i saw an advert for a business that was selling kevlar or kevlar-adjacent, bulletproof fashion for schoolchildren. a bulletproof hoody. a backpack with a plate in it, etc. imagine living in a first-world country and thinking this was the normal and reasonable price for 'freedom'. clothing your child every day for school, which should be the most carefree days of their lives, ready for a massacre.
it's also amazing that conservatives have spent 2 years moaning about how wearing paper masks 'traumatises' children and affects their development ... whilst also thinking that weekly mass shooting drills, armed guards/armed teachers, locked down schools with penitentiary-style entrances/exits, etc, are somehow not emotionally affecting at all. lmao. sounds like going to school in america is on the same high-tension, stress-making level as crossing a border post in the gaza strip or living in apartheid SA. 'the schoolteacher left a DOOR propped open!' yeah, what the fuck, it's a school on a hot summer day? schools and campuses should be relatively open environments. the fuck?
i've seen lots of frustration and anger from american public figures when fingered on this issue by european or non-american reporters. 'listen, buddy, this is the free-est and most wonderful country in the history of the world!' i don't think conservative americans, particularly the more parochial type, can even countenance the fact that, for most people, the price of the american brand of 'freedom' is insanely, like delusionally, high. whilst it's true that for several generations america has been the pre-eminent economic power, the place to be if you want to 'make it' and improve your circumstances, yada yada, i think increasingly so now there are plenty of populations in the world who are just fine with their 'commie' gubmints protecting them.
i don't see anything so uniquely 'free' about american life that i'd be prepared to worry about ducking bullets for it, you know? if europe or east asia is 'unfree', i'm cool with that. what're the unique advantages of american democracy at this point? you get to shoot cans with your redneck friends in the woods? oh, you have to file your own tax returns? amazing.
Last edited by uziq (2022-05-28 23:20:30)