Insights on gun control from...9/11 truthers and teabggers?!?!?

[friendly_iconoclast]

I always wondered why certain posters insisted that there was some "conspiracy to 'give guns to everyone', run by the NRA
and/or the Republican Party" (or something similar). The conspiracy supposedly "runs" certain posters at DU- search "NRA talking points" here and you will get circa 11,400 hits.- and *anything* promoting shooting allegedly helps some vast
racist, misogynist, right-wing conspiracy.

Then I read this guest blog at BoingBoing:

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/09/911-truth-and-the-pa.html

and one comment really struck me. Substitute "the NRA and/or the GOP" for "Bush, Cheney, and/or the government" (or
"Obama, the Communists and/or the Militant Islamacists", and we could be talking about some DUers on the subject of guns and the use thereof:

....Second: It's interesting that when someone disagrees with the so-called truthers, then they are "sheep" and only able to see the world in black and white, only able to see the one (official) version of things and pretty much believe anything that the government says. There's no room in this mindset for believing that those who choose not to follow the truthers still do not necessarily believe the official story either. Or more to the point, that not buying the truthers' belief system automatically aligns you with Bush and Cheney. In other words, no grey areas here. You're either with the truthers or you're with Bush et al. And of course, being against the truthers means you're against any sort of dissent. Because the world is that simple.

I can't speak for anyone else, but what seems to be lacking in what truthers believe is an acceptance that, Hey, I may be wrong in this. I believe something weird is going on but I am open to evidence that this was not an inside job in the way truthers maintain it is.

I followed last week's discussion and I've come to the conclusion that short of going back in time and and sitting the truthers in one of the planes, the vast majority of truthers will never accept any evidence which contradicts their point-of-view. I suspect that there's something comforting in this belief, that the world is insane and they are the last sane men. It's actually egomaniacal if you think about it.

There was also a Richard Hofstadter quote which kind of explains why they repeatedly reject all evidence that doesn't
jibe with their worldview:

...The paranoid seems to have little expectation of actually convincing a hostile world, but he can accumulate evidence in order to protect his cherished convictions from it....

(from The Paranoid Style in American Politics)

[TheWraith]

1. A nice overview of the "faith over science" mindset.

Which is what drives the conspiracy theory people as well as various other hard-core sects, the people who value one issue above all others.

[friendly_iconoclast]

2. UPDATE- We are thoughtfully provided an example in GD...

In a discussion of Hasan's (the Fort Hood shooter) passing a gun safety class run by the NRA:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6981565&mesg_id=6981848

onehandle (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-10-09 02:43 PM
Response to Reply #11
14. Why do DUers think this has anything to do with the military?
I've addressed this several times in this thread.

The NRA is not the military. Do they have some sort of brainwashing campaign going on?