The Politics Of Gene Wolfe

Son of Witz · 18 Mar 2009, 04:34 · from 2009-March.txt.gz

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From: sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org (Son of Witz)
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:34:26 -0700
Subject: (urth) The Politics Of Gene Wolfe
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Message-ID: <CAC5FB24-E3F0-4F8A-96EF-2CB380D4DB11 at butcherbaker.org>

On Mar 17, 2009, at 9:04 PM, Chris P wrote:

> It surprises me that nobody has brought up the urban/rural divide on  
> the gun issue. I think there are definite, pragmatic reasons why  
> city-dwellers all over seem to be in favor of gun control in greater  
> proportions than their rural counterparts. And personally I don't  
> think it would be unreasonable to accommodate both parties by  
> limiting those who can carry firearms in dense urban areas while  
> leaving the rural areas alone.

Now we're onto something.
I live in San Francisco, near Bayview (a "ghetto"), right up the  
street from where the Bologna family was famously massacred over a  
minor traffic inconvenience.
I hear gunshots weekly. 3 blocks from my work, downtown SF, I heard  
someone get shot to death a couple months ago. (heard the shots, then  
looked to see everyone screaming over the dead man).  Guns are a big  
problem in this city.  I HIGHLY doubt the gunshots I hear so often  
have "good" reasons, intentions or outcomes.
There are a lot of stupid, angry assholes ready to pop, and they're  
over-armed.  (Hell, a chick on the bus pulled out her mace and  
threatened me because I suggested that spitting sunflower seeds  
everywhere was pretty gross.)  People are stupid and angry, easily  
offended, and too easily armed.

But if I lived in a rural area, I don't suppose I'd have any real  
objections to guns.

& I'm definitely with Brewer when it comes to the rationalization for  
semi-automatic weapons.

As a complete aside, it's quite interesting to talk about this stuff  
with y'all.  It's too easy to end up in an echo chamber, especially  
when you live in SF.  It's hard to even find self-proclaimed  
conservatives here.  I'm pretty damn liberal, but living in SF long  
enough will make you gag at some of the thoughtless knee-jerk (not to  
mention arrogant) liberal attitudes. Enough, at least, to be MORE than  
willing to engage with conservatives and others who are NOT full of  
thoughtless pre-packaged attitudes; a nice change from the type of  
loud mouth stupid conservatives I've met in "real life" and within my  
own family.  (hopefully you read that right, I'm not calling anyone  
here stupid conservatives, the stupid ones are in my own family, and  
ones who yelled at me for carrying a sign protesting a bullshit  
invasion. "they'll be dancing in the streets" is how the prepackaged  
meme went)

~witz

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