Jubbergun wrote:
That sort of stuff probably seems very realistic when you live in an ivory tower, but when you've got a more realistic perspective, there's a lot of things that blow up some of your underlying premises. Your "doesn't matter if you have guns, the government has more/bigger" doesn't account for places like Afghanistan, where the entrenched locals and their supporters have defied at least two super-powers despite their opponent's overwhelming technological advantage. Terrain and guerrilla tactics go a long way toward making life difficult for an invading force. Ask the Russians how much luck they had against dumb farmers with hunting rifles, or ask our guy's now how easy finishing the Taliban off has been.
The tradeoff is stratospheric casualties and restricting progress to an Iron Age level. It's a big deal when an American soldier dies, or an American citizen gets shot by a disgruntled neighbor, but in Afghanistan life is cheap, making what you describe possible.
That's not what we want, is it?
Jubbergun wrote:
The "doesn't matter if you have guns, the government has more/bigger" also, as I've probably said before, fails to account for what happens when you take a bunch of idealist young people and point them at their fellow citizens. There are some right bastards in the military, because it's only natural for those types to gravitate to places where they can indulge their baser impulses. I met more than a few doing some of the things I did early in my 'career.' They're the ones that take great pleasure in acts that everyone only does because the consequences of not committing those acts are worse than the acts themselves. The average service member, however, is going to have serious qualms about shooting their own countrymen, even if they're smelly hippies. With the military being comprised mostly of blacks and rural whites, two groups who on average are fairly religious and, ironically enough given their choice to serve, not given over to the idea top-down federal power (or as blacks call it "the man"), there would be defections. Those defections would probably be large and noticeable, and those defecting are likely going to take their toys with them.
Yes and no. Hence
the important distinction I make between the military's willingness to take part in political suppressions and its unwillingness to fight a mass uprising. The article I initially linked corroborates this.
Jubbergun wrote:
The NYPD standard side-arm has a 12-lb. trigger pull. That's like trying to lift a gallon-and-a-half of milk with your index finger. It is ridiculously high, and from what I understand, it's that way because the police union insists on it, though I don't know why.
I'm guessing it has to do with either retention or liability. That is an uninformed guess.
Jubbergun wrote:
The world is a complicated place, but not so complicated as to justify buying into nutty conspiracy theories. Conspiracies almost never work on a large scale (as this piece would suggest) because large scale requires too many people, and most people can't keep their fucking mouth shut. Not to mention, if there were any merit to this, no one would ever know, because any group capable of having their shit together enough, especially a group with control of/backing from the government/corporate interests, to actually do any of the things suggested would have their shit together enough to discredit this information (maybe that's what I'm secretly doing here now...ermegerd conderenterrigence) or make it and the people who developed it disappear. The fact that this "information" exists is practically proof that it's complete bullshit.
Not everyone who does something has to know, just the guys leading the charge. That is the nature of policy. That is the nature of leadership. Saying "it's outrageous so it can't be true" is pretty weak. Examine the facts for yourself and find fault where you will.
Jubbergun wrote:
Stop with the nutty conspiracy theories. The government didn't do 9/11. Obama is not a socialist muslim Manchurian Candidate. Coca-Cola and Citibank aren't going to take over America. There is no conspiracy that explains why things are the way they are, it's just that some people want an explanation more glamorous than the simple and true answer of "people are complete idiots/bastards" to explain why things in the world are so fucked up. Buying into this horseshit makes about as much sense as being afraid of the boogeyman.
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It is not as simple as one grand conspiracy. But the country is definitely the victim of nefarious schemes by these insiders. Go read about China being cut up into "spheres of influence" or the goings-on with American corporations in Nigeria or Argentina. Or go read a Forscythe novel (he was in the biz). Never underestimate the motivational effect of human greed.
