Pulse

Scott Hardie | June 15, 2016
I've been angry and depressed for days since the shooting in Orlando. Nothing seems to matter. People ask me how I'm doing, and I can't say, "Who cares? People are fucking dead." My LGBT friends are terrified of ever being themselves in public. My local friends are heartbroken because their friends died. And everybody else just wants to rehash the same bullshit arguments that got us nowhere in the past.

Can we agree that neither side is doing enough? Conservatives oppose even the slightest measure of gun control, but the approach is obviously not working; we need (at the very least) a way to keep people like Omar Mateen who are known to be violent, unhinged, and terrorist-sympathetic from getting weapons that allow for mass carnage. Liberals oppose any escalation of a war with ISIS, but the approach is obviously not working; we need (at the very least) a way to cut off their funding and their online broadcasts that reach people like Omar Mateen who are susceptible to their deadly influence. Obama is a failure on ISIS and Congress is a failure on gun deaths; we shouldn't be able to say one truth while denying the other.

I'm sick and tired of friends sharing ridiculously false "facts" and statistics about guns. If I can simply copy your phrase into a search engine and find several links on the first page of results that debunk your "fact," then maybe you should lose your privilege of posting online for a little while as punishment. Australia's crime rate did not spike 44% after guns were banned. Way more than 4% of guns used in mass shootings were bought legally. Stop with this shit.

Similarly, I'm sick of hearing, "Your need to feel safe does not trump my right to BE safe." Friends on both sides of the gun control debate have posted this same phrase. That's pretty much a sign of maximum polarization, isn't it? I wish they would really listen to each other say it, or at least develop a sense of irony.

Then there's the people who quibble about the definition of "assault weapons" and "assault rifles," and try to educate us about what the terms really mean. Look, Congress has defined and redefined the terms over the years for political reasons. We're talking about guns capable of killing a crowd of people within a very short timeframe. Arguing about the terminology is a distraction. Stop it.

And in a world where bigotry against homosexuals and Muslims alike is so palpable and deadly, I don't ever want to hear the phrase "anti-gun bigot" again.

Just when I think Donald Trump cannot be any worse of a human being, he says that American Muslims are all responsible for Omar Mateen because they knew he was bad and didn't turn him in. Trump is on the brink of inciting violence against a community that is already in danger. (I hate to go there, but the term Kristallnacht can't help but come to mind.) I might or might not write an entirely separate rant about Trump and how much of an awful piece of shit he is, depending on how much anger I need to get out of me.

I am not happy with the world right now. I need to disengage from the news and from other people for a few days, to get my head right again. In the meantime, I am curious: Now that it's been reported that Omar Mateen frequented gay clubs and chatrooms, does ISIS still claim him?

Scott Hardie | June 15, 2016
And if it seems like I'm picking too much on the right, there's plenty of stupid on the left, too. Slate just suggested that gun-control supporters can win if they use abolitionists' tactics. Yes, because that's what happened in the 1860s: Everybody agreed that abolitionists had a good point and so the slaves were set free, and no one got hurt.

Samir Mehta | June 15, 2016
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Samir Mehta | June 15, 2016
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Steve West | June 15, 2016
Human beings often have an insatiable desire for carnage. Anarchists are what they are because it rationalizes their own desire to destruct. Assasins largely exist because of their selfish desires to kill and again rationalize their actions to themselves as being societal changers. Their small picture view leads to violent, self-serving, actions that accomplish practically nothing in the big picture world.

These events appear, sadly, inevitable and unavoidable. I'll continue to enjoy life and mourn those who cannot share in my enjoyment. I'll continue to try and make the world better for those who cannot find that same enjoyment by contributing to humanitarian causes and participating in activities that promote peace.

Lennon was right, although not first, when he sang, "Love is all you need." Simplistic? Perhaps. But is their a better solution than for all of us to love each other?

Scott Hardie | June 18, 2016
On abolitionists: They were morally right, sure. Maybe even tactically right. But to imply that abolitionism alone was sufficient to end slavery is to ignore this, which was far more instrumental and not something that pacifistic gun-control advocates would want to see repeated. I maintain that the idea is stupid.

On ISIS: Agreed, they were less a factor in Pulse than in other shootings, but they continue to have sway with impressionable and frustrated Muslims in the Western world, and their reach could and should be curtailed further than it has been. I'm not surprised that many Americans consider Assad (to the extent that they even know who he is) to be more acceptable than ISIS, because ISIS threatens to do us harm and Assad does not; we really are that self-centered and myopic.

On SCOTUS: I, too, hope for positive change at this level, but I'm not expecting much. DC v Heller didn't bode well, but perhaps a liberal shift is coming.

On our bubble: We Americans may have the capacity to be better people and break out of that selfish bubble, and I continue to wish that we would, but I'm skeptical that the bubble is our fault. We have power as Americans: Our government is founded on the idea that it answers to us, so no wonder politicans cave in to every ridiculous demand that we place upon them. Our economic system incentivies companies to cater to our every whim, to the point where we feel entitled to maximum satisfaction from corporations at all times. (AV Club just ran a great thought piece on this.) Democracy and capitalism entrust us with more responsibility but they paradoxically make us likelier to act irresponsibly: By appealing to our basest and most self-satisfying impulses, politicians and corporations eliminate guilt for us, because people feeling guilty enough to do the right thing aren't likely to vote or shop for the parties making them feel bad. We could do the right thing and use environmentally responsible transportation, but SUVs look fun in the commericals, and this model gets slightly better gas mileage, so I'd be doing my part for the planet by buying it, right? This politician says he'll keep my assault weapons from being taken away, but I know he's not insensitive because he called the shooting a tragedy and asked for a moment of silence, so how could he be dangerous? Kelly calls us "toddlers with nuclear weapons" when it comes to gun freedom, and I feel that way about our conduct in general, but I feel like the system infantilizes us.

On carnage: Steve, good points about anarchists and assassins. Really, has terrorism ever, in the history of the world, accomplished its stated political purpose? Do they actually think we're going to stop air strikes or release prisoners or return seized assets because they got a guy to shoot up a crowd? The only thing that terrorist acts are good at is marketing. They seem scary and effective, drawing more people and resources to the cause, and making the leaders more powerful. I don't for a second believe that al-Baghdadi is doing what he's doing with ISIS for the sake of his people and I sure as hell don't believe that he's doing it for Islam; he's doing it to make himself powerful and to enjoy the benefits and spoils of that power. It's too bad that his marketing is effective at convincing potential followers otherwise.

Scott Hardie | July 9, 2016
After working overtime and various other problems, I'm too tired and I just don't have it in me to deal with more bad news this week. Alton Sterling, Philandro Castille, and now five officers in Dallas. The victim-blaming ("when an officer tells me to do something, I do it!"), the racist code words ("thugs"), and the thin-blue-line beatifying ("share if you support our police officers" as if nearly everybody doesn't). The peace, love, and understanding posts on Facebook that aren't helping. The false media narrative that pits Black Lives Matter against the police, as if we have to choose a side. We are a sick country and we are getting sicker.

I'm burned out on bad news. I'm going to try to stay off of Facebook and Google News and other haunts for a while. Maybe I'll be less informed. Maybe I'll be less depressed.

Chris Lemler | July 9, 2016
It just sickens me that both of these actions happen in Minnesota and Louisiana, but people are killing cops in another state when they don't deserve it.

Samir Mehta | July 9, 2016
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