons, there's no way I wouldn't want to be armed in this period. I don't think we are far away from the point where working class areas in the U.S., and especially the black and immigrant communities, are going to have to organise armed workers militias to protect themselves and their neighbours from violence from the 'State' and it's goons.

Unfortunately, whilst I agree with your line on taking the action you have suggested, I'm dubious as to it bringing about any meaningful change anytime soon. I fear an escalation in mass shootings and other outrages in the U.S., is more likely”

• No Mumbo Jumbo, just important, needed talk! by Keno on 5/29/2022 5:40:46 PM
• No Mumbo Jumbo, just important, needed talk! by gomper on 5/30/2022 5:19:25 PM
• RE: No Mumbo Jumbo, just important, needed talk! by Keno on 6/1/2022 2:48:55 AM
• RE: No Mumbo Jumbo, just important, needed talk! by pluto on 6/1/2022 2:27:29 PM <-- You Are Here

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