The Parkland Teens Are Winning the Culture War

[Amaryllis]

snip

Ingraham’s swift retreat is just the latest sign that, six weeks after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the gun reform movement is winning the cultural battle that must precede any sweeping political change.

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As the media-savvy students blanketed the airwaves with their eminently reasonable arguments, the big questions were whether the momentum they created could actually last, and, if it did, whether it might actually result in major changes to the country’s gun laws, a goal that has eluded activists for decades.

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Public opinion polls have emphasized this new reality, showing a marked trend toward more robust gun laws. As Vox’s Dylan Matthews notes, the polling shifts immediately after school shootings have traditionally been ephemeral. But, while it’s still early and surveys have varied, there are signs that Parkland may really be different. The surge in gun reform sentiment hasn’t faded as much as in previous instances, while some of the transformations in public opinion have been dramatic. One particularly striking Gallup poll, conducted in early March, showed that support for stricter gun laws stood at 67 percent, its highest level since 1993, and that 13 percent of Americans mentioned guns as the most important problem facing America, the highest number since the issue was first included in that question in 1994.

Another clear sign that the winds of opinion are changing is that right-wing commentators have largely abandoned their well-rehearsed talking points about guns themselves in favor of ad hominem attacks against the Florida students.

As conservative websites peddle outrage and easily disprovable conspiracy theories about the students, commentators like Ben Shapiro and Erick Erickson have adopted a strangely aggressive attitude toward David Hogg. Lesser residents of the fever swamps have followed suit with the insults. On Saturday, gun zealot and White House guest Ted Nugent said that the Parkland student activists are “soulless” liars, and Hollywood also-ran Frank Stallone called Hogg a “pussy.”

These brutal tactics seem likely to backfire, as they already have in the case of Ingraham. As the old political maxim goes: “If you’re personally attacking the survivors of a school shooting, you’re losing.”

In the past, the NRA has been able to exert so much sway not because of its money, but because of the passion it stirs among members, which in turn terrifies Republican lawmakers nationwide. Taken together, the shifts in culture since February 14 show that the Parkland students have supercharged the gun reform movement that gained steam after the shootings at Sandy Hook in 2012. For the first time in recent memory, gun reform advocates have a clear advantage on the raw emotional terrain of America’s gun debate. Given the country’s entrenched gun culture and the natural advantages its political system hands rural voters, it was always going to take this kind of deafening, concerted outrage to seriously challenge a gun-rights movement that has expertly redefined what it means to own a firearm.

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[vi5]

1. Our party can learn a lot from them....

..rather than shrinking from these attacks they are returning fire and winning. Rather than making the false assumption that reason will win out and that the media themselves will do the right thing in handling these right wing lunatics, these kids are pushing back.

This is what the professional politicians on our side should have been doing for the past 20 years since the rise of the right wing media in the form of Fox News/Limbaugh/Hannity/Jones/etc. instead of handling them and their attacks with kid gloves at best, and at worse legitimizing them in any way.

[Skittles]

4. CORRECT

[Nay]

5. EXACTLY.

[hibbing]

6. For sure!

[Amaryllis]

7. THese kids will not let themselves be swiftboated.

[Dave Starsky]

13. +1000

These young men and women have the refreshing ability to slice through bullshit like a laser beam, something I haven't seen any politician in my lifetime do in dealing with the Right. They are speaking the plain truth to power, and it's beautiful.

[Skittles]

2. GOOD

[JI7]

3. Trump is actually a result of right wing losing the culture wars

They still get more disgusting as we have seen with their reaction to Hogg.

But they lean older and those dying off aren't being replaced in the same numbers.

While on the other side younger generations are more liberal.

[murielm99]

8. I hope you are right.

But when I see things like Charlottesville with all those young alt-right thugs, I worry. There is a new generation of haters. We have to stay informed and vigilant.

[JI7]

9. the biggest difference is the younger/newer generations have higher percentages of non whites

[USsoccerfan]

11. That doesnt mean they are not a part of the alt-right.

There are plenty of young non-whites that are right leaning in their political views some being more extreme than others. Regardless of that, they are "youths" and their views can still easily change. It is a never ending cycle it seems.

[JI7]

12. not nearly as many as among whites

yeah, every non white right winger is a bigoted scumbag but they make up a small percentage of the larger group as a whole. and not enough to win.

[Dave Starsky]

14. That's one thing that's struck me about these neo-Nazi rallies.

You can actually see the panic and bewilderment on the snowflakes' faces as they notice how greatly outnumbered they are. They live in a social media bubble substantially populated by Russian trolls and bots--who, unfortunately for them, tend never to show up at these things.

[Mariana]

16. How many young alt-right thugs were at Charlottesville?

Remember they traveled from all over the country for that event. "All those young alt-right thugs" amounted to a few hundred. They're dangerous to be sure, but there really are very few of them.

[Hekate]

10. Fingers crossed

[oberliner]

15. On Fox News and other RW sources the primary voice of the Parkland teens is Kyle Kashuv

Who is essentially promoting the exact opposite position of David Hogg.

Important to be aware of this.