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Only in America


The Fish
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I've never understood how you Americans do it. Pretty much all of my American friends are liberals, but have lunatic Republicans in their immediate family.

 

How do you not mow them down at family gatherings? How do you not block them on Facebook?

 

It's bad enough over here in a relatively secular part of the world that Facebook is filled with girl power platitudes and magic crystals. At least it's benign though.

Not all magic crystals are benign.

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I haven't lived in England for a couple of years, but I found it to be one of the most accepting and liberal places I've lived (granted it was London).

 

I was there when they tried to set the place on fire, though, so maybe it's rose-coloured glasses. :lol:

Did anyone actually talk to you in London?
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I've never understood how you Americans do it. Pretty much all of my American friends are liberals, but have lunatic Republicans in their immediate family.

 

How do you not mow them down at family gatherings? How do you not block them on Facebook?

 

It's bad enough over here in a relatively secular part of the world that Facebook is filled with girl power platitudes and magic crystals. At least it's benign though.

I am the black sheep in the family as I am not an NRA member... I would say that a large majority of friends/family are gun owners.... which makes "mowing them down at family gatherings" dangerous as they would be better armed than me. If they post something on FB that I disagree with I just scroll right by... but after Orlando it is 98% of the posts. And it isn't just the conservatives... it is the liberals as well. For as many people talking about the "right to bear arms", there are just as many people talking about automatic weapons gunning down innocents in a blaze of glory. Both sides are the extreme and both sides are wrong.

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Did anyone actually talk to you in London?

Yeah, but I'm quite chatty anyway. Most people are very friendly once you engage, but I guess that's true everywhere.

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I am the black sheep in the family as I am not an NRA member... I would say that a large majority of friends/family are gun owners.... which makes "mowing them down at family gatherings" dangerous as they would be better armed than me. If they post something on FB that I disagree with I just scroll right by... but after Orlando it is 98% of the posts. And it isn't just the conservatives... it is the liberals as well. For as many people talking about the "right to bear arms", there are just as many people talking about automatic weapons gunning down innocents in a blaze of glory. Both sides are the extreme and both sides are wrong.

It wouldn't be that bad if you kept the handguns, but the death tolls in these incidents could be cut by 90% without automatic weapons.

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It wouldn't be that bad if you kept the handguns, but the death tolls in these incidents could be cut by 90% without automatic weapons.

Exactly, but the argument (for the Pro-guns) was that the weapon used was not an automatic but a semi-automatic and therefore it would be the same as having a semi-automatic handgun. The amount of bullets said gun can have in one clip is really the issue and even then, the pro-gun people don't think that is a problem either. So it isn't the gun or the laws allowing for guns which is the problem. It is the person who had the gun.

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Just checked the Fox News coverage of the murder of Jo Cox - the comment section is essentially full of people stating that more guns would have allowed her to defend herself, and that this proves that banning guns doesn't make a difference...

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The USA is bordering on being a backward country. I don't know how the sane people can put up with the gun situation to be perfectly honest.

We are a backward country. Can't really deny that. We are behind on so many different areas that to think otherwise is foolish. I would argue that this is all due to being a "younger" country which isn't an excuse for the shortcomings...

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We are a backward country. Can't really deny that. We are behind on so many different areas that to think otherwise is foolish. I would argue that this is all due to being a "younger" country which isn't an excuse for the shortcomings...

 

I'd agree with that. Britain would have been much the same a century back, and some of it still creeps into our collective consciousness...

Edited by Rayvin
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We are a backward country. Can't really deny that. We are behind on so many different areas that to think otherwise is foolish. I would argue that this is all due to being a "younger" country which isn't an excuse for the shortcomings...

There's definitely an immaturity and a dog eat dog aspect to the US which has both helped and hindered your country.
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I'd agree with that. Britain would have been much the same a century back, and some of it still creeps into our collective consciousness...

The collective consciousness is what is keeping the gun debate going. The other night, a talking head named Bill O'Reilly tried to explain the reason that Americans still love their guns so much is because of the fact that everyone had a gun to fight for independence and that it was their guns that allowed them to expand and settle in the west. Now obviously these scenarios no longer exist but the pro-gun will use the (mis)quote from Yamamoto during WWII where he said that he would not invade the US as there would be a rifle behind every blade of grass... and on it goes.

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That's actually pretty interesting. I suppose there's a few generations worth of gun support to combat really... all the killings don't seem to make much difference though, which is the only odd thing. What do you think it would take to shake people out of it?

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That's actually pretty interesting. I suppose there's a few generations worth of gun support to combat really... all the killings don't seem to make much difference though, which is the only odd thing. What do you think it would take to shake people out of it?

I honestly don't know. America leads the world in mass shootings. America is one of the worst countries in gun deaths. Toddlers have killed more people by guns this year than terrorists... yet none of these (and other appearances on lists like these) seem to make any difference to a large portion of our population. Instead, they are fixated on the government interfering with their "God given rights" and trying to take something they hold valuable away. This is why I use the "young country" stance... it is like a little kid holding their toy tightly thinking that an adult is going to come and take it away from them.

 

Another mass shooting like Orlando will only be met with "well, if there were people there with guns this wouldn't have happened..." Boggles the mind really.

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It almost seems like she's just there to jam up the debate and prevent anything sensible being said. She can't possibly think she was contributing anything to the conversation there.

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