Besides gun sales. What pretext did the Soviets use in eastern Europe to put down rebellion? They encouraged rebellion after Stalins death so once Hungary began shooting back it was the perfect excuse to go in with the Red Army to murder 1000s and to show the people ONLY the state has the power to bring peace and law and order.
The plutocracy knows a bunch of yahoos with AK's and rifles are powerless against a mighty army armed with tanks and modern fighter jets and drones and so on and will not hesitate to level entire cities once open armed rebellion takes place. They plan to be seen as the ONLY alternative to open rebellion and the people stocking up on guns with be either tools of the state to eliminate descendents or be labeled as enemies of the state to be hunted down and either imprisoned or shot on sight.
Your right to vote? Eliminated and replaced with authoritarian regimes all armed. You won't stand a chance.
Ok, I've been reading fiction and base this partially on fiction, but also a bit on tactics used by authoritarian regimes in the past for excuses to use brutal force and claim to be the ones who restored order and the rule of law.
It's a classical scenario.
It's long, it's hard, and if you handle it right something pops out of the end with a BANG.
And then there's the guns...
You left out the Illuminati. Everybody forgets the Illuminati.
Yeah...the Nefarious Gun ManufacturersTM brand of conspiracy seems more probable to me.
Uh, sure. That's got to be their motivation. Entirely dark and sinister, because nobody could hold a different opinion from you with good intentions.
:popcorn: Solitary
Yeah, I get conspiratorial once in awhile..meh.
Quote from: Jason_Harvestdancer on April 06, 2014, 10:10:48 AM
Uh, sure. That's got to be their motivation. Entirely dark and sinister, because nobody could hold a different opinion from you with good intentions.
oh yeah, nra has great intentions..
the gov'ment could succeed only if they disable mass communications first. Once the internet and all the associated particles are closed down its easier. If mom and dad, sis and bro can still have access to lil bro in the military he is not about to go off shooting his fellows. Kill, twitter and face book etc and maybe...just maybe you have a chance.
Look folks, I'm not saying everyone with a gun is in on some nefarious plot or that big gubnit has any such plan in place, but certain factions might think these kinds of things up. It's damned sure not unheard of and there are historical precedents for similar plans in other nations. This isn't like science fiction. The US government has stired up revolt in other nations only to later install puppet regimes to crush revolt. Just look at the twisted logic of right wings groups and how far fetched their nonsense is.
Quote from: aitm on April 06, 2014, 08:31:41 PM
the gov'ment could succeed only if they disable mass communications first. Once the internet and all the associated particles are closed down its easier. If mom and dad, sis and bro can still have access to lil bro in the military he is not about to go off shooting his fellows. Kill, twitter and face book etc and maybe...just maybe you have a chance.
Of course, who owns the Internet backbone?
In the US Level 3, CenturyLink, Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T do.
The Hungarian revolt began as a spontaneous student uprising fueled by Radio Free Europe. Even though it failed, it became a model for later revolts, such as in Eqypt. It was put down brutally because the Soviets were brutal, period. It wasn't provoked any more than any other similar uprising. If anything Radio Free Europe (Read: the U.S.) was the major catalyst. I know this because I read the book.
I don't think we are to the point yet where authoritarian government is in a position to squelch rights to the point of disabling voting and other civil rights. We may be headed that way, I don't know. But having an armed citizenry in most respects only means more people with guns, and it would take a considerable amount of effort to marshal them into any kind of cohesive militia to be like killin' the hippies or some such. And contrariwise if the government chose to instead go up against an armed citizenry in some mass effort, I don't think a nation that still retained some form of Democracy would stand for it.
I guess it really comes down to not falling for or voting for the likes of the militia factions of the extreme right wing. Some elements of the fundies might try this shit too if they come into power. I kinda doubt they ever get that power, but a lot of fucked up shit happens in politics. If the idiots of the nutter wing crash the economy again who knows what might happen.
You can lay all manner of blame at the feet of the NRA/Wayne La Pierre and I wouldn't disagree. Like I have said on here before, I was a member back in the 70's because it was more hunter oriented than now. It is a very powerful organization with a long history. Presidents of the United States have belonged to it. Currently people like Tom Selleck and Karl Malone are members. They have enormous clout and the backing of major corporate interests.
I have several friends who are former members as well and quit because of the bullshit agenda they promote. As far as celebrities, I could give a dead rat fuck about celebrity bullshit.
Quote from: AllPurposeAtheist on April 07, 2014, 12:13:40 PM
I have several friends who are former members as well and quit because of the bullshit agenda they promote. As far as celebrities, I could give a dead rat fuck about celebrity bullshit.
I don't have much use for celebrities either, but the rank and file members no doubt tout those people at every opportunity.
Screw em..I piss off more people once they start the bullshit about their favorite celeb then I usually quite rudely tell them I don't fucking care what star you know or read about or any other celeb gossip so shut the fuck up...
I need to work on my people skills..... eh..fuck em.