After all, he pays taxes for police and a standing professional army, does he not? He’s covered. So for him to get his hands dirty — and that’s what gun ownership is, a kind of uncouth, quasi-racist filth caked to the paws of those anti-commonsense gun-nut extremists we’ve been hearing from lately, who watch too many movies and fantasize about using their firearms to protect their families or communities (like that ever happens), or who think the 2nd Amendment is a check on government (like a government would ever turn on its largely disarmed people) — why, that’s just not who Josh is. He is above such tawdriness. Removed from such gauche, manual considerations.
Rather, Josh is proud that he, as a member of the civilized, educated class, has put the onus of protecting his family or community or even some nearby innocent from immediate threats in the hands of law enforcement and the military alone — often in contradiction to state constitutions, I might add, which either adopted or served as precursors to the USC for what comes to count as a militia, with distinctions being drawn between the professional militia, the ready militia (able males 17-45 and those who wished to become citizens) and the reserve militia (everyone else, including women and chilren). Or “the people,” all of whom were expected to defend the country should the need arise.
That is to say, Marshall is overtly proud that he’s surrendered his duty as a first responder for himself and his family and, in extremis, his community or nation, for the cheap grace of claiming no taint from the demon metal / polymer killing machine so fetishized by those who don’t recognize that arms are for hugging (and aborting fetuses), not for the pleasure or yahoos who believe themselves some bulwark against imaginary tyrannical evil. Besides, everyone knows the best weapon is an ostentatious new law coupled to a good, hearty Twitter sneer campaign. Drop bon mots, not bombs!
Yet, for all the posturing and the cheap grace expressed within the gun-free, beta male, anti-liberty manifestos of “progressives” like Marshall, what one finds at its heart is a sense of relief. That is, by openly disclaiming any responsibility to be a first responder for his family — and cloaking that abandonment of duty in faux moral rationales and attempts to shame those who would themselves resist such an ignominious surrender of a mandate implied by natrural law — what Marshall and others like him are hoping to do is forgive themselves in advance for their own cowardice, and to lay the blame elsewhere for any failure to keep themselves and their families safe, whether that blame be placed on slow law enforcement response times, or too many “assault weapons,” or magazines with large capacities.
It is a preemptive deflection of blame posed as a principled stand against “gun violence” — without acknowledging that “gun violence” that kills bad men, when perpetrated by good men, is not something we as a society should be aiming to curb.
Marshall muses that if the world were as safe with everyone armed as it is with no one armed, he’d choose the latter. Which, fine. Then we can all keep unicorns as pets, and the sky will open up in a burst of delightful hard candy. But rational humans would respond to such wishcasting by noting, for instance, that it was firearms that became the great equalizer, particularly for women brutalized by men, or for minorities hounded by supremacist groups who sought — like the modern-day progressive — to keep them meekly armed, if armed at all.
Making Marshall’s moral play a bit of revisionist nonsense that, at its core, is really just a plea for a beneficent police state.
Marshall and his cohort are fine living as slaves; their only insistence seems to be that they get the cushy room in the Big White house for so closely serving the master, and as a result are kept away from the field negroes who so repulse them. Like Uncle Toms.
Or, to take another tack, were Josh Marshall a country, he’d be Vichy France.
Look, I don’t give a rip if Josh Marshall wants to own a gun to potentially protect his family. Perhaps he feels he’s all thumbs and is more likely to blow his own loafer off than to ever repel a home invasion or some other violent threat. After all, it’s difficult mastering machinery that slack-jawed rednecks can sleep with without any fear, should the need arise.
But what I do find difficult to take is when that same effete beta-male, in order to justify his own cowardice, tries to make sure I’m in a state of unpreparedness right along with him. That he does this because he believes his other attributes then elevate him above the disarmed riff-raff just goes to show that in addition to being a coward, he hopes that he can legislate his way to becoming a procedural or legislative bully.
Which I predicted would be the tack taken by progressive Dems and ironically was met with scorn on Twitter and elsewhere. By, among others, Josh Marshall. I know. What are the odds, right?
(h/t bh)
And just because no beneficent police state has ever stayed beneficent before, in the entire history of mankind, is no reason to believe THIS one won’t.
Those others just never had the right people in charge.
“beta male”
He would need a ten foot step ladder to kiss a “beta male’s” ass. Just sayin’.
Sube de gatillo; una dedo.
Anybody else see where Matt Tabibi and the Rolling Stone just published the groundbreaking story that the bail out was a big fraud that only helped corrupt big business and actually fucked the country?
Yeah. Too bad the didn’t figure that out until after the election, huh?
I know I’m not an alpha male, nor do I think I’m a beta male.
I’m just a guy who works for a living, appreciates the arc of history in regards to civilizations and understands government does not grant rights.
We were already pretty sure that Josh Marshall had found the strength that is ignorance. Now to that he adds the freedom that is slavery.
Can the love that is hate and the peace that is war be far behind?
Didn’t somebody, a pro-gun liberal perhaps, do a blog post on just that subject? Something about guns making civilization possible in the first place?
Marshall muses that if the world were as safe with everyone armed as it is with no one armed, he’d choose the latter.
B Moe muses that this Marshall fellow sounds quite the fucking idiot.
Josh shouldn’t worry his pretty little mind he can throw rocks when faced with crime
good luck with that
Josh can scream like a little girl and hope that the po-lice get there before he gets raped and killed.
proggtarded
“Please take away my Second Amendment right.”
Then he should move into a maximum security prison as an inmate and see just how safe it is in the company of “unarmed” men.
He will come to know the meaning of “God made man, but Samuel Colt made them equal.”
Two Alfred Whitehead quotes come to mind.
html fail, sorry
So, if this character isn’t going to have any guns, does that mean there’s some extras around for the rest of us?
Last time I checked, the gun stores around here are picked pretty clean these days…
Josh Marshall is a sheep. He doesn’t seem to realize that the world is full of wolves who love tasty sheep.
For most of the time humans have existed the entire planet was a “gun free zone”. I am not in a sweat to return to those times when the biggest, strongest, and meanest prevailed over those who were weaker. Thank God for the likes of Sam Colt and John M. Browning leveling the playing field.
Don’t forget our friend Mr. Winchester.
The Humongous applauds Marshall’s dedication to peace, unlocked doors, , and tasty human flesh.
The world is not a nice place. We carve out exceptions to the rules of nature, and then we immediately forget how we did it and demand a return to its brutality.
Indeed. The wife bought her shotgun yesterday (gun appreciation day!), but had to go Turkish to do it…
It’s pretty. Walnut is walnut, Turkish in origin or not.
Yeah, it’s the youth model at the bottom, but the actual stock is much prettier than the picture. It’s got awesome checkering, and the triopad butt system (recoil pad).
She’s pretty excited to try it out, too bad about he stupid ten day waiting period.
Let us also not forget Paul Mauser, John Garand, Eugene Stoner, and Gaston Glock.
I think our waiting period is around 48 hours. I can’t remember, but it was pretty quick. Quicker than Pennsylvania, for sure.
Ten days is a really long time if you are in danger. You just no there’s a ton of iron floating around that is unregistered.
*no = know
cripes
I read your wife went Turkish, and thought that this monstrosity was what you were talking about Lee.
Ernst, we Bascoms won’t have any ugly black guns. We cling bitterly to only pretty killing machines.
For instance, here‘s my shotgun.
I think some Weatherby’s are made in Turkey now.
Over 20 years ago, I described to my colleagues the way I reacted – in a rather direct manner – to inappropriate attention being paid to my wife by an acquaintance. With one exception, my colleagues said they wouldn’t have done anything under the circumstances, not because they regarded my acquaintance’s actions as appropriate. Instead, they self-righteously said things like, “Well, I guess I just trust my wife more than you trust yours,” “I don’t think my wife as a possession that I need to keep from being stolen” and “I respect my wife too much to do something that might embarrass her like that.”
In response, I told them, “That’s the great thing about being a liberal. You can always concoct a rationalization for the fact that you really just don’t have any balls.”
Funny how that continues to resonate.
My BIL and sister reguarly have a table at the local gun shows and this weekend was no exception. When I talked to them yesterday they said the crowd was huge, prices were insane, and people were more than willing to pay them.
I am feeling somewhat optimistic because of all the new shareholders in the Second Amendment. However, I’m also a little apprehensive because it seems that some progs, by continuing to demonize gun owners and push for more restrictions, are hoping for some kind of Reichstag Fire.
lbascom, those are pretty.
“He doesn’t seem to realize that the world is full of wolves who love tasty sheep.”
They never do. In their fantasy, once their fascist Utopia comes into being they’ll the ones holding the whip.
In reality, betabois like this are the first ones sent to the camps. They’ll be on the truck right behind ours if history is any guide.
I think that’s what Sandy Hook was supposed to be.
It didn’t go the way they planned me thinks…
“He doesn’t seem to realize that the world is full of wolves who love tasty sheep.”
Sure they do. They just don’t think of themselves a “sheep”.
“In their fantasy, once their fascist Utopia comes into being they’ll the ones holding the whip.”
The truly committed don’t see a need for weapons with the exception Teh Authorities. Delusional projection wrt human behavior. Humans are what, (and who), they are, because of the violence inherant to their nature. Denying reality doesn’t change reality one whit.
I take satisfaction that Josh will be one of the first put up against a wall by the Bolsheviks for being a Menshevik.
I didn’t claw my way to the top of the food chain to wear chains.
The Marshall’s of the world have this fantasy that they can get a 911 call off and get a police response in time when something bad is happening. Mostly the police respond to calls like that in time to break out the body bags and chalk.
Josh is a vagina.
There is no other answer.
“I didn’t claw my way to the top of the food chain to wear chains.”
Did he mention how FABULOUS! you will look in them?
“Josh is a vagina. ”
Not to be confused with the real thing. Some of them is tough nuts.
Would I have to wear my shirt front wide open?
“Would I have to wear my shirt front wide open?”
Yes, but the double knit bell bottoms slacks are optional.
Excellent, Jeff.
Of course, Josh doesn’t live in a Detroit hood.Where first responders merely show up to carry off the bodies.
“Josh Marshall is a sheep. He doesn’t seem to realize that the world is full of wolves who love tasty sheep.”
I’m guessing that Josh sees himself as a wolf (of the intellectual elitist variety – clearly he thinks he’s better than us) and sees guns as the one thing that’s keeping us darn “sheep” from having to live as he deems best for us. Useful idiots rarely see their impending fall after they’ve outlived their usefulness.
You’re on fire, Goldstein !
Josh is fortunate that he has a popular soapbox. That way, when bad things happen to him and his family, and the people he relies on for protection show up 10 minutes too late, there will be lots of people to hear his whining about how the system let him down.
Granted, he’ll whine about how the police department was supposedly short-staffed (ever talk to a police chief who thought he was overstaffed?) and it’s all the fault of his neighbors for not cheerfully doubling their property taxes…
Hi Jeff! Well-smacked and glad you booted my imposter!
[…] Protein Wisdom: Josh Marshall wants you to know that an unwillingness to keep and bear arms is a virtue: […]
[…] Josh Marshall wants you to know that an unwillingness to keep and bear arms is a virtue | protein wi… […]
Well, that’s a relief.
White belt and white loafers are required. You’ll also need to grow out your hair in a mullet that you can run a handful of gell through everyday.
You’ll also need to grow out your hair in a mullet that you can run a handful of gell through everyday.
Camaro, or kiddie fiddler?
The choice is yours, SW. I’m not a stickler.
Camaro, I think. Hard to argue with a classic.
Quite. Especially as I see a picture of Chuck Norris in that montage.
Perhaps only Chuck can make a mullet look acceptable.
He’s a hothouse flower who sneers at alpine perennials for not blooming year-round.
Frost? That’s just your bigotry showing.
I would find Josh’s scary fearsome gun picture, at the top of his screed, a lot more scary… if he had the magazine in right. He put it in backwards.
Heh.
Wasn’t Josh one of your sometime-commentors, Jeff? I remember Yglesias, but not sure whether Marshall was one.
As an aside, remember when some folks on the left were all mocky about how concerned Conservatives were about Iran and North Korea getting nukes? Everyone should be able to have nukes, apparently. But not semiautomatic weapons, because that would be bad.
Slart, one dead criminal from a law-abiding American using a semiautomatic firearm is a tragedy; millions of dead Israelis from a nuclear war started by Iran is a statistic.
[…] Josh Marshall Wants You To Know That An Unwillingness To Keep And Bear Arms Is A Virtue […]
Josh’s comments on how if people were equally safe with and without guns he’d choose without reminds me of the saying: “We all dream of a world of sunshine, happiness, and peace. The problems is… half of the people think it sounds like a wonderful place to live, the other half think it sounds like a wonderful place to pillage.”
[…] shame of that must scorch your precious self-esteem, and how relentlessly that shame drives you to bleat all sorts of laughable arguments seeking to establish that, really, you’re the courageous, manly, and morally-upright ones […]