Yesterday, dozens of facebook friends who never say anything political, decided to come out of the woodwork to make a popular political stance. GUN CONTROL!!! They lamented the NRA’s grip over government, they talked of banning certain types of guns or all guns, some considered banning ammunition except at registered locations, they argued over whether the problem is mental health or access to guns, they came with an abundance of clever slogans and memes to score political points. I used to be one of these people. I remember after the shooting in Santa Barbara (who else even remembers that one now) I went online with all these convictions about how no persons who had shown signs of mental illness should have access to assault rifles and legislation MUST be passed. This was 2014. I didn’t know everything I know now about US arms industry and military contractors. But I knew what our government was guilty of in Iraq. I knew what I saw in photos from Chelsea Manning’s leaks. I knew from personal experience that escalating violence can not and never will be a good answer to stamp out violence. Yet I still thought Obama was a “cool president.” A leader who advocated policies to achieve peace through violence did not fit my criteria of mental illness yet.
I was a massive hypocrite and lacking in critical thinking skills to get all political over gun control, a safe political stance that wouldn’t lose me any friends, while never looking deeper into why the US was now involved in regime change in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and Libya. I do not own a gun, and I am not attached to any ideas around other people owning guns. I just know that it is extremely hypocritical to get on a soapbox for gun control in this country without first addressing the misuse to arms by our government overseas.
Since 9/11 our government has killed over 4 million civilians in the War on Terror. In that time, death from police shootings have climbed to over 900 per year, and mass shootings now claim around 500 lives per year. Averaging out the 4 million deaths since 9/11, gives us well over 200,000 civilian deaths per year from the war on terrorism. So to all you gun controllers out there who claim you are “devastated” by gun violence, I’ve got a political stance more pressing than gun control. There’s one catch. It’s not a “cool” or “popular” position, and you might lose friends.
I’ve got more context for you all. In my last article, I wrote about Oxycontin deaths totaling over 200,000 since it went on the market, but I don’t see many people rallying around Big Pharma reform. Even that number is just a drop in the bucket compared to the 600,000 deaths per year in the US from heart disease. But diet and food subsidy reform never gets called for. These issues don’t fit into any brand of identity politics. The perpetrators of these deaths (largely big pharma and fast food corporations) advertise constantly in the mainstream media, so no journalist can look in depth at these issues with butting heads with management. There is a rule within media conglomerates to not talk ill of sponsors.
The gun-control issue, however, fits intrinsically within the identity politics of liberalism. It’s championed by the liberal media which calls for military solutions overseas yet loves to get high and mighty on gun control. They market to the people with money and a heart. I was raised among these people. I understand them because I was one of them. The hypocrisy of calling for gun control while cheering on the Obama, who set the record for most arm sales worldwide as president, does not come from bad intentions. The glue that holds liberalism together, as I see it, comes from ideals of fairness. There is nothing wrong with that. The failure of liberals is a lack of critical thinking.
The mainstream media has become expert at spinning stories to cater to the liberal mindset. And to liberals who live busy lives and can only pick up the important news in snippets never have any reason to doubt what they hear on the mainstream outlets when they have safe jobs, live in safe neighborhoods and always have enough to eat. They have no reason to doubt American exceptionalism when they live good lives, and their political stances all relate to believing everyone should be able to live a good life like them. In this way they were hoodwinked into cheering on Obama’s wars in Libya and Syria, because they believed our troops were fighting to bring a better life to people who had lived under oppression. It doesn’t matter how much evidence stacks up to contradict this narrative. They won’t know of it because it won’t be reported on. Another part of believing in American exceptionalism is believing in the fourth estate. No matter how much evidence stacks up to contradict the narrative of that the US has a free and unbiased press, liberals won’t ever doubt its truthfulness. It will not be reported on, so they have to reason to question it.
Liberals are bound to live in a perpetual state of disappointment at their leaders. In their worldview, they still believe that there is a faction in D.C. that is working to make people’s lives better. But just like the media will not speak ill of their sponsors, neither will politicians. And all politicians who make it to Capitol Hill, from Bernie Sanders to Paul Ryan, are not allowed to speak ill of their main sponsors, the US weapons contractors. Without this hundred billion dollar industry of arms sales, the US government would crumble. So while liberals will cheer on Elizabeth Warren and Kamela Harris’s calls for gun control, they fail to recognize these empty promises are part of a larger trend that necessitates inaction on all but a few issues. As long as the arms industry thrives we will continue to live in a world of violence, and the arms industry will thrive as long as America maintains its status as a world leader. The livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people in this country depend of America’s elevated status, and they won’t give it up without a fight. We cannot vote these people out because the livelihoods of politicians on both sides depend on America’s elevated status.
In the meantime, any lobby that gets big enough to effect legislation from the NRA to weapons contractors has a secure spot in American life. This will not be changed until liberals wake up from their comfortable lives and recognizes that the ones they trusted are lying to them. Until then, no cohesive resistance can be put up against the NRA, the GOP, Trump or whoever is the enemy in the most recently liberal news cycle. I’d advise the liberals who get actively bothered by these partisan divisions that they will get more joy out of becoming sports fans, because their side might occasionally win. And the rest of us won’t have to deal with your high and mighty hypocrisy when you periodically decide you’re experts in things you know little about. But what would be better, is to search for more points of view than what the mainstream media offers. There are 50,000 children at risk of starving in Yemen due to US policies who are waiting for you to wake up, and stand up to the government. Calling for gun control is calling for the main exporters of violence in the world to have a monopoly on owning guns.