The reason why those weapons are marketed that way is because that marketing works.
The reasons for why that marketing works are... (oh hell, this isn't a can worms it's an oil tanker full of worms)
Well, I've said it before in this forum that I think that people behave either out of love (empathy) or fear. Fear is the driving factor of why the marketing works.
And another poster here (I think it was applegrove) pointed out that the weapons are unnecessary... which is also correct. Even the terminology used in the argument for NOT banning assault weapons is oxymoronic. Think about it--an "assault" weapon is needed for "self-protection?" The only person that needs an assault rifle to protect themselves is someone who is being attacked by an army.
But for some reason, there are those out there that believe that such a scenario is either happening or about to happen. I argue that this is a paranoid delusion. (I admit that I am probably not qualified to make a literal psychological diagnosis, because I'm not a psychologist.)
Martin Luther King Jr. famously said that "The arc of history bends towards justice." And for a while there, it certainly looked like it was. We started out with a Declaration of Independence and a United States Constitution that laid out a certain ideal of liberty and equality, but the reality was that we didn't live up to it. People of color were property, women couldn't vote, and if you weren't heterosexual you lived (in fear) in the closet.
Then the arc started to bend. And those that weren't white, straight, male (and yes, Christian) started to demand to be part of the process of deciding how things get run.
Not only that but manufacturing and technology and globalism changed the way the world does business and created an economic landscape which was unfamiliar to most. It turned out you couldn't put in a 40-hour week and achieve The American Dream anymore.
And yeah, it's a big problem that not only is the American Dream not attainable through hard work anymore, but the fact is that for a lot of people, mere survival is becoming more difficult. Is it any wonder that people are afraid?
So, those that no longer see themselves attaining the American Dream go looking for someone to blame. They COULD blame a business/economic model that failed to adjust to technology and globalism. Instead they look to the arc of history bending towards justice. But they don't see it as America living up to the ideals that the Founding Fathers put on paper. They don't see it as justice. They see the loss of their privilege as an attack.
Add the next element--media. Not coincidentally, the media outlets are owned and operated by white, straight, Christian men. So those white, straight, Christian men push the narrative that it's the blame of the "other." And it sells. It sells because it all happens at a time when the arc of history was bending towards justice. And, BTW research shows that people tend to look towards sources of information that support what they already believe.
(And by the way, as we're giving all those corporations (run by white, straight, Christian males) tax cuts, we're de-funding schools, so that the history of all this becomes unknown to the next generation.)
And then the people who have had all power and all the control throughout history are now under the paranoid delusion that they are the victims. They've determined that those who are rightly demanding a place at the table to decide the direction of the country are an "army" that's out to get them.
(They don't realize they're subscribing to this narrative being fed to them by the very people who they should be blaming: big business and big media--often one and the same).
They are at war. They just don't realize they're fighting the wrong enemy.
One thing is for certain: white, straight, Christian males have always been the ones that control the weapons of war--ALL of the weapons of war.
= new reply since forum marked as read
