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   divVerent (divverent@social.vivaldi.net)'s status on Friday, 05-Dec-2025 00:34:32 JST divVerent

   • Arne Babenhauserheide
   • mike805
   • David Graeber Institute

   @ArneBab @HeliosPi @mike805 @DGI Right. The problem is how a democratic system defends itself (or not).

   Several Ancient Greek, and later a bunch of French, had some really good ideas there. Which all fell apart in the US.

   It is interesting you mention armed people. Don't especially Republicans believe that civilians being armed was meant to prevent tyranny?

   Sounded indeed nice in theory. Too bad gun ownership became political and thereby giving one side a free pass on tyranny. I mean, who's gonna stop the Republicans now? Even if you stop them in an election, you have an armed mob - the biggest ever - to contend with.

   Definitely some lessons there. Whenever some things that generate power (whether guns, demonstrations, free speech, due process, voting etc.) become controversial and end up on a party divide, things get _really_ dangerous. It is good to question whether some things really should be rights. It is good to think about constitutional amendments to fix what is wrong. It is bad to self-enforce on only one side of the political divide, handing the other side a free win, making you even lose on that very issue, thwarting your own goal.

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     mike805 (mike805@noc.social)'s status on Friday, 05-Dec-2025 00:34:32 JST mike805

     in reply to

     • Arne Babenhauserheide
     • David Graeber Institute

     @divVerent @ArneBab @HeliosPi @DGI In the 1960s you had the Black activists and various Leftists getting armed and taking the 2nd Amendment seriously. California banned open carry because the wrong people (Black Panthers) were exercising that right.

     So why doesn't the Left like guns? The Left was certainly armed in just about every country where the Left successfully came to power.

     Linux Walt Alt (@lnxw37a2) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} likes this.