"Briefly stated, I think that general gun ownership is a bad idea, from both a “most people are too irresponsible, stupid, or just plain evil to own guns” practical standpoint and because I think placing the safety and freedom of society in the hands of individuals harms us normatively by making collective action more difficult. I do not believe that the Founders intended to protect an individual right to be armed, nor that such a right is not subject to modification by society. While our system must protect minorities against tyrannical majorities, rights are contestable and depend on social agreement, nor [sic] violent assertion of self-proclaimed entitlement."
- R. Stanton Scott
I find it sad how some anti-gunners think so poorly of their fellow Americans. If this is how you view others I guess it's not much of a stretch to support the denial of their rights. There are people whom I find morally reprehensible, but my personal opinion of someone does not justify calling for the violation of their rights.
Maybe we should instead place the freedom & safety of society in the hands of "philosopher-kings" in government. That's worked out really well for individual citizens throughout history....
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And, as usual, not only do anti-rights advocates think, for some reason, that their "beliefs" give them the ability to abridge, restrict, and otherwise infringe upon the rights of Amrerican citizens however those advocates feel is appropriate or in concert with their desires, but also those "beliefs", in and of themselves, run directly contrary to the stated and recorded positions of the Founding Fathers upon whose graves Scotty is so liberally urinating.
If I could bring myself to write these people off as nothing more than illiterate fools, their cognitive dissonance would trouble me a great deal less. However, being the honest person-in-search-of-facts that I am, I know this is not the case, and I can only wonder at the degree of compartmentalization, rationalizatoin, and self-delusion that goes on inside those people's heads...
I gotta say while I'm not impressed with his views, nor his methods of arguing them, but I do have to admire his honesty.
Of course this behavior is the root of all despotism. People who are so arrogant to think that their world-view is a one-size-fits-all, and all will be peachy if they can just crush those damn square pegs that refute his round holes.
The idea of Liberty is diametrically opposed to how he sees the world. He sees the world as rulers and subjects, and guess which group he sees himself in?
Again, it's rather sad, and certainly offensive, but I do admire his honesty. I'd say most of the Narcissistic authoritarians see it that way, but they lie and pretend to be compassionate.
Case and point. MikeB is talking about a recent email I sent him. His word is "I politely said no", when instead I received and obscenity-laced email...and actually never a direct answer to my request.
There's the MikeB302000 he presents to the "subjects" and then there's the REAL MikeB302000.
Unless he specifically requested that you not post it, I would certainly be interested in seeing that email, Weer'd... ;)
"He sees the world as rulers and subjects, and guess which group he sees himself in?"
For the record, I do not think this is an accurate characterization of my views. So I am curious about how you derive this from what I have written at FBL.
rights are contestable and depend on social agreement
If you're going to say that, then almost by definition you have to say that societal agreement is always just, and history has shown human societies to be downright barbaric with the proper influences. (See Reich, Third.) Are you sure you wanna go there?
Are you sure you wanna go there?
He does. And he has. Repeatedly. Recall the postulation that slavery was not a violation of slaves' rights because it was legal at the time? (With, of course, the self-contradictory note that slavery was injustice.)
Personally, I pray that placing the safety and freedom of society in the hands of individuals does make collective action more difficult. Collective action breeds injustice and the suffocation of individual rights. Granted, not things that Mr. Scott sees as bad, but then such is one of the major problems with statism.
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