Greetings, friends. (V)

Greetings, friends. First, let me say thank you to everyone who responded or commented on yesterday’s post.

I’ve been wrestling for the few days that I’ve been journaling in view of my friends as to whether or not to make this project fully public. My Facebook account is default private, but I started out with the Substack open by default. I thought about it for a day or so, and then switched the Substack to private, with approval required for subscription.

First off, this journal is addressed to you, my friends. Says so in the title. You are allowing to me to engage in a kind of (mostly one-way) group therapy, in which I have the freedom to be fairly open and honest and even, yes, vulnerable. Keeping it private like LiveJournal in the olden days, when dinosaurs crossed the information superhighway in large herds and modems creaked in the darkness.

But on the other hand, I do have ideas that I want to share, some of them quite passionately. I think our human world as a whole is, not to put too fine a point on it, utterly fucked, in at least a couple different ways. I do not see this view being widely promoted in the mainstream, nor so much views on what to do about it. Sure, everyone knows that global climate change is happening, and fascism is on the rise everywhere, but what are we going to do about it? Oh, maybe not everyone knows that. Well fuck.

The challenge I have is I work in a hyper-capitalist economy, in a hyper-capitalist segment of the economy, and capitalism demands that we not distract attention from the essential processes of profit-making with our own personal idiosyncrasies. In many circles, this is known as professionalism. The upshot is that I don’t need static from my employer for holding an unpopular viewpoint, and the easiest thing to do is to keep that viewpoint to myself.

I will cite one example, which will probably get me silently unfriended by several people on Facebook. I like firearms. I own one, and am waiting for the great state of Washington to decide that I am sufficiently non-felonious to be permitted to take possession of a second. I bought one for Besha for a holiday gift, partly because she also likes firearms, but also partly because I have declining faith in the future stability of the rule of law in the United States (such as it is) and I want her to have the option of being able to defend herself with deadly force if necessary. We went to the local shooting range yesterday to try it out, a lovely Mom-and-Pop joint with a hilarious website, where every rule surely has someone’s name on it.

This may surprise you. I’ll invite you to remember that I am only of part New York Jewish intellectual upbringing by birth. The other half of my family are Appalachian hillbillies by socioeconomic origin, and we like our guns. (Yes, I think I am the only half New York Jew / half Appalachian hillbilly you are likely to meet.)

I have a complex relationship with the concept of gun control. If it were entirely up to me, I would ban all handguns, and all semi-automatic and automatic firearms, and require hunting permits to own any of the remainder. I think the concept of “the right to bear arms” as putatively expressed in the Second Amendment is abject nonsense — the Washington State National Guard is a “well-regulated militia”, not you white racist fucking idiots in camo cosplaying solidiers out in the fucking woods. The reality is that when your own military, as well as any conceivable future occupying force, has fucking nuclear weapons, whether or not you are allowed so much as an AR-15 is a fucking moot point at best. You are not fighting off tyranny singlehandedly with your assault rifle like fucking Rambo, buddy.

Even the state police are now totally militarized. Ceterum censeo pro vigilum imperdiet est.

But all that said, the law has been interpreted to say that we shall have guns, and guns aplenty, and until that law changes, I intend to keep an arsenal. Partly because, as I think I said, I think firearms are fun and cool, provided that one is careful and treats them with the deadly care that they demand. I enjoy target practice. Also I am at heart a gear head.

But, and here’s the part that most of you will find really distasteful, when the fucking neo-Nazis overwhelm the rule of law in America and come for us liberals, as I am increasingly convinced they will, I will be damned if they are the only ones who are armed. I feel like we are engaged in a arms race with our fellow American civilians, and right now we are losing that race, badly.

Cool. Well that’s 750 words. Tomorrow let’s talk about whether it makes a difference that I’m a middle-aged cis white man with enough socio-economic stature to get away with saying what I want in public, and whether I ought to say it in public. Please leave me a note by email or in the comments if you have opinions. Also let me know if you want to nerd out about firearms.

If you’re reading this, I send you my love, and I hope you have a wonderful day.