This for My “Gun Toting Friends”
I’ve noticed that Facebook is making me crazy. Many of my friends, often former students, are true believers in the Second Amendment. They have semi-automatic weapons, and they believe they have a right to them. I don’t agree with that, and I’m happy to argue the point with them.
But it’s not about civil discourse anymore. It’s about energizing your side by putting up Facebook posts that attacks the other side. Some are funny, especially the one that posts a picture of a car jack laid on its side, and says, “post this picture of an AR-15 to make you gun control friends crazy.” I bet it works.
But there’s a lot more that just don’t make sense to me. The kids of Parkland High School, radicalized by the experience of having their friends die, have stepped into the spotlight. They are mobilizing students, and adults, across the country; and they are calling for a ban on assault weapons. Their experience gives them the right to have an opinion.
But there are many, many posts that denigrates their right to an opinion, they are “just kids,” and even question their validity (one post claims that one of the kids is a “crisis actor” that goes from national crisis to crisis to push a pro gun control view.) As a social studies teacher, it was always one of my goals to teach my students how to argue for their view. As a teacher, back in the day, I would take whatever side needed help in our classroom discussions. The one rule: you can’t argue the person, just the facts and opinions. When you drop to the “you’re stupid” argument – you’ve lost!
Now as a retired teacher, I have put my political and social views out for public view. I must have been pretty good at hiding my real opinions, because lots of folks are surprised at what I believe. But sometimes I want to go back to that classroom, and remind folks that if you can’t argue facts and opinions, you must not have a very strong argument.
I know that guns are a powerful issue in our country. I know when “my side” says, “we aren’t going to stop hunters,” they miss the point. Many gun advocates hold that having guns is a means of defending their democracy. It ain’t about deer, it’s about our society. That’s a discussion we all need to have. We (my side) can’t just laugh them off as “black helicopter” folks, we must understand that their views are real, and the feeling, legitimate.
But attacking the kids at Parkland, or those that fear government crackdown, or anyone who has the courage to step out and voice their views, is just a form of bullying. We live in the same country, we need to be able to talk through the issue. That’s the first step to reaching some consensus in our world.
Kids are both laudable and, with the benefit of history… what’s the right word? the most charitable is overambitiously sincere. the most jaded is naïve.. sound exactly like their grandparents 50 years ago. Volunteers for America!. Marty, remember listening to that album? and, have you seen the stars tonight?
Don’t need to remember – I still listen to them (Airplane). Agree or disagree with what they want, those kids BELIEVE and want change. We’ve got to admire that. Isn’t that what we want-involvement??
I ended up on a right-wing website a couple of weeks ago, posting thru disqus. It wasn’t about guns, it was about the deep-state conspiracy and the FBI. My point was “it’s not about Trump, its about Russia interfering in our election!”
I was challenged to provide proof .. which I did, in abundance. And, oh! Forget about ad-hominum attacks!! Right wing posters have a new tool to use against truth-ers .. the ‘Mark as Spam’ flag. They started flagging my stuff, which is noted back in your profile, and basically can eventually get you banned as a site participant. And yeah, forget about the website monitors on, for example, Pundit.com, reviewing and removing the flag.
I can live with the ad-hominun stuff. But getting thrown off a website because of malicious flagging, where do you go from there?