5 ms·

Buy a gun, and learn how to use it. This is good advice even if you don't believe it's necessary.

unethical_ban 10mo ago
Find like minded people you can trust and know who will have whose back if something really goes wrong. Also have a passport and some cash, crypto and/or jewelry to get you out if this goes too far.
- LgWoodenBadger 10mo ago
  As if passports can't be revoked electronically now
  - unethical_ban 10mo ago
    Sure, fine, don't have one then. Whatever.
rationalist 10mo ago
Even if you don't like guns and don't want to own one, you should know how they work and how they are used properly. Kids used to be taught gun safety in public school. Public schools used to have indoor ranges (I've seen one with my own eyes). When someone learns gun safety, they are less likely to accidentally shoot themselves or someone else if they come across one.
- 15155 10mo ago
  > Kids used to be taught gun safety in public school The problem is that this normalizes the behavior, something that a specific political sect (coincidentally overlapping heavily with those employed in education) desperately wants to avoid.
  - xboxnolifes 10mo ago
    Which is somewhat odd to me. Why wouldn't they want to normalize and emasculate gun usage? That seems to be the general playbook of the US Left to change behavior. Of all of the big Democrat vs Republican wedge issues, gun rights seems like one that is being approached entirely wrong.
    - 15155 10mo ago
      > Why wouldn't they want to normalize and emasculate gun usage? Because it isn't emasculating - it's very much empowering - and anyone who has ever fired a gun or read a history book written in the last 200 years can't be deluded into thinking otherwise.
      - xboxnolifes 10mo ago
        Im not saying firing a weapon is emasculating. I'm saying you can reduce the toxic masculinity aspect of gun ownership through cultural enforcement. Safe gun use can be taught strictly with respect for the dangers of mishandling guns (even intentionally) enforced. In other words, make gun ownership normal, understood, and uncool.
        15155 10mo ago
        > toxic masculinity aspect of gun ownership through cultural enforcement This presumes that this is actually the (an) issue. > In other words, make gun ownership normal, understood, and uncool. Normal is the issue: you can't subjugate a widely-armed population.
quesera 10mo ago
How could that help? The fascists have bigger guns and more brownshirts. If you survive the initial encounter, you're on the run and an enemy of the state?
- honeycrispy 10mo ago
  There was a protest against the election in Tanzania on October 29th where the police were ordered to gun down the protesters, this is a country that has strict gun laws. Hundreds died. One of the reasons that doesn't happen in America is because the protestors would promptly shoot back and there would be a rapid formation of a militia. Hard to do that when you don't have guns.
  - quesera 10mo ago
    I really, really do not think that's one of the reasons it doesn't happen in America. In particular, the largest protests against American elections (in my life at least) have been populated by almost-certainly unarmed protesters. And there are many other countries with strict gun laws (i.e. not the US) where police don't fire upon crowds for any reason.
    - honeycrispy 10mo ago
      I think you have too much faith in humanity. It had never happened in Tanzania until recently. And I think you're right about them being initially unarmed, but most people do have guns at home.
      - quesera 10mo ago
        I'm depending on Americans to have a limit to their willingness to harm other citizens. I know that hasn't been much in evidence lately, and I know that American humans are no more special than any other humans. But we're starting from a very different place than, e.g., Tanzania. I predict reversion to the mean, not revolution. (It can be argued that what we're seeing right now is the reversion to the mean, which is a whole different cart of apples.)
lisbbb 10mo ago
It's not that helpful. What stops this technocratic authoritarianism is shutting down the electrical grid. If that happens the surveillance state dies instantly and all of the top echelon becomes vulnerable again. They live in a house of straw.
- cindyllm 10mo ago
  [dead]
- willis936 10mo ago
  Why are you calling the administration ending research funding, undermining education, and hiring media sycophants into cabinet positions as "technocratic". I can't think of a less technocratic US Presidency.

Find like minded people you can trust and know who will have whose back if something really goes wrong. Also have a passport and some cash, crypto and/or jewelry to get you out if this goes too far.

LgWoodenBadger 10mo ago
As if passports can't be revoked electronically now
- unethical_ban 10mo ago
  Sure, fine, don't have one then. Whatever.

rationalist 10mo ago

Even if you don't like guns and don't want to own one, you should know how they work and how they are used properly. Kids used to be taught gun safety in public school. Public schools used to have indoor ranges (I've seen one with my own eyes). When someone learns gun safety, they are less likely to accidentally shoot themselves or someone else if they come across one.

15155 10mo ago
> Kids used to be taught gun safety in public school The problem is that this normalizes the behavior, something that a specific political sect (coincidentally overlapping heavily with those employed in education) desperately wants to avoid.
- xboxnolifes 10mo ago
  Which is somewhat odd to me. Why wouldn't they want to normalize and emasculate gun usage? That seems to be the general playbook of the US Left to change behavior. Of all of the big Democrat vs Republican wedge issues, gun rights seems like one that is being approached entirely wrong.
  - 15155 10mo ago
    > Why wouldn't they want to normalize and emasculate gun usage? Because it isn't emasculating - it's very much empowering - and anyone who has ever fired a gun or read a history book written in the last 200 years can't be deluded into thinking otherwise.
    - xboxnolifes 10mo ago
      Im not saying firing a weapon is emasculating. I'm saying you can reduce the toxic masculinity aspect of gun ownership through cultural enforcement. Safe gun use can be taught strictly with respect for the dangers of mishandling guns (even intentionally) enforced. In other words, make gun ownership normal, understood, and uncool.
      - 15155 10mo ago
        > toxic masculinity aspect of gun ownership through cultural enforcement This presumes that this is actually the (an) issue. > In other words, make gun ownership normal, understood, and uncool. Normal is the issue: you can't subjugate a widely-armed population.

quesera 10mo ago

How could that help? The fascists have bigger guns and more brownshirts. If you survive the initial encounter, you're on the run and an enemy of the state?

honeycrispy 10mo ago
There was a protest against the election in Tanzania on October 29th where the police were ordered to gun down the protesters, this is a country that has strict gun laws. Hundreds died. One of the reasons that doesn't happen in America is because the protestors would promptly shoot back and there would be a rapid formation of a militia. Hard to do that when you don't have guns.
- quesera 10mo ago
  I really, really do not think that's one of the reasons it doesn't happen in America. In particular, the largest protests against American elections (in my life at least) have been populated by almost-certainly unarmed protesters. And there are many other countries with strict gun laws (i.e. not the US) where police don't fire upon crowds for any reason.
  - honeycrispy 10mo ago
    I think you have too much faith in humanity. It had never happened in Tanzania until recently. And I think you're right about them being initially unarmed, but most people do have guns at home.
    - quesera 10mo ago
      I'm depending on Americans to have a limit to their willingness to harm other citizens. I know that hasn't been much in evidence lately, and I know that American humans are no more special than any other humans. But we're starting from a very different place than, e.g., Tanzania. I predict reversion to the mean, not revolution. (It can be argued that what we're seeing right now is the reversion to the mean, which is a whole different cart of apples.)

lisbbb 10mo ago

It's not that helpful. What stops this technocratic authoritarianism is shutting down the electrical grid. If that happens the surveillance state dies instantly and all of the top echelon becomes vulnerable again. They live in a house of straw.

cindyllm 10mo ago
[dead]
willis936 10mo ago
Why are you calling the administration ending research funding, undermining education, and hiring media sycophants into cabinet positions as "technocratic". I can't think of a less technocratic US Presidency.