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Revolutionary Language
The New York Times ^ | January 11, 2013 | Charles M. Blow

Posted on 01/12/2013 12:37:53 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

Listen closely.

That sound you hear is the sound of a cultural paranoia by people who have lost their grip on the reins of power, and on reality, and who fear the worst is coming.

And they are preparing for it, whatever it may be — a war, a revolution, an apocalypse.

These extremists make sensible, reasonable gun control hard to discuss, let alone achieve in this country, because they skew the conversations away from common-sense solutions on which both rational gun owners and non-gun owners can agree.

These people, a vocal minority, have extreme fears — gun confiscation, widespread civil instability, a tyrannical government — from which they are preparing to defend themselves with arsenals of weapons and stockpiles of ammunition.

If you pay attention to the right-wing’s rhetoric, you can hear a string of code words that feed the fears of these people and paralyze progress.

A collection of conservative groups have declared Jan. 19, during the weekend celebrating President Obama’s inauguration and Martin Luther King’s Birthday, as Gun Appreciation Day....

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; US: Connecticut; US: New York
KEYWORDS: banglist; barfalertplease; charlesblow; cw2; gunconfiscation; guncontrol; gunregistration; newyork; newyorkslimes; obama; partisanmediashills; sandyhookpolitics; secondamendment
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If his name isn't "truth in advertising" what is?
1 posted on 01/12/2013 12:38:05 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

blow had nothing to offer an America we once knew. that “minority” is pretty damn big, pig blow.


2 posted on 01/12/2013 12:42:32 PM PST by BamaAndy
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Hey Blow,

If you want to change the gun law then amend the Constitution.


3 posted on 01/12/2013 12:42:57 PM PST by donna (Pray for revival.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Chucky blow done did too much blow, ya know?


4 posted on 01/12/2013 12:44:36 PM PST by ConradofMontferrat (According to mudslimz, my handle is a HATE CRIME. And I HOPE they don't like it.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Revolutionary language.

Benjamin Franklin, Testimony Against the Stamp Act (1766)

Q. Do you think the people of America would submit to pay the stamp duty, if it was moderated?

A. No, never, unless compelled by force of arms. . . .

5 posted on 01/12/2013 12:47:09 PM PST by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“Revolutionary language” is something that liberals use all the time, like talking about circumventing the Constitution with Executive Orders, or attempting to re-interpret the meaning of the words in the document. And it’s not as if the Left doesn’t use “code words” themselves.


6 posted on 01/12/2013 12:47:43 PM PST by jeffc (The U.S. media are our enemy)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

What’s there to discuss when it’s plainly written in the Constitution?


7 posted on 01/12/2013 12:48:02 PM PST by bgill (We've passed the point of no return. Welcome to Al Amerika.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I didn’t know the NY Times were still in busniess.


8 posted on 01/12/2013 12:48:02 PM PST by Rappini (Veritas vos Liberabit)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“...because they skew the conversations away from common-sense solutions on which both rational gun owners and non-gun owners can agree.”

Right there, Blow, you clown, you grab the “high” ground thus painting your opposites as NOT rational and NOT posessed of common sense. This is not intelligent, diplomatic or even useful. Go to Hell, son, your silly article is transparently political and self serving.


9 posted on 01/12/2013 12:48:47 PM PST by TalBlack (Evil doesn't have a day job.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

it ain’t a “minority,” genius


10 posted on 01/12/2013 12:48:59 PM PST by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Well "Blow", since you want to babble about code words.

How about being honest for once in your urban metro or homosexual life about what you really mean by "sensible, reasonable gun control"?

You will not do it, will you? Maybe babble politely about magazine capacity, military features.

Banning private ownership is not something you liberals have the guts to say, though it truly is what you mean when all is said and done. Shove your code words, though that is probably just kinky fun to you.

11 posted on 01/12/2013 12:49:18 PM PST by doorgunner69
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Guess.

One on the right or one on the left?


12 posted on 01/12/2013 12:50:36 PM PST by TLI ( ITINERIS IMPENDEO VALHALLA)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Blow blows! Note his use of his side’s “revolutionary language”. “These people” - how does he like the reference to his ethnic group as “these people”. What about “so-called patriot groups”. NYT, whadya espect?!


13 posted on 01/12/2013 12:52:19 PM PST by Revolting cat! (Bad things are wrong! Ice cream is delicious!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

It never occurs to them that the very reason for the revolutionary talk and preparations, is that THEY are talking and ACTING like totalitarians.

If President Eisenhower or President Grant, or President Jefferson made a case for some gun law, i would listen to his position. First, i would know he would listen to mine sincerely in return. Also because i would know his goal would not be to establish a socialist dictatorship, that was one cog in a world government of, by, and for the elite.

Quit acting like a F-ing power mad A-hole, run our finances like a household would, and see if the prepping and revolutionary talk doesnt fade away.


14 posted on 01/12/2013 12:53:42 PM PST by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Didn’t this idiot say the exact same thing in Germany back in 1936?


15 posted on 01/12/2013 12:53:51 PM PST by Captain Jack Aubrey (There's not a moment to lose.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Better left for puppy training mats or at the bottom of a bird cage.


16 posted on 01/12/2013 12:54:43 PM PST by ronnie raygun (Being Breitbart, Lexington / Concord, America's first gun grab attempt)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Blow swallows... feh
17 posted on 01/12/2013 12:59:42 PM PST by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Won't click on the NYTimes, but we see right out of the gate Blow is talking about “code words”. “Code words” in Liberal-speak is code for racism.

What's the law here? Liberals can't speak or write more than one paragraph before those who disagree with them are called racists. It's similar to the Nazi rule.

But again, in Liberal land everybody is crazy, but them of course. Anyone who disagrees with them is crazy... and racist.

Let's discuss abridging the First Amendment. Say, no one who make a living spreading propaganda for Democrats can be allowed to write any more than 2,000 words.

Two thousand words!

Who needs to write more than 2,000 words?? Anybody who feels they need to write more than that must register with the government and get permission to write any more.

Now, why can't Liberals compromise on this? I'm willing to go to 3,000 words, why can't they meet me in the middle at 2,500 words. Isn't that reasonable?

No, the Left are simply crazy, irrational and unwilling to compromise here. And they're probably racists too. What's else is wrong with them? Why can't they be reasonable on this matter of abridging their First Amendment. It's for the good of everybody, especially the children.

See how this works, Mr. Blow?

18 posted on 01/12/2013 1:01:09 PM PST by Obadiah (It is when a people forget God, that tyrants forge their chains.)
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To: cripplecreek

Many of the comments are worse than the column, viz:

I don’t understand how the country I think I live in is so different than the country my fellow citizens who believe in unlimited gun rights live in. Despite living in NYC, a place that many not living here think is some sort of place boiling over with crime, I do not live in constant fear. I have never once thought that I’d be safer if I had a gun.

I don’t understand why anyone would want to live in a place where they are in such constant fear that they think they need to be armed.

I don’t understand why people who believe that unfettered access to any kind of firearm will make for a better, safer country don’t ask themselves why crime rates are so much lower in countries without guns.

I don’t understand why so many armed people think that in a circumstance in which they are being threatened by someone else with or without a gun would be one where they would have time to react, draw their weapon, aim accurately and shoot their assailant and not put innocent bystanders at risk.

I don’t understand why so many of my fellow Americans have a fear that President Obama is part of a of cabal that has some sort of sinister plans for the country.

I don’t understand why so many people in this country appear to be living lives centered on fear.

I don’t believe that “an armed society is a polite society”, I believe it is a sick society.

*******

People who are fearful and paranoid are the exact people I do not want to have firearms. I want potential gun owners to be asked, “Why do you want a gun.?” If the answer is, “To protect my family,” the next question should be, “From whom?” “Why do you think you need an assault weapon?” Please provide five specific reasons.

If the person cannot provide sane, reasoned, rational answers they cannot get a gun. If not, they will receive a piece of paper telling them where to enlist in the military or how to become a police officer, These are the people who have legitimate reason to carry lethal weapons.

*******

Some ago I read “The Turner Diaries,” Timothy McVeigh’s blueprint for Oklahoma City and what he hoped would follow. It was horrifying. Mr. Blow’s subjects seem like they’ve been reading it too. These so-called “patriots” are potential murderers, fully prepared in their own imaginations to destroy the United States for the sake of their own fantasies. Their numbers are small and their ignorance of what is best in American history is complete, but that does not mean they are not able to cause huge damage.

********

Here in Texas we are all too familiar with the kind of paranoid, delusional rhetoric that Mr. Blow describes. After all, this is the state that elected a governor who kinda-sorta supports secession as well as the single most ignorant member of congress - Louie “Terror Babies” Gohmert.

Regrettably, however, they should not be laughed at. They are sick, dangerous and violent people. What they are engaging in is rank intimidation. They are openly threatening the lives of public officials, representative government and our free institutions. They are not patriots bravely protecting their sacred freedoms from tyranny. They are a bevy of fascists, Theocrats and home-grown terrorists.

The first amendment does not entitle one to incite riots and publicly advocate violent insurrection and the killing of public officials. Congress should investigate the unAmerican activities of groups like Gun Owners of America and the American Family Association. Men like Bryan Fisher and Larry Pratt are a real and present threat to our American way of life. They should be prosecuted for the violence they are inciting.


19 posted on 01/12/2013 1:02:04 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (I'll raise $2million for Sarah Palin's presidential run. What'll you do?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
that sound you hear is the sound of a cultural paranoia by people who have lost their grip on the reins of power, and on reality, and who fear the worst is coming.

I do fear the worst is coming.

You know, the way people who disagree are able to coexist and share power is that they have a contract with one another. You may not like everything I'm going to do when I'm in power, but there is a limit to what I am able and willing to do because I have committed myself to that contract.

And though I don't trust you, and I'm not going to like what you do when you have power, I can live with it for the same reason, there is a limit to what you will do with your power because you have committed to that same contract.

But once that contract is broken, I can no longer trust you to have power over me.

We have a one-way ratchet, because our opponents are not bound by the constitution and will do what they will. We still are bound by it, which makes it impossible to reverse the damage they do even when we do manage a return to power.

If we are not all committed to constitutional rule of law, we don't have a constitution and we are no longer in a state of law. By definition, if you are not in a state of law, you are in a revolution whether it is declared or not, whether it is violent or not. The revolutionaries are in power and we are looking for a non-violent way to remove them. Its not going to be easy when they control the media meaning they control the conversation, and they control the schools meaning they get unfettered access to your own kids.

They seized the key strategic ground early, and now getting ahead of the curve is increasingly tenuous. Every day we wait to take back the strategic ground it becomes that much more unlikely we ever will. We have work to do.

20 posted on 01/12/2013 1:02:28 PM PST by marron
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