Thursday, December 18, 2008

Disarmament as Castration

Gun nuts seem to react to proposed gun control legislation they way they would to emasculation.
Or to rape.

That's because we know being disarmed renders you contemptible.

Funny, we can talk about physically resisting to prevent forced castration or rape, but talk about physically resisting disarmament around some, and all of a sudden you're a...a Vanderbot.

Back on topic, this guy has a pretty good response.

[Via Jason A]

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the commenter is confusing machismo with personal responsibility. I suppose one could misunderstand it as a comparison between the sexes. It's really not. The understanding is that the "men" are adults. Children are dependent on the actions of other people for their well-being.

I have yet to discover a disarmer who, while professing his deep hatred of weapons, did not expect someone else to provide for his safety--with a weapon. And since commenter dropped the name, I think Freud was on to something. Jeff Cooper chose his words wisely, as a small amount of etymological research into the root "hoplon" (or oplon) will demonstrate.

What will happen to a society where there are tool users, and tool non-users who simply use their wealth to pay a tool-user to do the work? This is a broad topic, not necessarily involving firearms.

Anonymous said...

I just realized who are the principals of the discussion. It's no surprise that Eric S. Raymond is making these points. He has agitated the (insulated) computing world with all his talk about liberty--especially those opinions involving guns.

However, if any reader is interested in something outside of the guns, I urge him to click on the link that is Russ Nelson's name, then click on the "Economics" link on his page. This is a read-only blog. He used to call himself the "Angry Economist", but I never read a post of his that was anything other than calm, pointed, and topical.

(file under: technolibertarians)