Anyone else sick of the defeatism?

[senseandsensibility]

Every time there is another mass shooting (WAY too often in the US), we hear almost immediately and repeatedly...."Nothing will happen." "If Sandy Hook didn't make a difference, nothing will."

It's like the media is trying to dampen our expectations and cause apathy.

In addition, it's always "Congress" won't do anything. Never Republicans won't do anything.

[SoCalDavidS]

1. Nothing EVER Does Happen

I'm not sure how Reality equals defeatism.

Nothing is going to change, and there will be more of these to come. It's simply a fact at this point.

[Hortensis]

20. And I was just thinking people who say that are blind to

the world around them. How can you not see the galloping changes in this century alone?

Especially when it is the big reason the right has gone loco. Flailing desperately to stop what they've never been able to stop, they're to the point that they'd burn down the nation if they could to stop it.

But they can't. Itm, do you imagine Republicans attempt violent revolutions every fourth January? We've been electing female VPs for decades?

Scientists have always been able to sit at computers and design vaccines to end our frequent killer pandemics in weeks? Poverty shrank dramatically around the planet as average lifespans increased into the upper 70s 200 years ago and we've been stuck since?

Come on!

[SoCalDavidS]

21. I'm Talking About America & Guns

I stand by what I said. NOTHING has changed in my lifetime. It has gotten worse and worse and worse.

Every time there is an incident, it causes an uproar for a few hours, and then the outrage goes away, and NOTHING changes.

I assure you that 10 years from now, we'll be having the same argument about gun control. And we'll be having the same weekly or daily mass killings. It is who we are. America!!

[Hortensis]

22. Well, isn't that change? You know, 5 years ago this 21-year-old

wouldn't have killed anyone, and now he'll spend the rest of his life in prison. And 10 people have no rest of their lives.

But regardless of what gun laws we pass, what won't change is you if you maintain this attitude. Is this what you want to be 10 years from now?

People will still be killing, that's guaranteed, even if just a fraction of the numbers now, and you'd still be insisting nothing changes? What's guaranteed is that your vision of "America" will form you and you'll have to live with it, whatever it is. No one else. Just you.

[Diamond_Dog]

2. 100% correct

“In addition, it's always "Congress" won't do anything. Never Republicans won't do anything”.

[Ocelot II]

3. Why didn't Sandy Hook make a difference?

Last edited Tue Mar 23, 2021, 04:11 PM - Edit history (1)

Why didn't Parkland make a difference, even after all the activism and demonstrations and lobbying by thousands of young people? We thought that at last this would do it. But it didn't. Why, and why should we think anything will change now? Yes, the Democrats have a majority in Congress, but it's very slim; and the NRA is in financial trouble. Will these facts change the situation? I'm not holding my breath.

[msongs]

4. because many in the 2A crowd think dead children are the price we must pay for their

"right" to drink beer and blow holes in millions of tin cans

[Ocelot II]

6. And that's why I am skeptical that the situation will change.

The gun culture is too embedded in our society. Too many people think their right to own a gun supersedes any rights they or anyone else have - maybe because of a perverse concept of individual freedom combined with toxic masculinity that requires one to think having a gun means you are a real man who is able to defend himself against The Government or marauding antifa and BLM people, and who is so fundamentally chickenshit that he thinks he has to carry an AR-15 to shop safely at Wal-Mart - and who thinks any law limiting the purchase of firearms by anyone, even crazy people, is an impingement on his freedumb. As long as a significant number of people believe these things the mass shootings will keep happening.

[abqtommy]

5. We know that most of the U.S. media and none of the rethug fascists will ever do

anything productive. We already have laws we can use to deal with this. Let's get
going!

[stopdiggin]

7. I see no sense in blaming the meda for reporting

absolutely factual political realities. Really not their jobs to be 'rallying the troops.' And when there is sufficient momentum for real change -- I sort of suspect they'll be there to report on that to.

When enough politicians have the backbone to start stiff-arming the NRA and gun humps -- publicly. Real push-back against extremists. Then we (and the media) can start talking about real reform. Meanwhile -- what line are the reps in your district towing? Done anything about it?

[brooklynite]

8. "It's like the media is trying to dampen our expectations"

Perhaps they're expressing reality...unless you have a different view of what will happen.

[0rganism]

9. yes, and I'm even sicker of Nothing happening

I can't blame "the media" for reporting that emphasizes the most-likely outcome

When Something happens instead of Nothing, that will be quite newsworthy in itself. I'm fairly sure it will be covered.

[Dial H For Hero]

10. The realism, you mean?

[wellst0nev0ter]

11. This is why it is we can't understate the importance

of putting pressure on Manchin, Sinema and the rest of the obstructionist Democrats to get in line and throw out the filibuster.

I don't think gun control measures are going to get passed by reconciliation.

[Ocelot II]

13. Gun control legislation can't pass by reconciliation unless it's directly budget-related.

So the filibuster will have to go if we expect anything to pass.

[maxsolomon]

12. Never give up on Defeatism!

Is it OK if the MSM say that the prospects for change are, at best, daunting? Because they are daunting AF.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

14. How is it defeatism to recognize reality?

Those who enthusiastically support guns clearly think that even their own children being murdered is well worth the guns.

And it's not just Republicans. Plenty of Democrats are not willing to do anything either.

[BannonsLiver]

15. That's probably because nothing does happen.

I’m no longer sure new gun legislation is the answer. The only real way to curb this problem might be to physically remove the tools that make mass killing easier. And there is little to no appetite to go that far. It would also violate our constitution. So here we are. Until the next one. And the next one.

[ladym55]

16. Our guns are like our binkies

We can't be rational about them. When I read the posts on my local Nextdoor site in suburban Ohio, I regularly hear about "buying ammo" and "carrying a gun for protection." I keep thinking that I'm not so comfortable that these gun-happy folks are my neighbors. The hardest for me to handle are the devout, right-to-life "Christians" who post things about Guns! God! as somehow the two go together like peanut butter and jelly.

I had hoped after COLUMBINE we would have gotten things together and decided that weapons of war really shouldn't be in the hand of regular folk. Then after Sandy Hook ... Parkland ... Pulse ... Las Vegas ... nahh. Instead we have MORE guns and fewer regulations cuz more guns make us safer.

[dutch777]

17. Like many other seemingly intractable problems, until enough people are in the street it won't

change. Too much inertia against change for these things.

[maxsolomon]

18. 10 million people could march against guns tomorrow. or 20 million, or 30 million.

It would be belittled and dismissed by the reactionary minority that holds our democracy hostage.

[Amishman]

19. It's realism. Especially after a surge in first time gun owners last year

Universal background checks and maybe licensing is the only realistic goal and should be the sole focus at the point.