How a Bit of Satire Earned Me Round-the-Clock Abuse and Threats of Violence from Gun-Nuts

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/how-bit-satire-earned-me-round-clock-abuse-and-threats-violence-gun-nuts



A couple of weeks ago I wrote a thoughtful, well-reasoned column suggesting ways to cut down on gun violence in our ever more violent society. It proposed, among other things:

Repealing the Second Amendment and with it the right to buy assault weapons at will.
Declaring the National Rifle Association a terrorist organization and making membership illegal.
Confiscating all assault, semi-automatic, and other military-style weapons designed to kill large numbers of people very quickly.
As I said, thoughtful, well reasoned.

I also proposed, satirically and more in sorrow than in anger, tying House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to the back of a pickup truck and dragging them around until they agreed to exert some control over guns.

Well, you would have thought I’d suggesting selling Sarah Palin to the Taliban. The Internet exploded in outrage and emails by the hundreds — hundreds! — came flooding in. My phone started ringing incessantly too.

[graham4anything]

1. Because they really were after the first part, but the writer gave them a target with the second

That is a trick they use

find one little minutia in a thought out piece that they harp on
(much like Bush took Dan Rather down with on that info that was 100% true and a supposed flaw in a memo never proven to be false).

it is how they time and again fight back because someone mispoke on a minutia which gun or bullet was it argument

same as all conspiracy theorists do, and counter conspiracy theorists do to the conspiracy theorists

it gets the conversation turned

best to the writer to have left it in the first paragraph

after all, rightwing extremists in Tom DeLay's neck of the woods in texas strung an innocent black man to the back of a truck and joy rided through town in one of the most hideous racism case in recent past

so it really wasn't a smart thing to even joke about

death from WMDs(and all guns are wmd's as are all bullets that are fired by a private citizen)
are.

It was a WMD that killed Trey Martin by a coward vigilantee who became judge jury and executioner.

And all it will take is one major shift on the court to change everything.
One of the 5 retires and the 4 then becomes the 5.then 6. then 7. then 8. then 9 to 0.

[MADem]

2. I don't think the Taliban would have paid for Miss Youbetcha-they'd probably demand a fee for taking

her off our hands!

His big failure in this essay? Expecting the GOP to have a clue as to not just literary devices but the identity of "Jonathan Swift." That's asking them to strain the little grey cells beyond their capability, I fear!

He should hook up a good long tape to his phone, and record all the nasty calls he gets, and put them on the net -- that kind of sunlight is often very helpful.

[aikoaiko]

3. Poor Donald can't take the internet heat.

He posts 3 extremist reactions to the massacre. 1. Repealing the 2nd amendment (good luck with that), 2. declaring the NRA a terrorist organization (in his words, "we did it to the Communist Party..." as in McCarthyism), and 3. "...tie Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, our esteemed Republican leaders, to the back of a Chevy pickup truck and drag them around a parking lot until they saw the light on gun control."

Imagine DU's reaction had the NRA said that last part about President Obama or Sen Feinstein. Go ahead, imagine.

And he feigns victimhood when people wrote him abusive and "borderline" threatening messages when he wrote an abusive and clearly threatening message.



Donald, you're not ready for the internet.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012312300033&gcheck=1

[upaloopa]

4. I am no gun nut but I think those ideas do a disservice to people who want reasonable gun control.

First off the guns in the picture are single action pistols and not assault weapons. They are not the kind of gun we are talking about but it seems extreme to me to picture them and talk about assault weapons. If it is intentional it is a stupid idea and if it is unintentional it shows ignorance on the writer's part.

Repeal of the second amendment is not reasonable nor is declaring the NRA a terrorist organization.

This whole piece and the lame attempt to solicit empathy by the writer puts us farther away from a solution than closer. Extreme positions on either side should and will be ignored by the more reasonable people looking for viable solutions and answers to the gun violence problem.

[jmg257]

5. I wonder if those "threatening" him were just being satirical?

Loves the xtra publicity, no doubt, i actually had to read the column to see what the hype was about. His use of satire wasn't so obvious.

[Lizzie Poppet]

6. "thoughtful and well-reasoned"

I see what you did there...

[slackmaster]

7. One person's thoughtful, well reasoned is another person's snarky, asinine

The Internet exploded in outrage and emails by the hundreds — hundreds! — came flooding in. My phone started ringing incessantly too.

Rights come with responsibilities. Actions have consequences. Act like a dickhead and you will probably be treated like one.

[lindysalsagal]

8. They are betrayed by their hysteria: But, women are considered irrational.

Remember that.

If the gun nuts could actually remain as good-natured and easy-going as they claim to be, we all might rest easier.

You know that guns mean more that sport or family protection when you get violent, hate-filled threats like that. People only get that upset when they're physically threatened. That's how you know that real gun nuts are using the power of the gun for compensation of their masculine insecurities: Taking away the gun removes his perceived identity as a big, strong, powerful man. That's why the reactions are so over-blown: It's very very very personal to threaten someone's gun. Guns serve deep, emotional needs that most of us don't want to admit to.

[JHB]

11. Who are these "socialists" of which you speak?

Who are these people for whom "the government" is "supplying them with the existence that was taken from the people that would have liked to use it for themselves"?

[Gidney N Cloyd]

10. "Satire is what closes on Saturday night."

As further evidenced by some of the replies here.