Why Are Liberal Democrats Arming Themselves?
Kevin Felts 08.20.18
Over the past few years, and especially since Donald Trump became president, groups who historically abhor guns are arming themselves, and even getting concealed carry permits.
Here is an example from the BBC – Why US liberals are now buying guns too.
Clara, a 28-year-old nursing student, grew up in the Mid-West, where “the folks that had guns were seen as hicks” or were just “culturally different”, she says.
But since the election of Donald Trump in November she has started going to a gun range for the first time and is shopping around for a semi-automatic pistol.
It appears even the most left leaning groups who, for decades called for gun control are reversing course. Polls appear to show the number of democrats who support gun control are decreasing.
The simple answer, and the one we hope liberals would say, such as “Blame the criminal, not the gun”, is not the answer. The real reason liberals are arming themselves is a result of poor journalism.
Over the past few years the phrase “fake news” has been thrown around like a Frisbee at a beach party. So, what “exactly” is fake news?
Fake News
For the context of this article, we will define fake news as opinion pieces presented to the public as factual news. Why is this important? Because the average American has a 7th – 8th grade reading level. That number is up for debate depending on what source and/or poll is used.
With the average reading level being that of someone in junior high school or a freshman in high school (9th grade), readers may be unable to identify dog whistle trigger words. Just like a dog whistle gets the attention of a dog, authors insert opinion based words to incite emotions in the reader.
Examples include:
- Trump is a racist.
- Trump is a white supremacist.
- Trump is sexist.
- Trump is a rapist.
- Trump hates gays.
- Trump is a Russian pawn.
For example, an opinion piece saying “President Trump Hates Gays” is published as factual news. Readers being unable to identify the article as an opinion piece believe the article is real news.
The same article from the BBC shows an example of the effect fake news has on people:
“It’s been seeing the way that Trump’s election has mobilised a lot of the far right and given them hope,” she says, citing a rise in reports of hate crimes and neo-Nazi activity.
Fear Mongering
The opinion pieces (which are presented as real news) are designed to play on the fears of certain groups – such as women, gays, and minorities.
When someone feels threatened, what is one of the first things we do? We typically reach for a weapon. This is a primal instinct that goes back to when our ancestors were sitting around a fire feasting on a slaughtered mammoth, and heard a wolf howl. What did our ancestors do? They reached for their spear.
Today, rather than reaching for a stone age weapon, we buy a Glock and take a concealed carry class.
When President Trump was running for president, various so called “experts” said Trump would crash the United States economy, and start a nuclear war with North Korea. Needless to say people believed those opinions as facts.
End Result
The end result of fake news is a section of the population arming themselves against a mythical aggressor.
There is some good news: gun control is losing support across various segments of Democrat voters.. We talked about this in a previous article – The Hidden Victims of Gun Control. In short, gun control victimizes those are least able to defend themselves, and people know this.
As various news organizations continue their war on President Trump with fake news (opinion pieces presented as real news), the unforeseen result is various groups who historically supported gun control no longer do so. Which is good news for all gun owners.
