Society & Culture Things in life you just don't understand - Part 5

[Simon_Nesbit]

definitely not the 'best country in the world' as they like to claim themselves - not even close. i think a lot of them are realising it the last decade

Out of context, but I love this

 

[Richard Pryor]

Out of context, but I love this

Love the speech, best part of this show as it got a bit too self parodical of Sorkin towards the midpoint (also weird how it sort of lifts Jim and Pam from the Office as the main subplot?). The more I've gotten into Chomsky the less I've bought into the "We sure used to be" part though, I'm not sure if there was ever a point where they weren't dicking everyone over in domestic and foreign policy just like everyone else.

 

[craigos]

It will never end. Idont know why people stay there. Just migrate to another country.

In fact, Australia should set up a humanitarian migration program targeting US families with young children to come here.
Other countries should follow.

Too many non-whites in the US for Australia to go down that path.

 

[Scotland]

I gave up on hope on them in 2012. If as a country they can watch toddlers be gunned down and do nothing, then they’re fvcked and f**k them.

The only benefit of the doubt I give them is what percentage of the population are really against any gun reforms.

I believe (don't @ me) the majority of gun owners, NRA members and Americans overall are in favour of increased background checks but Republican Senators and the rules of the Senate are the stumbling block.

We voted on gay marriage when it was known that 60 or 70% of the public were in support and a majority in members in each house so it's not like our system or parties are perfect but the US is just nuts.

Still a massive cultural issue though. Living in Perth I know two people that own guns. One lives in Mahogany Creek on an acreage and the other grew up on a farm and after a decade or so in the city just moved back to a 10 acre property. I've been to a shooting range here once and have no desire to go hunting roos or pigs or cats etc. Guns just aren't a big thing here. There are sporting gun clubs etc. and that's cool but the idea that the neighbours have a couple of AKs and Glocks because freederm is just not a thing. In 3 months in the states I shot multiple guns that you can't own here, met multiple gun owners, met a guy travelling with his gun in his luggage etc.

 

[edgie]

There's plenty of gun owners that want more responsible retail of firearms.

Only the nutters and those who stand to lose money from it, don't.

Sent from my Nokia 7.2 using Tapatalk

 

[Frank Bunn]

We have a couple of hundred homicides a year and most aren't gun related. They have 20,000 gun homicides alone. If you look up the stats the top 30 mass shootings (all 10+ deaths, ducken 30 of them) they all involve semi-automatic weapons. And yet people still don't want to ban semi-automatic weapons, increase background checks etc. Madness.

I looked at some data from this Motherjones article. The US mass shootings get the headlines but they only average about 40 homicides per year (there was a spike in 2017 for the Las Vegas killings). The real problem would seem to be the other 20,000 gun homicides every year.

There's a mix of weapons used in mass shootings. Semi-automatic handguns are very much the most popular used in gun homicides in the USA.

 

[phantom13]

The mass shootings just crystallize an engrained cultural issue. They are the touchpoints to the continuous violence that’s easy to ignore.

Everyone has a story about the states and their gun nutterdom. On our travels we went to a shooting range in Vegas purely because I wanted to fire a glock (like I’d seen in all the action movies). The first dude to serve us couldn’t stop trying to convince me to shoot an automatic rifle (even resorting to telling me “it’ll get your dick hard”), while waiting for a free spot in the range a lovely girl from arkansas working on the “lady gun” desk asked where we were from then proceeded to say how sad she was we don’t have the freedom to buy guns and how we must feel so unsafe. My little buzzer went to collect my gun (yeh it was set up like a ******* bistro), ammo and head to my range aisle, I did, dude working the floor was pretty impressed with my form so free of charge gave me a revolver that they modified to shoot shotgun cartridges, the damage that thing did to the target was actually pretty terrifying but he was super ******* excited by how cool it all was.
The whole time wandering around the floor I was stunned by how everyone was planning their next gun (and most of these people were not wealthy and those guns are exy).

It might be callous and my heart goes out to victims and their families but if they country isn’t going to actually do anything about it I really don’t know why I should care.

 

[Catfish Alley]

You can feel for kids who don't get to vote and were completely innocent I guess. I find it tough to read and it's exacerbated by the fact I have kids the same age. It's a different world over that border. In many ways they are unrelatable and it just doesn't make sense to think they are close to an Australian or even Canadian mindset.

 

[the_interloper]

You can feel for kids who don't get to vote and were completely innocent I guess. I find it tough to read and it's exacerbated by the fact I have kids the same age. It's a different world over that border. In many ways they are unrelatable and it just doesn't make sense to think they are close to an Australian or even Canadian mindset.

Yeah well like I said earlier we seem like similar countries in a lot of ways but stuff like this we are very different. Though then again I doubt all states of the US are aligned with their views on guns, their states are like a bunch of different countries really.

 

[Catfish Alley]

Though then again I doubt all states of the US are aligned with their views on guns, their states are like a bunch of different countries really.

Yep. I have no idea how they'd go about some sort gun control like Australia did. The sheer amount of weapons makes it near impossible. On top of that you'd have some states that would literally be out on the streets fighting for their "freedom".

 

[Gough]

I think we're close to the point where what the Americans want, healthcare, gun control, social security will be out of reach largely thanks to a corporate takeover of the state.

 

[phantom13]

Yeah well like I said earlier we seem like similar countries in a lot of ways but stuff like this we are very different. Though then again I doubt all states of the US are aligned with their views on guns, their states are like a bunch of different countries really.

This was probably my biggest take away from travelling around a bit there. You move in Oz from Vic or NSW to Queensland and short of going to properly rural areas it’s pretty similar (slower drawl and different footy code).

If you moved from Arkansas or Tennessee to LA or NYC or Boston you’d be in another world altogether.

 

[peternorth]

but but but the democrats never do anything to stop this.

 

[peternorth]

Yep. I have no idea how they'd go about some sort gun control like Australia did. The sheer amount of weapons makes it near impossible. On top of that you'd have some states that would literally be out on the streets fighting for their "freedom".

ted cruz likes this

 

[revo333]

Yeah well like I said earlier we seem like similar countries in a lot of ways but stuff like this we are very different. Though then again I doubt all states of the US are aligned with their views on guns, their states are like a bunch of different countries really.

Can't clarify but I heard 2 days ago 90% would support the change.

It's the politicians that are not doing anything.

 

[Cuzz09]

If they came out and banned the sale and ownership of all firearms the whole country would go insane and killings would go through the roof

"Well if there takin'my gubs Im sure as heck gonna get some use out of em' as god intended!"

On SM-G925I using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[phantom13]

Can't clarify but I heard 2 days ago 90% would support the change.

It's the politicians that are not doing anything.

I think the issue is it would have to be state by state wouldn’t it? In which case you’d just have a handful of states with stricter laws and others with none (it might help a little which is better than nothing I suppose)

If they came out and banned the sale and ownership of all firearms the whole country would go insane and killings would go through the roof

"Well if there takin'my gubs Im sure as heck gonna get some use out of em' as god intended!"

On SM-G925I using BigFooty.com mobile app

I think even most democrats wouldn’t push for complete banning all they wanna do now is background checks and mandatory waiting periods and even those are opposed.

It almost seems pointless for non Americans to discuss because the culture is so foreign that we can’t even begin to process why the simplest steps can’t just be implemented. Even pre the gun buyback out culture was a million miles from theirs on gun.

 

[JackOutback]

The only benefit of the doubt I give them is what percentage of the population are really against any gun reforms.

I believe (don't @ me) the majority of gun owners, NRA members and Americans overall are in favour of increased background checks but Republican Senators and the rules of the Senate are the stumbling block.

We voted on gay marriage when it was known that 60 or 70% of the public were in support and a majority in members in each house so it's not like our system or parties are perfect but the US is just nuts.

Still a massive cultural issue though. Living in Perth I know two people that own guns. One lives in Mahogany Creek on an acreage and the other grew up on a farm and after a decade or so in the city just moved back to a 10 acre property. I've been to a shooting range here once and have no desire to go hunting roos or pigs or cats etc. Guns just aren't a big thing here. There are sporting gun clubs etc. and that's cool but the idea that the neighbours have a couple of AKs and Glocks because freederm is just not a thing. In 3 months in the states I shot multiple guns that you can't own here, met multiple gun owners, met a guy travelling with his gun in his luggage etc.

I should clarify that my disregard is for the nation, government, lobby groups, structure etc that allow this to happen. Of course I would always have sympathy for the victims and the people that want change. I've been to the US, the liberal states, not the real hardcore conservative ones, and individually they were generally warm and friendly. But as a country, if they couldn't sort their s**t out after Sandy Hook, they never will.

 

[drd23]

The way this podcast episode on gun control ended was so damn depressing because of how true it is.



That 30 sec clip was followed by this quote (emphasis mine):

But plenty of Americans treat their guns the way I treat my laptop, as part of the structure of their everyday life, and often as a tool for work as well as fun. They carry their guns and shoot them responsibly. Why should they give them up because of others who do not? I cannot kill anyone with my laptop, but I can certainly do harm with it—and if someone suggested that it should be taken away because the social negatives outweigh the positives, I would be outraged. From my cold, dead hands. You may object to this comparison, on any number of reasonable grounds. But if it baffles you completely, you probably have no clue how deeply guns and gun culture are embedded in America. And to change a culture is infinitely harder than to change laws. I am not sure where that leaves us. Or rather, I am all too sure.

 

[Scotland]

I should clarify that my disregard is for the nation, government, lobby groups, structure etc that allow this to happen. Of course I would always have sympathy for the victims and the people that want change. I've been to the US, the liberal states, not the real hardcore conservative ones, and individually they were generally warm and friendly. But as a country, if they couldn't sort their s**t out after Sandy Hook, they never will.

Yeah their system is cooked. After Port Arthur gun reforms were passed by the Coalition house of reps and then the senate where the ALP, Democrats and Greens held the balance of power between them. Doesn't matter who is in power in the US, nothing ever happens.

I've been to about a dozen states including blue California and Massachusetts and red Tennessee and Louisiana and the people are nice, just very different to your average Aussie.

 

[peternorth]

Some people are suggesting that she said other stuff which is more offensive than what is being reported.

Things are starting to come out now.

if its irrefutable what she said, then condemnation is absolutely deserved. she does not seem like an agreeable person, not personable at all.

some in the community have said being called racist holds no weight, has no meaning and is just PC gone mad. some of the same persons though declare cambage racist.

 

[killtaker1993]

Liz Cambage is a jerk off

 

[JackOutback]

Some sheriff in the US big-noting that he told a 10-year-old he will kill him without a second's hesitation because of a text message alluding to a school shooting and then parading him through the media. No question the kid needs a kick up the arse but he's 10 years old and stupid. Thinking that the solution to America's problems isn't gun control or mental health treatment, but threatening kids, shows they will never get it.

 

[revo333]

Things are starting to come out now.

Andrew Bogut doesn't like her and seemed fairly keen for the full details to get out about a month ago.

 

[Gralin]

Andrew Bogut doesn't like her and seemed fairly keen for the full details to get out about a month ago.

That sounds like a point in her favour though