On Scaring White People

So, yea, I’ve been somewhat hesitant to wade into the whole debate over Mike Vanderboegh’s letter to the editor. Other than a couple of comments on other sites, I figured it would be best to just stay out of it since I’m pretty much a noob to the whole blogging thing and there’s no reason anyone would/should listen to me.

Well, that, and, I wasn’t really sure what to say anyway. On one hand, I agree with the pragmatists that it’s not time to start shooting the bastards yet, and that there is still much that can and should be done politically. On the other, I also think it’s in poor taste to ridicule those who would publicly draw their personal line in the sand and dare the other side to step over it.

After all, this nation was founded by folks who drew their line in the sand (and started shooting) over gun confiscations and a couple of things that would be shrugged off today as a paltry sales tax. Yes, there was also the fact they couldn’t vote on these things, but, still, the grievances they sought to redress seem somewhat minor in retrospect. Especially compared to the leviathan that is the modern, Federal government.

Two hundred years from now, historians might look back and say Mr. Vanderboegh was on the cutting edge of a second American revolution against tyranny. Or they may very well look back and say the more polite activists helped secure freedom while preventing unnecessary bloodshed. Who knows. Only time will tell.

One thing is clear from all of this now though.

After much virtual ink spilled trying to convince everyone to stop scaring the white people, the Brady Bunch took the pragmatists’ words out of context in order to *drumroll* scare the white people.

Do we forget so easily that fear is precisely what the entire gun-control “movement” is based on?

If we openly say we will use our guns to fight tyranny, they’ll say we’re “dangerous extremists.”

If we say we’re not all going to use our guns to fight tyranny, they will (and just did..) use that as “proof” that some of us must be “dangerous extremists.”

If we don’t say a damn thing, they’ll just claim our silence means we are “dangerous extremists” who are “secretly plotting” or something.

No matter what, they will lie and use fear to promote their agenda. So maybe it would be a good time to remember that and stop fighting amongst ourselves? But, again, I’m the noob here, so maybe I should just shut up.