What also comes to mind is a southpark episode where Cartman shoots Token… so, so, so wrong.
Thankfully the case with the McMichaels is going down very differently.
The whole concept that it’s citizens with guns should help maintain law and order is wrong.
It’s a right wing fantasy. Harking back to the old west. The very notion of self appointed armed men walking the streets for your safety is just bizarre. The end outcome inevitable.
It empowers the thinking that individuals can take the law into their own hands.
8 Likes
My first thought was definite speaker at the 2024 GOP convention. Not being tongue in cheek.
1 Like
Would not have read it as tongue in cheek, after that St. Louis couple were invited.
2 Likes
I think you’re wrong; VP anyone?
1 Like
US politics is totally fuckt
1 Like
Maybe Trump was right. Build a wall.
To keep them in!!
4 Likes
4 Likes
It’s incredible that we have an actual pedophile and the “Save the Children” idiots are on his side.
1 Like
It didn’t take long. For those not in the know Tucker Carlson is an ultra-right evening host.
Crazy isn’t it… these people seem to be lost in some weird dreams, far away from any reality. But after all, the whole right wing rhetoric is based on that warped idea of glorifying a largely idealized past as being so much better than today. That’s how they get their voters.
1 Like
I lived out in the States for nearly 5 years in the early 2000s and whilst there (and up until pretty much now), I had / fell for the following opinion; that there is such a thing as a responsible gun owner and they should be given the benefit of the doubt. When I came across openly carrying people I tried to treat them the same as I would those not carrying, and so trust would have to (could be) earned if we interacted. Mentally I went out of my way to accommodate the fact that people needed to carry a gun and that somehow grownups in a “1st world” country could have that view point. Now, I’m firmly in the camp of I would actively not trust the person carrying. I’m not sure what took me so long. Growing up in the UK, I had always looked down on that (I hesitate to use the term) culture and dismissed it as well you know, it’s the Americans. Living there I thought maybe I should be more open minded/respectful.
Looking back now I think it was such a morally weak and submissive point of view that I had. The fact that a person carries a gun means you have to treat them differently and of course as I didn’t have a gun the gun carrying person would treat me differently. If we were both carrying I’m sure the interaction would be different and as it would be if we both weren’t carrying. To me this creates an environment of mutual fear (who has a gun, who is going to use it, should I have a gun, if so should it be bigger and so on) and a society that fundamentally cannot trust one another or indeed give each other the chance to find that trust.
5 Likes
I went through exactly the same thing. America can be an odd experience for Brits because we share so much that when we do come across a cultural difference it can be quite jarring. When I first got here I really took time to take a step back and try to understand why they did these things the way they did, an to evaluate based on my experience of them rather than just going on my gut reaction. In almost every case so far the uniquely American perspective has failed the patience test and shown itself to actually being fucking ridiculous.
4 Likes
Arbery case. Fearing the hung jury. Just seems to me there has to be one or a small handful of recalcitrants on that jury who will cling to the citizen’s arrest law and the Rittenhouse verdict.
@El_Dorado Is that based on cynicism or based on what you’ve seen? In the Rittenhouse case it seemed quite clear from the get go that the deck was being stacked against the prosecution so the verdict was in line with how the trial went. This one is very different though. Pretty much all of the legal justifications the defense would ordinarily want to lean on have all completely fallen apart under interrogation.
The Rittenhouse decision as terrible as is was a case of a jury making the right decision under the law as written and the rules provided by the court. If this comes back as not guilty it will be a case of the rule of law being irrelevant and the jury just doing whatever they want regardless of rule and the evidence of the trial.
I spent a fair amount of time in that corner of America. Remember, it took two months to bring the case and only after the video leaked to the media. We’re talking the coastal lowlands where the echos of slavery remain embedded within the culture. It’s the Georgia citizen’s arrest law to which the retrogrades will cling. Will just take one. Standing by my call. Hung jury. Hope I’m wrong.
The thing with the gun lobby that was highlighted by Rittenhouse trial was the absurdity of the “Good Guy With A Gun” idea.
Rittenhouse shot one person trying to disarm him, one person who ran at him after shooting someone and then shot someone who drew a gun on him. There were other people firing shots at around the same time. In what situation was anyone the “Good”? Rittenhouse for shooting an unarmed person who was lunging towards him? Or was he good when he shot the second person who it wasn’t clear was presenting a threat to him? Or was he good when he shot the person who pulled a gun on him?
Similarly is the third person who got shot a good guy or a bad guy? He brought a handgun to a peaceful protest, why? Once he brought it and he saw two people get mowed down by an AR-15 wielding teenager is he the good guy for drawing his own weapon? Or is he a bad guy and Rittenhouse is the good guy?
Good guy with a gun fails because real life isn’t black and white (no pun intended). Take any situation and you can argue good and bad on both sides.
In most cases, whether someone was good or someone else was bad seems mostly to hinge upon what is later discovered regarding their political beliefs.
Oh, and fuck Kyle Rittenhouse.
3 Likes
It’s based on who lives.
3 Likes
That is my gut feeling as well. There is no basis to acquit, but with the ease with which black jurists are tossed, the probability that a circumspect jurist who was never going to convict was paneled seems to me pretty high. The ugly truth of how juries work is that one adamant person can swing the entire group, but a hung jury seems the most likely.
2 Likes