The fascists absolutely do not have the numbers.
I was specifically speaking about the percent of sub-population that’s armed. There’s pretty good evidence that the average conservative (and particularly the conservative base) is also a gun owner than the average liberal base. Gun violence is a liberal plank.
As for who has the guns, you’re probably grossly underestimating how well armed non-republicans might be.
I don’t think so; I’ve been a gun owner since I’ve been an adult, and I’m pretty progressive. I’ve spent a lot of time at ranges across the US, and it’s pretty clear that that population leans right. And if liberals own guns and aren’t going to the range to practice… well.
Furthermore, we’ve seen how ineffective the US military was at handling insurgency in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Quite effective in Iraq; Iraq was both unjustified, and concluded. Major combat operations coincided within 3 months, and we pulled out in 2011.
But the major factor in Afghanistan is that Afghanistan were a generation of trained insurgents with a decade of history of fighting insurgencies against invaders. We trained them; we trained and funded them, and helped them set up a robust cell-based insurgency. It was essentially a core component of Afghan culture by the time the US invaded. Are you trained, lean, and have a cell network set up? Anyone you know? How many people do you know, personally, who’ve ever had to suffer from anything more inconvenient than a temporary internet outage? If the US government cracks down on major carriers and network providers, can you even contact any of those people?
The US public is not the Afghan public. We’re nowhere near as hardened and tough. As importantly, we’re divided, and there’s a vast swath of the center of people who mostly don’t give enough of a shit. Even if there were voting shenanigans in 2024, enough people voted for a guy who explicitly said during campaigning that he wanted to be a dictator that it was close. When the left rises up, they’re not only going to be fighting the government, they’re going to be fighting other right-wing fuck-jobs, and worse, their uncommitted, lazily leftist neighbor is likely to turn them in because an uprising might upset little Crumpsnatcher’s soccer practice.
Quite effective in Iraq; Iraq was both unjustified, and concluded. Major combat operations coincided within 3 months, and we pulled out in 2011.
LMAO
You should chirp about how easy peasy things went to the wounded soldiers that came back from Iraq, who got maimed after Bush had his Mission Accomplished photo op.
Maybe talk to the families of those who didn’t make it back, that the insurgency in Iraq was handled quickly, efficiently, and with minimal losses.
Nice try, propagandist.
EightBitBlood@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I’m a liberal gun owner. Also go to ranges. Also see that the majority of people there are right leaning.
That doesn’t mean they support fascism. That doesn’t mean they will use their weapons to kill those that oppose fascism.
No one on the right actually wants a civil war, but the people they keep electing say they do becuase they’re stupid enough to think it would be profitable.
In reality, the dumbest people imaginable are in control of our government. And the people that eat Fox News corpo-governemnt propaganda on the daily are likewise just as stupid, but only in that their ability to reason has been compromised - so they posture about killing liberals for clout just like previous generations postured about joining the military despite never serving.
In the end, the people that are actually stupid enough to use their guns against other Americans are in the vast minority. But also, they are stupid enough not to use or operate their weapons correctly.
The people I see at ranges that regularly threaten their lives with poor trigger discipline are usually the ones that support Trump, so I’m more afraid of them killing their friends from incompetence than a left leaning American.
sxan@midwest.social 2 days ago
This is very true, and I wasn’t implying they would. It’s an anecdote to support my claim that there are more conservative gun owners than liberal gun owners, and the source of “they have greater numbers.”
It’s circumstantial, and not proof that there people who do conflict are going to be unbalanced in being armed, but I suspect it based sheerly on the gun saturation in conservative vs liberal circles.
Also, I suspect the worst of the fascists aren’t the diligent ones going to the range for practice, so I’m not claiming they’ll be better shots; only that more of them will be armed.
I completely agree with the rest of your comment.