rant · moment 4 of 17
Guns, Surveillance, and Government Overreach
from 164 - Life In The Big City · #164
12 min
A long rant arguing that gun ownership hasn't stopped government overreach (mass surveillance, indefinite detention, torture, Boston bombing coverage, FBI-orchestrated terror plots), and that Americans who own guns never actually resist tyranny in practice.
- Tim argues he's pro-gun to an extent but questions how many mass shootings it would take to change gun advocates' positions.
- Government overreach is already happening—spying, suspending habeas corpus, torturing detainees, murdering journalists—yet gun owners claim disarmament would make it worse.
- Americans imagine themselves as freedom fighters demanding accountability with their weapons, but Hong Kong protesters without guns show more resistance than armed Americans.
- Tim expresses willingness to be wrong and engages with libertarian arguments for private roads and dismantling government.
- Private institutions already exist in America—gated communities, private schools, private firefighters in Malibu—so libertarian ideals are already partially implemented.
- People dismiss privacy concerns by claiming they have nothing to hide, but the point is government shouldn't have unchecked surveillance power regardless.
- The definition of enemy combatant is vague: if the government bombs your country and you're not grateful, you become a target for torture.
- FBI gives guns and bombs to mentally unstable individuals, manufactures terrorist cases, then jails them and threatens torture.
- Boston Marathon bombing trial was covered with special administrative measures restricting media access, unlike the sensationalized coverage it could have received.
- The argument that gun owners are resisting a tyrannical government as modern militiamen isn't supported by facts—government overreach is already widespread and unchecked.