Another gun massacre in the US

[Rhiannon]

There were about 10 years between the Great Depression and the accession of Hitler.   The great recession was in 2008, about 10 years ago.   Time lag?

I think this kind of thing can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[wigginhall]

I think this kind of thing can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

That's what Hitler hoped.

[wigginhall]

It struck me that one of the strong themes in fascist groups is humiliation.  That is, we are humiliated and weakened now, as our former greatness has been attacked by lefties, liberals, immigrants, Jews, etc.   The task is to recover that greatness.

So there is a strong sense of victimhood, and usually there is a handy scapegoat who is responsible.  Of course, humiliation is used outside fascism.

Bowers seems to express this sense of humiliation, as he says, we are being slaughtered.   Solution?  Slaughter.

[jeremyp]

There were about 10 years between the Great Depression and the accession of Hitler.   The great recession was in 2008, about 10 years ago.   Time lag?

The Great Depression started in 1929. Hitler was appointed chancellor in 1932. Three years.

[SteveH]

The Great Depression started in 1929. Hitler was appointed chancellor in 1932. Three years.

1933. Four years.

[jakswan]

I keep wondering why we're seeing the renaissance of fascist/hard right ideology now?   Some people say it's about uncertainty, but there has been plenty of that since the war.

A fascist ideology is an extreme of authoritarian - liberal axis not necessarily right wing. Some of Hitlers policies were socialist.

The are debates exactly where he existed on the political spectrum.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/hitler-and-the-socialist-dream-1186455.html

[Aruntraveller]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46135459

Just to note that yet again innocent people died because of the devotion to guns in the US.

As someone said on TV this morning it doesn't even come as a shock or surprise anymore. Just "oh, here we are again"

[Harrowby Hall]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46187460

Well, here we do go again.

Except that this is the other gun problem - police killing someone because he is black.

[Harrowby Hall]

A note from Adam Gopnik in the latest edition of the New Yorker:

As the pace of mass shootings seems only to intensify, the possibility of action, at least on a federal level, seems to recede. It is overwhelmingly clear that the majority of Americans want to move away from the misread Second Amendment madness toward comprehensive gun sanity—and just as clear that no national political path forward can be found right now. Not because not enough people want it but because the deep democratic deficits in our system, which have been making themselves felt in so many spheres recently, prevent it. An electoral system designed from its inception to give undue weight to rural white men is giving undue weight to rural white men who, for whatever reason, value weapons at the expense of lives.

[/size]

If it is true that "a majority of Americans" want to reform gun ownership law then there should be, at least, some hope that this can be achieved.

Of course, it is this "democratic defect" which gave the keys of the White House to Donald Trump - not that he would accept that. Unless there is some move to rectify this constitutional distortion then Americans must face a future in which their nation will become more and more isolated from civilised norms.

[Roses]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46270195


And so it goes on, this time in a hospital in Chicago!

[Roses]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-48481814

This time the gun massacre was in Virginia with 12 people dead. There have been 150 such massacres in the US this year.

[jeremyp]

Sometimes I think this thread should be pinned. That's just a depressing thought.

[BeRational]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-48481814

This time the gun massacre was in Virginia with 12 people dead. There have been 150 such massacres in the US this year.

It does not matter nothing will change soon

[Roses]

It does not matter nothing will change soon

Agreed!

[Spud]

Sometimes I think this thread should be pinned. That's just a depressing thought.

If we dealt with knife crime here, the US might take note and deal with it's gun crime.

[Roses]

If we dealt with knife crime here, the US might take note and deal with it's gun crime.

You are joking of course!

[BeRational]

If we dealt with knife crime here, the US might take note and deal with it's gun crime.

No.

[Spud]

You are joking of course!

No, there is no point judging the US if we can't sort out our own crime. More police on the street.

[Roses]

No, there is no point judging the US if we can't sort out our own crime. More police on the street.

We don't permit people to carry knives or guns here in the UK. No it doesn't stop knife or gun crime, but at least we don't have the number of massacres they have in the US because everyone, including kids, seem to be permitted to own a gun. When my daughter and her family were in the US a year or two back they were shocked to see you could buy guns at Walmart when buying your groceries!  

[Spud]

Yes it's a scary place, but no more than east London. The numbers killed must be similar relative to the size of the populations.

[Roses]

Yes it's a scary place, but no more than east London.

I think it is a lot scarier than even east London, as people have a tendency to shoot first and ask questions afterwards.

[Robbie]

What an insult to Eastenders Spud. There are dodgy areas all over London and cities generally but you can't write off an entire section in one sweeping statement.  Plenty of good, safe places in East London, fashionable too.

[Roses]

What an insult to Eastenders Spud. There are dodgy areas all over London and cities generally but you can't write off an entire section in one sweeping statement.  Plenty of good, safe places in East London, fashionable too.

The east end of that city seems to  seems to fair the worst when it comes to knife. I am so very glad I don't live there. My husband is a Londoner by birth and was glad to abandon the place when we married.

[Spud]

I think it is a lot scarier than even east London, as people have a tendency to shoot first and ask questions afterwards.

Just checked,  and the homicide rate in the US is about 4 times what it is here, so you are right. Are you sure about your statistics in #35, the BBC website says 90 mass shootings between 1982 and 2012.

[Spud]

Wiki says 7 in 2019