"Racism and priveledge (sic) are alive and well, but are no longer spoken out openly."

[TheWraith]

I'm crossposting this because I find the content very encouraging and I think most DUers would too.

I was reading through the firearms forum on TheFiringLine.com, and ran across a thread asking whether Americans could tell the difference between an actually tyrannical American government and the illusion of one carefully cultivated by astroturf groups. This was the second post in the thread, and in light of the common perception here on DU of all gun owners as right-wing whackos, I thought that it merited being reposted here.

The danger lies in what little it will take to really touch something off here. Fear is an effective tool, but it becomes most dangerous when we are no longer led to believe that the enemies of our "way of life" are on the opposite side of the globe, but are right here, next door, being elected democratically into "OUR" government. A very narrow definition is being drawn among some of our countrymen for what makes an American. We will likely find ourselves at violent odds with each other before this thing is over. I believe that the most under-stated aspect of this situation is that racism and priveledge are alive and well, but are no longer spoken out openly. Americans are not so stupid as to really believe most of the garbage, but need an excuse for their hatred. I left Baghdad hoping to never pick up a gun for that reason again, and I hope we find a good way to deal with this (prefferably one that involves allot less pannicked purchasing of bulk ammo and tactical weapons).

I encourage people to read through the thread--as of right now there's one kook/conspiracy theorist response, but many more reasonable responses like this:

When gun owners start spouting this kooky nonsense about being in a militia and overthrowing a constitutionally elected US political leader what others hear is: "I don't like this guy/gal and since I lost at the ballot box, I'll get what I want with a gun."

To fight against our government that has free elections, habeus corpus (nod to Ken) and trial by jury is nothing less than treason.

[BlooInBloo]

1. I had no idea. And "(sic)" is a useful term, here.

[TheWraith]

2. (Shrug) Just quoting the guy.

I'm sure the idea is no revelation to DUers, but it's encouraging to see how broad the perception of the teabagger wing is even among people DU thinks of as being on "the other side."

[BlooInBloo]

3. "it's encouraging to see..." - Agreed.