wild_turkey

Too woke!!!

I'd rather live in a country with 20m ARs floating around than live in a country 10 years from now with 30m ARs floating around. This whole argument about "We've already sold too many ARs so why stop now?" is the biggest fucking bullshit of all. It's basically admitting defeat as a society and allowing all of our prior shortcomings to dictate our future. Fuck off with that shit.

As far as I’m concerned, you are complicit in the next mass shooting. You are putting more guns out in the world and putting money in the hands of firearms manufacturers and the NRA, who then put money in the hands of politicians like Ted Cruz who actively oppose any form of solution. You are actively making the problem worse. So congrats on that. Maybe you could look at the videos from Allen before you go to sleep tonight.

Poor little bastard was practically born a criminal. He just needed to get his hands on an AR-15 to solidify it. Luckily, our great state of Texas makes it very easy for young people to achieve their potential.

Just so we’re clear, you think a woman getting drunk makes her a whore?

The Gun Owners thread does not want to raise the age to buy assault rifles to 21 because 18-20 year olds will find a way to get them anyways. I think this is clear evidence that even 12 year olds can get them, so in the spirit of being good Texans, we should go ahead and lower the age to at least 12, probably even 10 for safe measure. All 10 year olds should be able to legally buy an AR-15.

That part made sense, but Roman was talking as if ATN's call on the election would finalize the result and hand Mankin the presidency. And Shiv was basically saying the same thing, but from the opposite side of the political aisle.

Pardon my ignorance on this part, but how much did it really matter that ATN called Wisconsin prematurely? If Fox News called Georgia or Arizona early in 2020, or even declared Trump the president, that would not have changed the actual outcome. It would only create divisiveness, which did happen. The result would still be the result. Was this intended to show that the Roy children, or possibly mass media in general, overestimate their influence in politics? They have enough narcissism to believe that a decision by Roman and Kendall would determine the next president?

The Greg pouring La Croix scene was greatness.

I binged the first 3 seasons, and aside from the Greg and Tom banter, I wasn’t a huge fan of the show. I complained about it somewhere upthread. I’m now watching this season weekly and enjoying it a lot more. This probably wasn’t the best show for me to binge because watching a rich family treat each other like shit for 1-2 hours a night gets to be a beating. It’s much better for me when it’s only one night a week. I look forward to it now. I also grow frustrated with shows that tread water for seasons on end, and that’s what the plot felt like with the Logan vs. Kids never ending power struggle. Having this be the last season allows the plot to finally move towards a conclusion, which I appreciate. I’m in the camp that none of the kids end up winning. I predict Gerri or Frank, or maybe there is a twist where Pierce or another outsider (but not Matsson) ends up with it. It seems like a poetic ending that all the fighting ends up with them all losing what they want the most.

The Edge of Tomorrow Free Guy

I have started following her IG thanks to this show and I enjoy her puns. I will probably buy her memoir.

If you are a gun owner and you are unwilling to participate in conversations about gun control and strategies to prevent the wrong people in society from acquiring guns, then you fall somewhere between being naive about the current status of your hobby and being flat out complicit in the next mass shooting. This conversation has spilled into this thread for the exact reason that some of you want to celebrate guns while conveniently ignoring their risks and the harms they pose to society. There should no longer be a safe space for people to do that. This is the price of gun ownership, and we have arrived here because people have ignored the problem or fought against potential solutions for far too long. I own 2 guns fwiw, and I am strongly in favor of tightening the laws around gun ownership.

You still didn't answer the question. You seem incapable of that. If increasing the age to purchase a semi-automatic rifle from 18 to 21 would prevent one mass shooter event every 5 years, do you think that would be worth it? Why or why not? You seem hell-bent on deflecting to this assumption you have made that 100% of mass shooters who would be affected by this change will have a person they can turn to who would be willing to purchase the weapon for them. I think that's an entirely false assumption. Some of these mass shooters clearly act in isolation, do not seem to have a broad social network, and live at home with their parents. Who exactly would they be asking to buy this gun for them? Their parents? And you think 100% of those parents will do this without asking any questions about it? That's insanity, but you already know that, and you are being intentionally obtuse or naive when you claim this.

We’re having multiple mass shootings per week. What’s wrong with implementing “mildly effective” or “partially effective” strategies? Can we only do things that are proven to be 100% effective? If you had cancer and your doctor offered you a treatment that was partially effective, vs no treatment at all, would you be interested in the treatment?

I was being extremely conservative with that question, and I was asking you, IF it stops ONE mass shooting over the next 5 years, would it be worth it? You still haven't answered. For me, it would clearly be worth it. I think most reasonable people would agree. Stopping ONE mass shooting every 5 years at the expense of 18-20 years old not being able to legally purchase an AR-15 seems like a no-brainer. I'm assuming you don't feel that way since you won't answer the question. You will instead dodge the question and shift the argument to something else, or say that this is all hypothetical and wishful thinking, therefore we shouldn't even attempt to solve this problem and should just accept that our laws are stuck the way they are and that our mass shooting situation is hopeless.

1. At the very least, that is one extra hurdle for someone to go through on their path to becoming a mass shooter. Maybe, just maybe, that homicidal 18-20 year old won’t have a person in their life who will agree to purchase a semi-automatic rifle for them, no questions asked. A lot of these shooters seem to be introverts who are acting in complete isolation. Even if that stops 1 shooting every 5 years, isn’t that worth it? 2. What is the downside to raising the age? Serious question. Are you honestly worried about 18-20 year olds not being able to get an AR-15? This same age group can’t be trusted to legally buy beer in this country, but we are concerned about their ability to get semi-automatic weapons?

The Gun Owners thread seems like a perfectly reasonable place for people to discuss gun control, societal changes that might prevent mass shootings, or just express frustrations over the status quo of gun culture in our country. Let's take a completely different topic that people are also passionate about: DOGS. Now suppose in the future, psychopaths start training pit bulls and dobermans to attack people, and then the country suffers an epidemic of mass casualties where these attack dogs are being unleashed in schools, churches, and shopping centers on a weekly (daily?!) basis where they kill 5-20 people. And suppose dog owners everywhere circle the wagons and refuse to do anything about public policy that could potentially limit these attacks, and instead of discussing any meaningful change for the benefit of all responsible dog owners out there, they decide to give more money to the AKC who can then lobby politicians to prevent dog ownership standards from changing, and tweet out false platitudes like "Thoughts and prayers" every time a dog kills 9 people at H&M. Don't you think in that scenario (as ridiculous as it is, yet replace "dogs" with "guns" and "AKC" with "NRA" and here we are), that the My Dog is Awesome thread might experience a little bit of backlash and spillover from all the other people who are sick and tired of seeing dogs going on killing sprees on a daily basis? This hobby of gun ownership is long overdue for a change. I know it would be convenient for everyone who favors gun control to stay in the Cloak Room where you can ignore them, but it would also be convenient for the family members of 9 dead people if those people weren't, you know, dead. Maybe it's time for gun owners to acknowledge that there is a massive problem and start proposing some solutions, rather than doubling down on the status quo.

People should have to look at it. If a majority of the voting citizens of this state are going to vote for government officials that refuse to do anything about this, then people should at least have to look at the carnage we created. If that’s too uncomfortable, or it leads to difficult conversations with young kids who also see it, then maybe people would make different choices about our elected officials.

fwiw, without knowing all the specifics of this current strike, I tend to support the writers. I worked for a writer on one of the legacy daytime televesion shows years ago, and my experience there made me appreciate the creative writing process, even if I didn't have any interest in that particular television series. It was fun getting to see behind the curtain, how each script went from basically being an outline to an 80-page script with dialogue and details. I think it will be a sad moment in human history, possibly in the near future, when AI is used to replace human creativity in television, film, books, music, and art. What a depressing world that machines would be able to capture our imaginations better than our fellow humans can.

It would seem to me that every purchase of a new firearm puts more money in the hands of the gun manufacturers to lobby against any version of gun control in this country. Buying a gun, regardless of what gun or what you plan to use it for, is essentially supporting the status quo. We will continue to see massacres like this because people like their guns too much. Am I wrong in this logic?

Here's another one just for shits and grins: "Write a short story with dialogue about an old man fishing in the sea."

Maybe you mean good dialogue, which I would probably agree, but it seems Chatgpt in it's current version is capable of writing dialogue. I just plugged in the following prompt: "Write a screenplay for a short film about a family getting a dog." This is what it gave me back:

I had Tapit and Derma. Wife had Mage and Two Phils. It all goes to the same place so I’ll take it.

Shut up man. The last thing we need is for Derka to appear in other threads. There is nothing else good on Apple+ and you should definitely cancel because it’s very overpriced at $6.99/month.