Ahh, “gun control” extremists… when will you ever learn that the Memory Hole simply is not a viable tactic any more?
Consider, if you must, the fairly impolite example of @BenjaminV, who had this “conversation” with me regarding the shooting at Virginia Tech on Thursday:
BenjaminV: There should be no guns on college campuses, period.
#virginiatech#guncontrolLinoge_WOTC: How are those
#gunfreezones working for you? RT@BenjaminV: There should be no guns on college campuses, period.#virginiatech#guncontrolBarronBarnett:
@linoge_wotc@BenjaminV I will try and find the paper again but research has shown Gun Free Zones had a higher rate and higher victim countsLinoge_WOTC:
@barronbarnett There is a reason#gunfreezones are more accurately called#victimdisarmamentzones@BenjaminV
BenjaminV: @GunsnCoasters @linoge_wotc you can have this country, it’s going to hell anyway, keep clinging to your guns and religion.
Linoge_WOTC:
@BenjaminV@GunsnCoasters Far be it for me to stop you from leaving.BenjaminV: @linoge_wotc @barronbarnett you gun nuts are proving my point. I knew you’d put your precious 2nd amendment before common sense.
Linoge_WOTC:
@BenjaminV@barronbarnett I don’t think that word means what you think it means.BenjaminV: @linoge_wotc @gunsncoasters Enjoy Tennessee. It’s the home of our best and brightest. Oh wait.
Linoge_WOTC:
@BenjaminV Ah, and now come the ad hominem attacks. Certainly did not take you too long to resort to petty childishness.@gunsncoasters
(Please note that the bulked screencap is arranged in top-last chronological order, and the text is top-first.)
If you look carefully at the blockquote above, you will see that three quotes from BenjaminV lack hyperlinks to their Twitter records; this is not an oversight on my part, instead, it would appear as though BenjaminV decided to try to shove those comments down a Memory Hole by deleting them from Twitter. Unfortunately for him, I leave my home computer running nearly all the time, and as long as it is up, TweetDeck is online and archiving everything it sees, including tweets with my username in them.
So why did he try to take the coward’s escape and strike his comments – comments he obviously ardently believed in when the wrote them – from the record? Maybe he realized they might damage his fledgling design business. Maybe he lacks the courage to stand by his convictions. Maybe he realized how reprehensible those comments were, but is so spinally deficient he cannot apologize for them. One thing is for certain: this attempt at rewriting history is a systemic deficiency of anti-rights cultists like BenjaminV there, and should always be kept in mind while dealing with them; if you want anything for future records, take screencaps (I recommend WebShot) or have some kind of logging software, and be ready to use it if you need to.
Regarding BenjaminV’s aborted attempts at points, I only need to say that, once again, Virginia Tech is a prime example of the failure of “gun control” and the pointless nature of “gun free zones”, and that “common sense” is, at best, a lousy reason to abridge the rights of law-abiding citizens (and, yes, the Constitution does take priority over it, thank you for noticing), and, at worst, a base and irresponsible logical fallacy not even worthy of consideration. The remainder of his tweets consist of pointless, immature personal attacks, so there is no point in addressing them here.
I wonder when “gun control” extremists like BenjaminV there will realize that “The Internet Never Forgets”… probably about the same time he starts presenting rational, logical arguments based off historical data, I suppose.
I said it on Weerd’s blog, and I’m going to say it again here, because it’s a good line and I enjoy hearing it even though it can’t compete with Barron’s line:
“Trusting in anti-gun laws to keep you from being shot is like refusing to wear your seatbelt because you trust traffic laws to keep you from being in a car accident.”
In contrast, how many shootings do you hear on Utah university campuses? (Utah, TMK, is still the only state that REQUIRES state schools to allow carry. On top of that, we can carry in K-12 schools, too.)
@Erin That a perfect analogy for the dependence on laws. Laws don’t stop bad things from happening, they just provide a recourse when they’re broken.
Yeah I noticed the memory hole after I got home late Thursday night and I saw a bunch of comments from you to him that didn’t make sense. It looked like a 1 sided conversation. I went back and even the comments sent to me were removed.
I said crap, then at work yesterday morning tweet deck had them retained for posterity.
“…if you want anything for future records, take screencaps…”
Wish I had this advice years ago, and it sure as hell doesn’t apply to just anti-gunners. The memory hole actually killed an old friendship between me and someone I’ve known since memory began… all because he wanted me to factually prove he said something (“if it isn’t admissible in court, you can’t say I said it”- yes, he said those exact words). Worse, he wanted this proof in a casual conversation when I noticed a bit of his logic on guns didn’t fit with some other issue. A *casual* conversation.
I said “Eff this shite” and he responded “So you give up?” (as in give up the argument). I walked away and haven’t seen or talked to him since.
So yeah, people like this don’t want a betterment of society or the ability to excel as an individual human being, they just want to win the verbal debate. I just wish I didn’t have to lose my old buddy over it.
@ the dude:
Erm… this is none of my business, Dude, but unless this argument was over a major, deal-breaking issue, and assuming you are both emotionally mature adults, a simple phone call or email along the lines of “I miss you and your friendship. Can we just forget about that argument we had, apologize to each other, and be friends again?”
If the friendship is as deep as you say, I’m certain he misses you too and will say yes. And besides, this time of year is perfect for things like this.
@ Erin Palette: There is absolutely no shame in being proud of and sharing a worthy creation… I may have to steal that later this week
.
@ Lokidude: But Utah is different, just like guns are different.
I swear, I am going to start clobbering the “geographically-based Second Amendment crowd” with “So you are ok with the South ignoring the 13th Amendment, then?”
@ Barron Barnett: It amazes me that even a decade later, anti-rights cultists are still catching up to this marvelous piece of technology known as “the Internet”. I guess it sucks (for them, at least) to no longer control the message.
@ the dude: Erin beat me to it, but I assume there is something more to the story than what was recounted here? I can certainly see a conversation like that spiralling out of control quickly, though…
In any case, revisoinism like that just gets on my nerves, mostly due to the dishonesty of it. If BenjaminV had apologized for his comments, I never would have made an issue of it. If he had left them up, undeleted, I probably never would have cared. But trying to hide them? Yeah, good luck with that bucko.
Yeah after your last tweet I saw I was willing to just say whatever and walk on. Until I noticed everything missing. Now you’ve show that something in your brain makes you feel that you were in the wrong position. Pardon me if I act like a shark with blood in the water.
Dear Lord, that moron even has his street address on his site. It would certainly be reprehensible if he ended up on some exotic mailing lists.
@ Barron Barnett: Pretty much exactly that – man up and own your words, or “mean” people like me will see that you do.
@ Beaumont: Wow. Had not noticed that myself. Bit dumb, that…