The focus of this letter is on “Woke” or Cancel Culture, censorship and gun control. Again, these are my opinions based upon 82 years of experience living in this great country.
What started out as “political correctness” many years ago has now morphed into what is called ‘Woke’ or Cancel Culture and/or gender identity. The arguments being used to project this societal re-orientation are many but include the following:
- Any historical object be it statues, written history or patriotic concepts must be destroyed if there is any remote connection to slavery or racial prejudice.
- Biological gender can no longer be used to refer to persons in speech or writing. This has further evolved into school courses from kindergarten to college-level promoting non biological gender identity.
My reaction is, what in the hell are we talking about? Have we lost our collective minds? We are being told that if we don’t go along with this B.S. we are racist. I beg to differ. I contend those pushing this nonsense are the racist ones.
The censorship being levied on our society should scare every citizen. In case you have been asleep, several of the so-called social platforms have implemented their own censorship criteria and will kick you off if you violate their criteria. A cursory analysis of this trend will quickly show you that their criteria is oriented toward controlling conservative thought. Similar censorship has been implemented by the so called main-stream news media both TV and printed news.
Let me give one example of slanted or false news being promulgated on our society – the death of George Floyd. How many of our readers have paid attention to what happened to Mr. Floyd prior to the neck-kneeling footage which has generated so much societal unrest and so many riots. Granted, you do have to dig for information but I have seen footage which shows Mr. Floyd crying out that he can’t breathe while the officers are trying to load him into a police vehicle well before he was taken to the ground. Additionally, the official autopsy shows that Mr. Floyd had a “fatal amount of fentanyl in his blood.” Mr. Floyd was a career criminal and drug addict not the innocent family man portrayed by his family and lawyers. Mr. Floyd was the primary cause of his own death.
On to gun control. The Democrats have already put forth at least two gun control bills: one to expand background checks and a second to prohibit the sale of “assault rifles.” In my opinion, both of these are a waste of time and money. If you take a quick look at crimes involving the use of guns, you will see that the vast majority are stolen or no longer belong to the original purchaser. If we want to reduce the criminal use of guns, we need to figure out how to solve the broken family problem we have in this society. As to assault rifles, you can use historical perspectives to claim that all guns were “assault” guns at one time or another in history. The obvious long term intent of the Democrats is to ultimately outlaw all guns. Think about a couple of historical examples of what might very well happen then:
- Germany established gun control in 1938. From 1939 to 1945, 13 million Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, mentally ill people and other mongrelized people unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
- China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
Final thoughts. I see many similarities between the rise of the Nazi party prior to World War II in Germany and what is presently happening in this country.
- Civil unrest was spread through misinformation and racial accusations. Protests evolved into riots. We have nightly riots still occurring in Portland, Oregon.
- Censorship was implemented to include the burning of books. Dr. Suess books are being taken off the shelfs as I write this.
- Certain religions and groups of people were charged with being racist or a threat to the country. Currently, anyone of the white race in our country who is or has been successful is now accused of being a member of the “white supremacy.”
- Hitler was the Time magazine “Man of the Year” in 1938. Biden & Harris are the “Persons of the Year” for 2020.
Jerry Esmay
Stevensville
Rick Landry says
The latest response:
non sequitur ” If we want to reduce the criminal use of guns, we need to figure out how to solve the broken family problem we have in this society.”
appeal to tradition As to assault rifles, you can use historical perspectives to claim that all guns were “assault” guns at one time or another in history.
strawman fallacy The obvious long term intent of the Democrats is to ultimately outlaw all guns. ”
poisoning the well “The obvious long term intent of the Democrats is to ultimately outlaw all guns. ”
conspiracy theory The obvious long term intent of the Democrats is to ultimately outlaw all guns. ”
Amazing: five fallacies within three sentences! Must be some kind of record!!
Keep up the bad work?
Rick Landry says
Wow!! My ‘Logically Fallacious ” group LOVES the examples contained in your LTE, Jerry! See some of their deconstructing below:
If we want to reduce the criminal use of guns, we need to figure out how to solve the broken family problem we have in this society.
This is an opinion.
As to assault rifles, you can use historical perspectives to claim that all guns were “assault” guns at one time or another in history.
equivocation . While you can “assault” someone with a popsicle stick, the “Assault Rifle” is a specific gun with specific properties only tangentially related to the word “assault”. There is no argument here, but an implied one: we always legalized assault weapons so why change things. Besides equivocation, this is also a strawman fallacy .
The obvious long term intent of the Democrats is to ultimately outlaw all guns.
Unsupported claim or opinion. And as Michael points out in his answer, poisoning the well .
Another:
If we want to reduce the criminal use of guns, we need to figure out how to solve the broken family problem we have in this society.
Non-sequitur
As to assault rifles, you can use historical perspectives to claim that all guns were “assault” guns at one time or another in history.
Equivocation fallacy
The obvious long term (sic) intent of the Democrats is to ultimately outlaw all guns.
Strawman argument, Poisoning the Well
Thanks for all the great examples of irrational argumentation, Jerry. Please keep them coming!
Rick Landry says
Addendum: it occurred to me that it might be helpful to provide you an example ? Here is one which demonstrates “cherry picking” on your behalf, as you attempt to form a correlation in your reader’s persoective:
” Hitler was the Time magazine “Man of the Year” in 1938. Biden & Harris are the “Persons of the Year” for 2020.”
What you left out: Donald Trump was Time Person of the Year in 2016. Why did you omit that, Jerry? Or, while we are on the subject, the fact Trump has been on the cover of Time over 14 times? When you omit relevant facts like these in order to better hammer home your point, well, it’s known as “cherry picking “. And it actually weakens your point by demonstrating your flawed reasoning as well as your underlying cognitive bias. In that capacity, and at your advanced age, I don’t believe there’s any hope for transforming you into a more rational human being.
Rick Landry says
Jerry, you would do well to spend $13.99 and acquire Michael Withey’s book, “Mastering Logical Fallacies”: your writing is a veritable gold mine of strung together logical fallacies, from cherry picking and statistical fallacies to begging the question. You probably don’t realize this Jerry, but relying upon fallacies is not the way to win a debate or advance an argument, since fallacious reasoning is faulty or flawed reasoning. Honestly, this little book would go far to help strengthen your communications.