Remember that admonition to “Do not be an asshole“?
Yeah, that is a two-edged sword, and it cuts just as deeply on the supposedly-pro-rights-but-anti-open-carry camp (if the anchor link fails, just find “Gunnutmegger”‘s first comment, and read through to the end of the thread) as it does on the pro-open-carry-and-obnoxious-about-it camp (scroll down to comment #110, and then up to see what he was talking about).
Whereas not being an asshole and simply going about your life while coincidentally openly carrying is beneficial to creating converts… go figure.
Yes, I have been, and will continue to be, an asshole to anti-rights cultists – they are actively attempting to undermine, abridge, infringe upon, abrogate, and limit my Constitutionally-protected, individual, human rights. But when it comes to folks ostensibly on the same side, there is scant little to be gained from personal attacks, logical fallacies, and other impolite behavior… unless, of course, you want to alienate folks.
Hey now…
Regardless of my status as a sphincter, I am not the guy giving liberals free publicity to attack gun rights, and scaring undecided people into fearing guns.
The open-carry zealots dragging long guns into inappropriate places are doing that.
Why can’t they just get another tattoo or piercing, like any other run-of-the-mill attention-whore?
I would enjoy few things as much as having unrestricted open carry without disrupting normal social behaviors (unrestricted class-3 ownership would rank higher). But that is not the culture that we live in. And until we live in a culture closer to that ideal, or win some decisive legal victories to cement the right to open carry in public perception, I am not going to do anything to help the gun grabbers.
There is no civil unrest or rioting going on in America. Why is open carrying long guns such a fixation? Is a pistol not an adequate means of self-defense?
If that douche in Michigan felt so unsafe in the kids section of the public library that he just HAD to bring a shotgun with him, he should have stayed locked in his parent’s basement with a tinfoil hat & jockstrap on. That kind of behavior besmirches all gun owners. And I won’t stop treating its perpetrators like disruptive jerks.
Before I go too far, I need to make one thing clear… when I wrote this line:
I was referring specifically to your comments. All of them.
That pleasantry disposed of…
No, you are just the guy giving liberals free publicity to attack gun rights, and scaring undecided people into fearing gunnies by being an asshole and attacking gun rights yourself. Oddly enough, I, too, disagree with the notion of carrying around a shotgun in uban settings (primarily for safety reasons, but also for “do not scare the white folks”), but you do not see me intentionally misreading people’s comments, erecting and then incinerating strawmen, and generally acting like a jackoff just for the sake of acting like a jackoff.
You, on the other hand…
But, then again, we have been down this road before, and I see the potholes have gotten even worse.
No, you are just the guy giving liberals free publicity to attack gun rights, and scaring undecided people into fearing gunnies by being an asshole and attacking gun rights yourself.
Wow. How do you decide what position to take on an issue? Magic 8-ball? Ouija board?
I am not the one who decided that dragging a shotgun into the kids section of the public library was a smart thing to do. You want to blame someone for the bad publicity, blame the shotgun kid. Not me. The Michigan media was screeching about this incident before I started getting all rectum about it. Robb Allen gave the issue a higher visibility than I ever could. Talk to them about the bad publicity, not me.
And, I have attacked no “gun rights”. I have criticized the judgment of certain open carry zealots, and by extension the judgment of people who blindly support anything that an open carrier decides to do on a whim.
But, sure, I am the asshole. Whatever you say. If that’s the price I have to pay for not having to rubber-stamp every dumb thing a person does with a gun, so be it.
That twerp in Michigan is lucky I don’t live near him, or I would hunt him down and kick him in the ass so hard he would be wearing it as a hat. Shotgun or not.
*sigh* Well, it is good to see that your reading comprehension problems are not limited to just Robb’s weblog.
In point of fact, you did far more than just “criticize” – as I said, and will say again (with further exposition), you blatantly misrepresented and distorted the comments and arguments of people ostensibly on your own side, you relied almost entirely and exclusively on strawmen to support your bigoted and abusive arguments (and when you were not leaning on your scarecrow, you were flinging other logical fallacies with reckless abandon), you outright lied about what other people said (both through implication and accusation), and you intentionally inflamed and degraded the conversation.
THAT makes you an asshole, not the fact that you disagree with openly carrying a shotgun (which, I will again repeat, since it does not seem to be percolating through your thick skull, I also disagree with).
People like you I do not need on my side, but just as you have to deal with open carriers not doing things you agree with, I have to deal with assholes like you recklessly attacking other people over things they did not say, and causes they did not support. But, hey, if that is the price I have to pay for standing up for people’s rights, so be it.
Oh, and way to end the comment on a positive note – good job demonstrating your maturity, responsibility, and ability to discuss things like a reasonable human being. I should warn you that this weblog’s Terms of Use specifically prohibit illegal or illicit activities in comments, and unprovoked threats of violence skirt remarkably close to that line. Mind yourself in the future.
In point of fact, you did far more than just “criticize” – as I said, and will say again (with further exposition), you blatantly misrepresented and distorted the comments and arguments of people ostensibly on your own side, you relied almost entirely and exclusively on strawmen to support your bigoted and abusive arguments (and when you were not leaning on your scarecrow, you were flinging other logical fallacies with reckless abandon), you outright lied about what other people said (both through implication and accusation), and you intentionally inflamed and degraded the conversation.
…sorry, hard to type when I am laughing so hard. It’s my usual reaction to hypocrisy.
People get called Fudds by the open-carriers for not endorsing the Shotgun Kid’s behavior, but the only person who gets accused of lying and misrepresentation and incivility is me? Wow. It’s like I’m arguing with a liberal.
This is why the open carriers are their own worst enemy. They steadfastly refuse to accept that they will ever face any negative consequences for their actions. Time will tell how badly they shoot everyone’s gun rights in the foot with their shenanigans. And if past behavior is a reliable indicator, we can count on hearing how any negative consequences are someone else’s fault.
Confession time: I am way behind schedule for pissing people off, and I don’t have time to read terms of service. If you have to delete my comments or ban me, I accept your decision. Rules are rules.
Case in point of your lies… Referring specifically to the thread at Robb’s place, no one said that, it was explained to you that no one said that, Robb expressly and consistently clarified his position, and yet you keep misrepresenting it. That is not helping. At all. But, hey, knocking down those Straw Men makes you feel like a Big Man On Campus, does it not?
Let me know if you ever extricate your ego from your ass – you might be worth talking to after that.
(Also, just so you know, “hypocrisy” requires the person you are talking to to have committed the action he is accusing you of. Please point out exactly where I have lied, or stop scrabbling for semantically null accusations to hurl my direction.)
Wow, stereotype much? Here is me, an irregular open carrier, freely admitting that it is very likely that I will face a negative consequence for my choosing to exercise my rights to bear arms in that fashion.
Whoops. There went that logical fallacy.
As I alluded previously in this comment, this conversation is over… it was over before it started, but that is life. You will not be banned, but you simply have nothing to say that I am interested in, and what little interest I have in wasting my time on someone who would use such specious arguments – much less the threat of violence – against supposedly-fellow pro-rights activists just expired. Suffice to say, though, that there is a very famous line about motes and planks that you should really look into and consider for the future…
Dunno why I am bothering…
“People get called Fudds by the open-carriers for not endorsing the Shotgun Kid’s behavior…”
I am pretty sure I never used Robb’s name or the name of his site in that sentence. Yep, just checked it again. It isn’t there. Nor would it have to be, since so many other open carriers have thrown the Fudd accusation around. And you know it.
Yet you claim:
“Case in point of your lies… Referring specifically to the thread at Robb’s place, no one said that, it was explained to you that no one said that, Robb expressly and consistently clarified his position, and yet you keep misrepresenting it.”
If it makes you feel better to set up these straw-men, play semantic games, and put words into my mouth that I never said, keep on doing it. Whatever helps you sleep at night, bro.
People can make up their own minds.
I have no idea why you bothered proving me right yet again, either…
Were you dropped on your head as a child? Have you ever suffered from any trautmatic head injury of any type? Because that is the only explanation I can come up with for you complete and utter lack of understanding of this quaint little concept known as “context“.
This entire post and comment thread, and your continuing idiocy, began with a link to your behavior in Robb’s weblog. What the flying frak did you think we were talking about?
Jesus H. Christ on a pogostick… If I did not know better (and I assuredly do not), I would almost bet you were intentionally feeding the anti-rights nuts ammunition for their stereotypes. First you threaten unprovoked violence against someone over a goddamned difference of opinions (and thus personify the hot-headed, blood-thirsty, not-to-be-trusted-with-firearms whackjob that the anti-rights nuts so frequently paint us as), and now you cannot find your way out of a bloody paperbag with a flashlight and a knife, and resort to “I know you are but what am I” argumentative tactics (and accordingly embody the idiotic, uneducated, ignorant hick firearm owner stereotype). Thanks for that!
Are you trying to do more harm than good? ‘Cause, if so, I would sincerely appreciate it if you were to stop.
You are right. People can make up their own minds. And when a person like Robb has made up his mind that you are a dick… well, damn, that rather says something right there. Damned if you can see it, though, with your head planted that far up your own ass…
“Are you trying to do more harm than good? ‘Cause, if so, I would sincerely appreciate it if you were to stop. ”
That’s Basically what I thought of some of the more rabid pro-OC’ers commenting on this whole kerfuffle over at Breda’s, Robb’s and The Nerd’s blogs.
As for Gunnutmegger, his comments are doing wonders to help sway opinion and further our cause……sigh.
Unfortunately, it would appear as though folks on both ends of the spectrum have a fair bit to learn about making convincing arguments, while those of us more in the middle have to waste our time picking up the pieces and putting the disaster back together. Good times.