Ben Carson: Bungling Surgeon

There's the exit, have a nice day.

It's intelletually insulting to use Nazi Germany as a staging ground for permissive gun laws unless you thought dictatorial tyranny was at hand. And if it was at hand, what kind of blithering fool thinks folks with shotguns and handguns are going to stop soldiers and police?

In other words, on the brink of tyranny, you'd worry about the arms of the tyrants, not your puny stockade in comparison.

Remember that suburban Chicago cop who probably committed suicide but called in a crime right before his dubious death? Here's what happened in the hours after his death:

Several school districts in the Fox Lake area cancelled classes and residents were warned to stay on high alert. The search area broadened Wednesday morning after units focused the day before on an immediate 2-square-mile area over 14 hours.

Helicopters were deployed to scan the terrain of marshlands and dense woods that make up Fox Lake, home to about 10,000 people and about 60 miles north of Chicago. Hundreds of officers toting high-powered rifles and binoculars were joined by federal agents and more than 45 police dogs, authorities said.

...

In and around Fox Lake, residents were asked to stay indoors. Police have even taken people's dogs outside to relieve themselves rather than let residents do it themselves, The Associated Press reported.
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That's how fast a police state kicks in. Was it a benevolent police state? Sure. Temporary, too. But, nevertheless, it was, for a short time, a police state. Innocent citizens having done nothing wrong nevertheless being commanded by cops - as a result of what appears to be a suicide - to change their lives, even for a short time, in sharp ways. I'm sure lots of them had guns, but what good would they do? If you wanted to go outside, and the cops didn't want you to, what would you do? What would the cops do in response? When you play out that escalation to its logical end, who wins?

It's not the guns. It's never the guns. It's the show of power.

In theory, Carson's point fighting back against mass shooters has some tiny merit. I personally find it ludicrous to indict college students for not hurling themselves as a shooter, or to not pack heat as they go to class, but it's accurate that a school shooter only has the authority the guns - and his ability to shoot them - give him. Separate him from his guns, and the consequences are over.

This is not generally true of governments - tyrannical or otherwise. Hell, it's not true of the mob. Or a cult. By assuming political power - or governing power - there is a suggestion: Obey, and things will turn out for you. It's a lie, in many circumstances, but often effective enough for a few days, a few weeks, enough time to strip people of their voice. Armed citizens are killed with a message: We won't do this to you. Just wait and see, and it'll work out.

Carson's insinuation that the Holocaust was a weaponry problem...well, to be honest, I don't even think he's so dim as to believe that. Which is why it's intellectually appalling; some people are that dim, and Ben Carson - a brilliant doctor who is long used to people tolerating his shitty opinions on other things - doesn't have to think through the nuance of an inch-deep, mile-wide conclusion...perhaps because perfectly smart people like you come along and use the word "truism" to describe his bullshit.

 

I'm perfectly fine with reasoned arguments against his Holocaust assertion. I'm not fine with the reflexive outrage, and the assumption everyone will share it: "He said 'Holocaust!'"

 

He didn't just say it. He wrote in a book. And you know why that's the reflex? Because people reflexively understand how cynical it is, and how much it panders to the LCD.

 

Sure. But the reflexive outrage doesn't move the needle at all. People tune it out now.

 

We're in agreement.

 

And in an interview a year and a half ago.

That it's the top campaign story today shows the pack mentality of our political news coverage. It's as cynical as anything Carson has done.

And, the news coverage is just as thoughtless as anything he said. It is all about outrage. We're outraged!! You should be outraged!! He referenced the Holocaust!!

 

If it weren't in the book - which was released, let's see, on Tuesday - it wouldn't be a story now.

Carson also has a habit of excusing his poor, incomplete answers by indicting the media's focus on them. He presumes his own in-brain nuance is evident to everyone.

 

If the slaves had guns there wouldn't have been slavery.

 

1,100+ Jews survived without Schindler firing a shot.

Winton saved 669 Jewish children by arranging for train transportation to England and Sweden. Without firing a shot.

Next.

 

John Adams would've moved up the Founding Fathers hierarchy a lot quicker, too.

 

Is there a point?

 

That's funny, considering all his party has done for the last 25 years is do the opposite of what you're saying now.

Go to war in Iraq? Instead of making the argument why it's necessary, just call your opponents unpatriotic, especially if they aren't wearing flag pins.

Don't like the president? Try to disqualify him because he lied about his sex life under oath instead of making a better argument about why your ideas are better than his.

Hate the president's health care plan? Instead of coming up with your own plan, or make the argument why the current system is best, just scream that the government death panels are coming to take you away.

Hate abortion? Instead of making a better argument about why fetuses deserve protection, demonize the women who have the gall for wanting to have sex.