Someone asked what causes people to amass lots of assault weapons.
A couple of reasons mentioned were fear and power.
I replied and a very nice poster suggested I make it an OP.
I hope this post is helpful. I decided to add a link to the web site I mentioned.
I think it is a little bit of both.
A lot of them are poor, dumb white guys who haven't spent much time around anyone but other white people. They get told horror stories and believe them because they have no basis for comparison.
A lot are rich, conniving white guys with an agenda who know better and want their cushy little world to stay the way they want it. These are usually the ones telling the poor, dumb ones the horror stories and suggesting they buy more and more guns. And yes, I'm talking about at least The Republican Party and other people too, who are right in there with them doing this stuff, on purpose.
A good read is on the Southern Poverty Law Center's web site. The white supremacist, and I hate to call them that, because there is nothing supreme about them, groups aka hate groups, prey on the poor, dumb white guys and build their self esteem up while simultaneously poisoning their minds. That creates a feedback loop of associating bigotry with power. They want that power like the richer white guys, the leaders of these groups, have. So, they become hardcore and build up these weapons caches. Often, they find themselves running drugs and guns, illegally, of course, for the richer white guys who recruited them. The easiest way to look it up and read it is to read about one of the members of a hate group who turned himself around, married a Palestinian woman, and now travels the country talking about what turned him around. He explains the psychology involved.
There is a definite psychology involved.
Most of the racists are not actually IN hate groups, but they do have contact with them. They are poorer than dirt and the hate groups build up their self esteem, by preying on them, poisoning their minds, getting them to do the dirty work, like hate crimes, bombings, drug and gun running, etc. then let them go to jail for their own crimes. Of course, they should go to jail for their own crimes. They committed them. The people who put them up to those crimes are the first ones to cry "lone wolf" and go on back to their rich, white lives and do it all again. They hardly EVER go to prison. They are actually dangerous too, but they rarely ever go to prison.
It's messed up. I've been reading about this for years and trying to get others involved in learning more about how they do things, and try to think of ways to counteract them, but it involves quite a bit more reading and studying and most people don't normally have time to do it, I guess.
Anywhere you start on the Southern Poverty Law Center web site will show you more than you ever knew, especially about just how involved The Republican Party is with the hate groups and just how many people are not actually IN hate groups, but still are in contact with them and do quite a bit of their dirty work. So, the richer ones in the hate groups can keep right on going without ever going to prison for the crap they do.
So, actually, I think it is a little bit of both. There is a lot of fear from the ones who are not wealthy, don't know anything about other races, but have been told to fear them. And the richer ones want to keep their cushy lives where they are in power over the vast majority of the population and they want it to stay that way. Look how Tucker Carlson acts. He is a classic example of one of the more mainstream richer ones who tells horror stories based on total lies he also tells. He is not the only one. He is just one that is well known. Most doing this stuff are not as well known. That is how they get by with it. They don't get caught, because lots of people don't see them doing it.
https://www.splcenter.org/
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