I'm genuinely surprised you can't see how much you embody the problem I'm trying to address. Your criticism is that "talking back and forth waiting for somebody else to do things" is bad, but you're unwilling to give up your own zealotry long enough to think about what might actually work. You'd rather be uncompromising than get anything done, and I can't respect a position that values ideological purity over results. The NRA has nothing to do with me, so I'm not sure why you're bringing them up. That's like saying you won't talk to me about religion because of Westboro Baptist Church. You want to talk about doing something? All you're doing is showing me that I was wrong to think that the gun rights and gun control sides can find common ground, and can listen to each other long enough to find things that will work for everyone. Truth be told I expected this to be the case, at least on this site, but I'm still disappointed. As I said before, you can be self-righteous or actually effect change. It's clear to me which one you've chosen.
I think I made it pretty clear. Three years ago I would have been for this article. Unlike you though I had three years to know your side isn’t going to come around in any real way. This is the first article you’ve posted about compromise after companies themselves chanaged the way their stores will sell guns, after companies dropped the NRA, after a ton of people marched and made it pretty clear this one wasn’t going to be swept under the rug. They don’t need you anymore and now you want to discuss working together ? You didn’t want your seat at the table, you wanted somebody else to do the work and guess what ? They are, you just don’t like who is at the table and you can’t really blame anybody other than yourself for not being represented.
"The first article I posted about compromise," except for the others. And I've cringed every time I even talk about this issue, because I know I'm going to get yelled at by someone like you. But I try it anyway, because it's important to find common ground, and I want gun control advocates to understand the people they're so cavalier about demonizing. It's the only way any progress will be made. I want a conversation, but all I get is being told that I'm either a closeted psychopath or compensating for something. I respond to inaccurate arguments with actual facts, but this too is somehow wrong (unlike all the times people criticize Republicans for playing fast and loose with facts....). But you don't want an actual conversation. You're not remotely interested in understanding where I'm coming from, but then you have the gall to say that "[my] side isn't going to come around in any real way." Compromise to you apparently means I give up what I want, and you give up nothing. You can justify it to yourself however you want; blame the NRA if it makes you feel better. It's certainly easier to vilify someone than engage with them. You're taking close-mindedness as something to be proud of, and have decided that because I disagree with you on this issue in some unspecified way, that I also believe all these other things that I've never said that I do. Then when I suggest compromise, you say that no, that's no good, because it's too late. It's frankly appalling to me that you would rather nothing gets done than something, while simultaneously claiming the moral high ground. Your hypocrisy is beyond disgusting.
You’re still not getting it. I know that, I readily admit to this. What I’m telling you is I used to be on your side. I gave up on you and given recent events I’m okay with that. You don’t take a plea deal when you’re winning, you take it when your afraid you’ll lose. I’m pretty hopeful about the strides this next generation has made so I just don’t think now is the time to try and compromise. You want to compromise now that things are changing. When they weren’t you were happy to patiently wait out the attention it was getting by arguing semantics and calling things stupid. You admitted this when you said you were reluctant to actually rally for change because you were worried what it meant. You aren’t an uneducated kid, you could have made different choices about influencing the world in your favour. I’m not going to feel bad and see you as a victim when you had years to rally change in your favour. It’s like people who don’t vote complaining about who gets elected. Things are getting done though and you know it. The articles have been posted here. You are an adult who went to law school, you had plenty of opportunity to do something and you didn’t. You aren’t some victim now that the world is moving on without you because of choices you made as a well educated adult. But you don't want an actual conversation. You're not remotely interested in understanding where I'm coming from
t's frankly appalling to me that you would rather nothing gets done than something,
You literally have no idea what my positions are on most areas of gun control, or what I have or haven't done on the issue. You've just decided all these things about me, and are content to stick your head in the sand if I try to say anything different. I still remain hopeful that there are enough grown-ups left in the US such that we'll eventually come to a good compromise, provided people like you don't fuck it up for us. You know, there aren't many places in this world where it's possible to actually talk to someone, and hubski has generally been such a place. But with the blind hostility I've gotten on this issue, combined with someone editing tags into stories I've posted, I'm beginning to question that. At the least, I'd considered you among those that make this place a good one to be. It makes me genuinely sad to see how wrong I was.