doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Moved topic

"I believe that your conspiracy theorys reduce our credibility in the eyes of the antis."
Last Dollar, we have NO credibility in the eyes of the antis. Whether you shoot a fine old Elsie, or a black rifle, or a flocking Gluck; you are still a gun totin', beer swillin, pickup drivin', redneck animal murderer to them.....And we're not paranoid if they're REALLY out there...... Grant.

Grant, respectfully, I think perhaps you might be viewing the situation too negatively.

Yes, there are antis out there, many of whom are rabid but others are not. Many of them simply don't understand and I have over the years found that a little bit of education goes a long way. I try to take them out to the range and let them see what goes on - and let them shoot as well. I've actually gotten a few people interested in shooting and two of them now bird hunt with me. Most of the time they simply see that shooting is not what they thought it was and come away with a more positive impression.

Being a serial conspiracy theorist really doesn't help the matter - it truly (in my opinion) lowers credibility.

Very few antis think that sane, serious gun owners are "a gun totin', beer swillin, pickup drivin', redneck animal murderer" and those who do will never be swayed.

There are many people who really don't care much either way and those are the ones we need to recruit.

Any one that doesn't believe the Antis are nOt conspiring against the Legal Gun owners are dumb'r a box of rocks.

Exactly!!
http://pjmedia.com/blog/more-gunwalker-emails-suggest-gun-control-conspiracy/

What I'd like to know is how come labels like wop and jap etc. are so politically incorrect, but 'red-neck' seems to be perfectly alright? Maybe I take personal offence whenever I hear that. Sure I do; if I can control your speech I can control your thoughts...Geo

Canada's federal long-gun registry was a response to spectacular mass killing. I suspect US antis are fuelled by same tragic circumstances coupled to Bambi syndrome. Next month, our House of Commons representing significantly more urban than rural voters will kill the registry. Urban publics supported the registry.

Canadians aren't smarter than anyone else. Apeing the US, we're now spending a fortune on new jails while the crime rate has been falling for years. Individual assumptions, however, are often changed over time in response to experience. The shooting sports community here educated effectively.

Our national and provincial organizations didn't label antis as liberal or conservative, dingbats or socialists. It appealed to common sense. The registry was wasteful and did little if nothing to protect the public. Education is more than taking an anti to range or woods. Education in its broadest sense is uniting people in the pursuit of worthwhile goals.

Sure, antis are conspiring---as we do. Not in the sense of the word as subversive to the public interest but Canadians lobby for political influence as do Americans. Influence wanes, however, when sides become polarized by questioning each other's values. Whatever we may think, it's not smart to make distinctions of citizenship on differing opinions of hunting and guns.

On a world scale, scholars and governments are looking hard at how the West is using the word Islamophobia. It falls easily from our lips. We don't use the word anti-Muslimism as we do anti-Semitism. Not at all. As the West looks for ways to take the steam out of extremist terrorism, imagine the effect of using Islamophobia with its connotations of a quasi-medical condition!

Words mean something. My two cents anyway.

Redneck isn't politically incorrect in my books. I know it means backwoods and boorish. I guess it depends on how we use it. A buddy whom I admire and respect for living to a very high standard of human values works by a lake in the woods making and repairing aircraft in the experimental category. He's a machinist by trade. When he saw my books, he asked if I had read them. I don't think he had read a book. I shake my head and call him redneck. There's mutual respect; he knows what I mean.

I know of few who have contributed so generously to their community, with young people particularly, than my buddy. A lot of people come to visit where I live a long way in the woods on a cliff overlooking a salt water harbour. PhDs, priests, politicians, many with formal educations and influence in their professions and politics. Many are rednecks, not in the boorish sense, but selfish, ignorant of what makes a civil society. I call them rednecks politely to their face and explain why they have that effect on me.

So to come directly to your point, Geo. Redneck generally is a pejorative word. Even to use it teasingly because teasing perhaps more often is intended to hurt. I use it when convenient regardless of who I'm talking to. My buddy and friends know my meaning---with affection making a point---and the learned suits as my way of naming something, for them to come to grips with it. I wouldn't use redneck publicly, in halls or sound-bites, because of the wide range of sensitivity to the word, as you implied.

Regards, King

I guess somebody needs to tell the Blue Collar Comedians that they have to knock off their "You know you're a Redneck When------" routine.
Jim

http://www.jumbojoke.com/you_know_youre_a_redneck_when_2006_edition.html

Your thoughts about "antis" were well expressed King. Overwrought emotional appeals might be good for fundraising, but not so much when speaking to the voters we most need to reach.

The repeated repeated repeated alarums about how wrong it was for Dave to move the original thread to the forum for political discussion (please don't suggest fighting for gun rights isn't political) seem to me to fall in that overwrought category. Is it really helpful to pound away characterizing those who agree with Dave's decision as naive pawns of the antis, or ideologically impure? If there's a surreptitious anti on this board trying to undermine gun rights, he must be smiling about the divisive reactions displayed here.

Jay

King, I have to admit that the pejorative use of the term 'redneck' does not really upset me very much. Nevertheless, if I choose to act offended by it since it seems to be often aimed at rural Southerners, you would probably, as a gentleman refrain from using it around me.

Its the same with all the other pejorative labels we unthinkingly use to label others different from ourselves. My personal opinion of all this pretense at being offended is that it is after all just a method of empowerment by controlling the speech and hence the thoughts of others...Geo, with all respect