This 4th of July I found
myself asking an obvious question, which I'm sure many in the
pro-rights community have already asked themselves. How is it that so
many anti-gun people could be celebrating a holiday that's based on a
war waged by citizens who refused to disarm?
Hypocrisy is usually never intentional,
so how is that they overlook such an obvious fact? This led me to an
article by a psychology professor who threw his two cents into the
gun debate, where
he discussed cognitive bias. This is where your own experiences
or perception of events will drive decision making, even if not
backed by evidence or hard facts. Example: “I personally have never
felt unsafe in my home. I have never viewed the actions of my
government to be tyrannical. Therefore these threats aren't real
enough to be concerned with, and nobody else should feel otherwise
unless they're just paranoid.” A different perspective doesn't
become rational in ones eyes until it's experienced.
This circles back to a previous blog
I've written discussing socialism. “No guns” and “economic
equality” might sound good for those that have viewed school
shootings or poverty on the news, but the negative aspects of what
they're asking for haven't been felt.
A psychologist would need to explain
it, but I find it difficult to understand why you would have to
personally experience something for it to become “real”. How are
lessons in history not real enough? The only thing I can think of is
that there's always a way to reinterpret the story or realign it with
the position you've already decided to take. Taking the earlier point
of our Independence Day being a celebration of citizens waging an
armed revolt against tyranny, one opposed to gun rights might say
“Armed citizens didn't win the war, though. The French government
intervened and won it for us.” This is called “proof texting”
or “confirmation bias”, where details of a story or well
established facts can be twisted for your own narrative and make you
feel better about the decision you've already made.
These biases fuel the modern Latte
Liberalism that has swept into our politics. Comfort and complacency
leave many to overlook the value of individual liberty, and the
importance of the 2nd Amendment that at one time was
viewed as a necessity. Sipping on a watered down, overpriced beverage
during a day off from work they ponder solutions to societies
remaining problems, while completely failing to appreciate their own
quality of life and how it was achieved. The pleasure of a “warm
and fuzzy” feeling from speaking out on behalf of those less
fortunate blinds them to the reality that they are a beneficiary of
the very system they've begun to oppose. Overstepping the lessons of
history, they gleefully march towards the repeatable offenses and
mistakes made by others.
In a euphoric state of
self-righteousness, the “flaws” of individual liberty and
personal accountability are somehow expounded as threats to equality
and human rights. The ideals that have offered them opportunity and
protection from oppression, become twisted and viewed as chains that
have shackled progress. The very document that guarantees our
freedoms through limitations of government is viewed as outdated and
an embarrassment.
The aforementioned biases and latte
liberalism are a combination that share the effects of a
hallucinogenic drug, where it leaves those taking a dose to live in
an alternate reality. History and hard facts need to be used to help
restore American politics to centrism and away from the sharp turns
it has been taking... because after 242 years of independence, it
turns out that the greatest risks to “life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness” are revisionism and memory loss.
