Quote:
Originally Posted by timalkin
How does a liberal interpret what is going on in Iran right now? The regular people are unarmed - the liberal dream. Regular folks are unable to fight back against the brutality of government forces and cower at night, waiting for the government to drag them off, never to be seen again, all because they want to protest the bullshit rigged elections that took place. Protesters are shot in the street, detainees are tortured and killed, and the people are unable to do anything about it except march in the streets, scream some chants, and get their faces kicked in. The situation looks very similar to that faced by American colonists in the late 1700s.
Shit would be different over there if the people had access to firearms. The government wouldn't be so heavy-handed if there was a real chance of an armed revolution. You want to see an America without private gun ownership? Just take a look.
|
This wet dream that folks with guns will establish democracy is just a wet dream. Iraq, Angola, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Uganda are all nations where the population has (or had) plenty of guns and were far from being a democratic paradise, to say the least. This wet dream presumes that the only source of conflicts are between "the people" vs "the state," and that "the people" all speak with one voice.
In fact, I am quite certain that if one were to look at the big picture throughout history, one would find absolutely no indication that guns=>democracy. Yeah, in some occasions folks with guns overthrew a tyrannical government. And in some occasions folks with guns established a tyrannical government. Much like "guns dont kill people, people kill people," guns don't create democracy, people create democracy.
As for Iran, I find the current reaction of American conservatives about what is going on there to be one of the biggest examples of cognitive dissonance available. The losing party and the protesters there that are now being so idealized are the same ones that were in power up until 2005, long after being branded "axis of evil."