All appearances point to the move being another example of the Biden administration’s hyper-focused attacks on the lawful firearm industry and ceding to the whims of gun control activists. Needless to say, the administration has been stonewalling Members of Congress attempting to get answers.
The House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability held a hearing to do just that.
Pressing for Answers
The Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability is chaired by Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), a fourth-term congressman who served in the U.S. Army as an explosive ordnance disposal technician. He lost both legs after stepping on an improvised explosive device (IED) in Kandahar, Afghanistan. During his opening remarks, Chairman Mast reminded the BIS witnesses what their mission is.
“The Bureau of Industry and Security has a duty to set and enforce rules that protect American national security under the Export Control Reform Act of 2018,” Rep. Mast remarked. “But under the Biden administration’s leadership, there have been places where they have not executed this mission.”
Congressman Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) used time to ask witnesses about the unprecedented pause that pulled the rug out from under lawful American businesses.
“The Bureau of Industry and Security recently announced a 90-day pause on firearms exports. Congressional staff was given only one hour’s notice. Why was more time not given to alert Congress?” asked the congressman.
The Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration within BIS, Thea Rozman Kendler, demurred. She hedged about it “not being a change in policy only a pause to ensure the existing policy aligned with our national security priorities.” The congressman wasn’t having it. After all, the reforms Chairman Mast spoke about strengthened end-to-end user checks to ensure firearm exports weren’t being sent overseas to bad actors.
“It appears y’all didn’t have any conversations with stakeholders in this,” Rep. Burchett replied.
He’s right. After all the commercial firearm manufacturers Rep. Burchett was alluding to are already going through several layers of compliance checks.
“Firearm manufacturers have told me they were given no warning. Also, why were the firearms industry – why were they singled out in this issue?” he asked.
“We look at regional stability issues and particularly in the Western hemisphere, we have gun violence issues that lead to regional instability,” Kendler answered.
“But these people are in business, ma’am. And if you cut them off… governments can just print more money. These people can’t,” Congressman Burchett said.
Kendler admitted the pause is in fact having a negative impact on a good portion of the commerce licenses being sought.
“NATO license applications are still being processed. That’s about, frankly, 75 percent by value of our license applications that we continue to process,” she said.
In other words, Kendler admitted there was a change in policy that has reduced – by at least 25 percent – the number of commercial firearm export licenses by American firearm industry manufacturers.
Congressman Burchett’s final question centered on the new White House Office on Gun Violence Prevention that’s staffed by gun control lobbyists and activists.
“Did anyone at the Commerce Department have conversations with the White House Office on Gun Violence Prevention prior to this decision?” he asked.
Kendler didn’t directly answer. But NSSF has heard from reliable sources who say that is exactly who BIS has been talking to about their new policy, along with Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) officials and the Deputy Attorney General’s office.
Full Court Press
The subcommittee’s hearing wasn’t the first Congressional action taken. The Biden administration made the secretive announcement in late October and since then there’s been plenty of Congressional pushback.
In the House of Representatives, Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) has led the charge in demanding more answers. He authored a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo that was signed by 88 of his Congressional colleagues. Rep. Green echoed the security sentiments Chairman Mast brought up in the hearing.
“As long as evil persists, there will always be a need for good people to defend themselves and their loved ones,” the letter stated. “Not only does BIS’s pause on firearms export licenses leave people even more vulnerable, but it will also push buyers to look elsewhere to meet their customers’ demands.”
The signatories questioned the abruptness of the decision to block firearm exports.
“This policy went into effect without any advance notice… Such sweeping action by BIS is unprecedented,” the Members stated.
Following that, Rep. Green introduced H.R. 6504, the NSSF-supported Protect American Gun Exporters Act, or PAGE Act. The bill would prohibit any actions taken to carry out the Commerce Department’s export licensing pause.
U.S. House Committee on Small Business Chairman Roger Williams (R-Texas) wrote his own letter to Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Alan Estevez seeking information.
“This prohibition places a substantial burden on those businesses and individuals that rely on exporting as a source of income and for manufacturers of weapons and ammunition,” Chairman Williams wrote.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) sent an NSSF-supported letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo demanding an answer to the decision to stop exports as well. Chairman Comer wrote, “This action has raised concern about a possible extralegal attempt by the Biden Administration to harm the domestic firearms manufacturing industry in pursuit of an anti-firearm agenda.”
Senate Weighs In
The action hasn’t been limited to the House of Representatives, either. Forty-six senators – nearly half of the entire Senate – signed a letter led by Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) demanding Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo answer for the sudden pause.
The senators understand the pause is simply an anti-Second Amendment, anti-industry attack by the White House. They understand all firearm and ammunition exports are subject to Defense and State Department review, which can halt the export if there are concerns. At present, no other commodity is subject to the same 100 percent check.
“As you know, firearms exports to non-government users in countries not covered by the exception constitute a significant percentage of overall U.S. firearm exports,” Sen. Budd wrote. “This pause puts at stake U.S. commercial and economic interests…”
Congressional members will continue to put pressure on the administration for their purposeful and blatant anti-industry attack that does nothing to hurt national security. It only penalizes lawful American businesses and puts others at risk of being left unable to protect themselves from threats.
Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
“The consequential edict was ‘made public’ only through an inconspicuous update to the Frequently Asked Questions page listed on the bottom of the BIS website on a late Friday afternoon.”
Anyone who knows anything about government knows that governments do the above intentionally–to minimize the visibility and any potential blow-back in the Press. (Although I don’t know why our current federal government would have any worries at all about any significant blow-back in the Press which clearly is an extension of the Democrat State.)
“Congressional members will continue to put pressure on the administration for their purposeful and blatant anti-industry attack …”
What “pressure”??? Sternly worded letters? Bureaucrats in the Executive Branch could care less since formal demands and sternly worded letters are meaningless to them.
Heck, said bureaucrats don’t even care about Congressional subpoenas or being in contempt of Congress since Congress has no actual power to sanction any bureaucrats who ignore their subpoenas or official declarations of Contempt.
Anything in the title past ” Congress Struggles ” was just wasted verbiage.
Until the House starts impeaching these Clinton/Obama/Biden hirelings nothing positive is going to happen. Some of the twits have been hiding out in the swamp for THIRTY YEARS making mischief with their idiotic prog ideas.
“Until the House starts impeaching these Clinton/Obama/Biden hirelings nothing positive is going to happen. ”
What correction is gained by impeachment? It is the verdict in the Senate that matters. Without a strong majority in the Senate, impeachment does virtually nothing. Which is why it is used so infrequently. “Making a statement”, or speaking in harsh terms is not corrective action.
What else would you expect from sick democRats who at day 1 stopped a vital pipeline project and threw workers under the bus, etc? FJB.
There is more to that pipeline story then just the Democrats.
Totally has nothing to do with south and central America electing non-communist leaders who are opening up private firearm ownership. All to supply Ukraine and Israel whatever they need surely.
How bout Congress send em a friggin letter saying they’re taking some consequential action. Instead of a buncha friggin questions
GRIDLOCK……..Probably a permanent condition.
Not many nails left to go in the coffin.
That’s not gridlock. That’s laziness being overly concerned with looks. So worried about bad press that they are willing to sign off on anything.
Ted Cruz stands out like certain others because they are not so easily persuaded. But even with them it’s sometimes questionable. Too many people in Congress simply lack the spine to stop the insanity. Quite a few are only there for one or two things (almost like single issue voters) and anything outside of that is given to the other side without discussion.
Color me confused but it sure seems we have an Imperial ruling class that does what they please.
The only thing I ever actually see Congress do is ask questions. They are on the perpetual hunt for answers to things. It never seems to matter much just what those answers are or even if there is one.
How about doing something with those answers? We are always told about “the power of the purse” but it doesn’t mean anything if everything gets rubber stamped. It’s high time things start getting defunded.
No doubt. Thank you for saying what i was trying to say.
If I’m not mistaken, Raimondo was an anti-gun Congresswoman from Rhode Island. Doesn’t surprise me they would pull a stunt like this. This administration has behaved as if this is a one-branch government where the Congressional and Judicial branches don’t exist. The same authoritarian practices the Democrats accuse the Republicans of using.
The left is fear mongering to extremes.
They claim a second Trump term will give us concentration camps for Americans and the internet getting turned off.
Biden is far more likely to do that.
AOC is the one that proclaimed people on the right need de-programming.
Clinton too.
The king willed it so…..
Start defunding one agency after another as a ” cost cutting” measure. Every time the Congress or Marxist house spends more money, take it out of payroll.
Isn’t there a way Congress can defund the new “White House Office on Gun Violence Prevention” that’s staffed by gun control lobbyists and activists?
If tax dollars are funding that, it should be axed.
I presume it’s being funded by taxpayers for the benefit of Bloomberg and other anti-gun billionaires so Bloomberg doesn’t have to spend his own Bloombucks.
Vote Republican or repeat April 19,1775. Beyond that…As long as they are allowed.
As with everything else, I’m sure they tie funding to other projects the R’s support.
I argue with my buddy often about this topic. Shutting the government down can do serious damage to the US on a global level. But if thats what it takes to destroy the programs and agencies that serve only to remove rights and pull us further from the Constitution, is it worth it? I tend to lean towards let it burn.
We are so tied to our own economic prosperity that we continue to give up rights because we dont want to upset that apple cart. That lever will be used against us until our own personal financial strain is so bad that we stop caring about abiding by laws. By that stage, we’ll have allowed ourselves to be disarmed before losing our jobs, our property and our families. Which means while we will no longer have anything left to lose, we also have no means left to fight that eventuality.
This was a response to Israel giving rifles to civilians after the Hamas Terror Murder/Rapes. The Whitehouse obviously doesn’t want Israeli civilians to be able to defend themselves against their allies in Gaza.
Allies no. But definitely fellow-travellers.
… no stupid canned response from Miner yet ? I hope it’s his Holiday Gift to the rest of us.
Cousin Miner has been served with a Red Flag notification, and ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. The fuzz is asking questions about his relationship to an underage child of indeterminate gender, which may complicate his return to posting here.
Congress needs to pull the funding for these rogue lettered agencies. No money,no problems. Shut them down completely
“Congress needs to pull the funding for these rogue lettered agencies. No money,no problems. Shut them down completely”
Requires veto-proof majorities in both House and Senate.
How about limiting “Arms Exports” to Ukrainians and help Israel!
HAMAS is killing Americans!
90% of the money spent on Ukraine goes to US businesses either to supply directly or to replace what was sent from US military stocks.
How about limiting “Arms Exports” with Ukrainians and help Israel!
HAMAS is killing Americans!
How about limiting “Arms Exports” with Ukrainians and help Israel!
HAMAS is killing Americans!
This action was taken soon after the Yom Kippur massacre. Simultaneously; Biden imposed sanctions on “violent” Israeli settlers. IIRC, Biden actually stated that the intention of the export ban was to prevent Israel from distributing weapons to Israeli civilians. Most of the settlers are merely repossessing land that was taken by Jordan after all Jews were expelled from the West Bank in 1948.
To paraphrase Charleton Heston, “Biden doesn’t want those damn dirty Jews to be able to defend themselves.”
Norinco.
“But these people are in business, ma’am. And if you cut them off… governments can just print more money. These people can’t,”
They’re very well aware of this, Congressman. It’s kinda the entire fucking reason that they did it, you moron.
What, you think .gov is going to ask questions about “price gouging” in the ammo market early next year?
https://www.newsweek.com/ammo-prices-set-rise-substantially-vista-outdoor-firearms-1850528
Think they’ll treat this like a price increase for the morning after pill? Maybe investigate “on behalf of the consumer”? Maybe rant and rave about how Vista might control too much of the market? Oh, I know, maybe they’ll cap the price like they do with insulin!? ROFLMAO!
Fuckin’ Conservatives. These idiots always give the benefit of the doubt to proven liars and treat dishonest agents as if they probably aren’t full of shit this time. Perhaps one out of 10,000 times they realize that maybe, just maybe, the Dems aren’t stupid and are actually gaming the shit out of the system at every turn and even inventing new ways to do it.
“Kendler didn’t directly answer.”
But I thought this hearing was all about answers?!
Christ, this shit is pathetic to watch.
What your describing isn’t Conservatives nearly as much as it’s Liberals. The rank and file in the general populous on the left follows whatever Democrats happen to be saying without question. If Pelosi says Jan6 was insurrection then that’s what it is, even when it wasn’t. It’s the overwhelming majority of the black population maintaining their devotion to Democrats. The Jewish people in America aswell. Far too many of the companies that make up corporate America were all to happy to follow Biden in his edict for forcing Covid shots, masking, and mandated isolation with no pushback at all.
I have no desire to lick Trumps boots but we both generally want the same things. There is a world of difference between those two things. Conservatives are not following Republicans out of any kind of devotional loyalty. That is what happens on the left with Democrats. What it is most of the time is that the Republican party espouses virtues that Conservatives usually believe in. That’s why so many on the right get so upset about RINO’s. If your interpretation were correct then no one would care about RINO’s.
While I generally agree there is one major flaw that rankles me, RINO’s rarely face consequences and are typically reelected except for a small minority that get most of the attention.
I’ll go through this a bit.
“What your describing isn’t Conservatives nearly as much as it’s Liberals.”
Bull-fucking-shit. Results talk and the GOPs results say exactly fuck all because Cons understand exactly fuck all and never get results. The Left, on the other hand, get results. Big time results. They’ve been doing it very consistently since the 1920’s.
I mean, FFS, how many Conservatives even know that Neocons are, quite literally, the direct political descendents of Trotskyites? Pretty much none, which why they hate when someone points it out because it hurts the fe-fes. Go say that shit to a bunch of Cons and see if how they react. Betcha they fly off the handle because I’ve watched them do it A LOT.
“The rank and file in the general populous
on the leftfollows whatever Democrats happen to be saying without question.”FTFY. It’s called “cultural hegemony”, Cons ain’t got it because they don’t understand it. It’s a dedicated movement towards a cultural revolution and it’s damned effective. Wanna guess who gets mass graved if these people are successful? Or would you rather list the Cons accomplishments on this front? You know, your iron fisted control of movies, music, art, literature, education etc? Maybe tell me about how you prevented DEI from taking over fucking everything because you were on the ball and saw the cultural aspects of that before you got steamrolled by them?
“If Pelosi says Jan6 was insurrection… with no pushback at all.”
Tell me you’re manipulated into believing untruths without saying that you are because looking at data just ain’t a Conservative pastime. And the reason for this is for most Cons is because they don’t want to admit that they themselves are, at base, emotional and therefore emotionally manipulated with ease by nasty people from both sides.
Remember the Cons cheerleading the war in Iraq and lashing out at the anti war liberals for not supporting it? Pepperidge Farm remembers. Pepperidge Farm also knows that, for once, the default libs were right about something.
“Conservatives are not following Republicans out of any kind of devotional loyalty.”
Are you interested in bridge based real estate, perchance?
Of course they are, in a slightly more complicated than direct “devotional loyalty” but ultimately the same thing. That’s why they’re battered wives still electing people like McConnell and Mittens until these assholes retire or die.
The root reason may be, and in fact is, oppositional to *the other guys* but it manifests in the exact same manner as default-libs. Which, in and of itself, is a strength rather than a weakness provided that the opposition is intelligent rather than emotional, which it’s not.
“If your interpretation were correct then no one would care about RINO’s.”
You care about RINOs because they run your party lock, stock and two smoking barrels and on some level you know it yet you cannot get rid of them. Which, by the by, is what I mean. This isn’t evidence that I’m wrong, it’s one of the symptoms I’m pointing out.
No different in many regards than the people who will still reflexively “back the blue”. Hell, they’ll probably voice that same opinion to the death squad right before they get popped.
I mean, let’s run down, very quickly, a little GOP rabbit hole that I love. We can sum up a big part of the current political situation by simply boiling a ton of Con arguments down to “Millennials are a bunch of lazy shitlibs”.
Well, that’s interesting in regards to the current schoolboard issues nationwide. You might be aware that opposition to Lefty indoctrination is to the point that it scares the Left badly enough that the DOJ is considering complaining parents to be potential terrorists.
Weird, because you know what? It’s Millennials with the kids, son. This ain’t 2010. Those people complaining about grade school and middle school indoctrination are in their 30’s or very early 40’s. They’re nearly exclusively Millennials.
And they’re doing more work to push back than Cons have done since I was born. Square that circle, wouldya?
Let me save you the trouble. Normies and default-libs are getting pissed and pushing back, hard. Cons? They’re content to continue where they’ve been for 50+ years. Taking it up the keister like a Staffer making a video of themselves in a Senate hearing room and loving every second of it in some weird political version of victim mentality mixed with Munchausen syndrome.
==
That sounds kinda harsh, mean even. Yeah, it is harsh. It’s reality. It’s also, mostly, not Conservative’s fault. They actually ARE victims. They’re just not victims of what they believe they are, which is how this kind of thing functions over long periods of time.
This is how quality manipulation works. It’s been going on for decades. But that’s not a conversation Cons want to have because it means they’ve been lazy and fucking up hard for most of their lives.
Which might be true from some points of view. Or one can see what I said two paragraphs above this and realize what’s going on and move swiftly to bring it to an end.
It will end, one way or another. The question is if the end is political and causes some sheepish looks or if it’s bloody as fuck.
Personally, I lean towards the latter at this point. I mean, people right here tell me that a “cold civil war” isn’t a thing. Maybe the term’s not spot-on but the general concept is correct. Call it “strife” or “Bleeding Kansas” if you prefer, it’s the prelude to mass scale bloodletting and we’re already in it. Even the academics agree on that.
Well so much for leading one to water you went full scorched earth. Will need to check the neocon connection to Trotskyism but unfortunately can’t argue the rest
“They’re content to continue where they’ve been for 50+ years.”
The Dims want absolute power; the Republicrats (“Conservatives”) just want to be invited to all the cool parties.
“Well so much for leading one to water you went full scorched earth. Will need to check the neocon connection to Trotskyism but unfortunately can’t argue the rest”
I’m not really trying to after Prndll here, he just provides the insertion point for me to say that sort of thing without people being like “oMg, sTrcH9’s dRuNk!” the way they have when I post this sort of thing as a stand-alone.
Really, I’m kinda tired of people wasting my fucking time with the same triple-retread arguments for over a decade (two decades if I’m honest, but to be fair I get why no one wanted to listen to a 15 year old) when those arguments never made sense in the first fucking place but live on like some sort of zombie that just won’t die in the face of a barrage of obvious facts and data.
I just happen to be one of those assholes who treats people like full-on adults who can handle some slings and arrows to get to the truth and I don’t tend to care much about your feelings because mine are muted to the point that I probably can’t understand normal people. So I tend to say things in an unvarnished way but perhaps with some *French* accents.
Or maybe, as Sage Francis said “My tolerance level has peaked”.
As for the neocon thing, it’s far less devious than you might think in some regards but also more insidious, making it somewhat harder to detect.
Basically the GOP after WWII realizes that the USSR is a problem and wanted to contain and destabilize the USSR/Russia because they want the USSR to fall.
The Trotskyites wanted to contain and destabilize the USSR because they want to dislodge Stalin from power. As such they engaged in a mixture of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” ovatures to the GOP while also engaging in a bit of Entryism (weird how that comes up all the time, huh?).
Run it forward a few years and you get Neocons who hate the USSR and want a muscular foreign policy to deal with it at any cost. They are the philosophical children of the Trotskyites decades prior.
Today, you will note very significant overlap between “RINOs” and “Neocons”. You will also note that they tend to support intervention abroad and “soft Left” or perhaps “proto/quazi-socialist” policies domestically. They seem to be Democrat-Lite. That’s because they are.
Ideologically, they’re not Commies but they haven’t fully moved away from that being part of their philosophical tap-root either. Their irrational hatred of Russia is a symptom of their roots and, honestly, I doubt most of them even know it. They’re just kinda *doing the thing* without really understanding why. This is how you get Mitt Romney backing Biden over Ukraine while most normal people look at that and say “Huh, strange bedfellows, those two”.
This is why you’ve had such infighting in the GOP for a long time. Neocons aren’t really that Conservative because they’re the offspring of a specific type of Bolshie. Sure, it’s several generations removed at this point but it hasn’t been bred out. They are however reasonably adept at pulling the rest of the party into certain things with that “Rah! Rah! Rah! USA! USA!” thing that they do to justify foreign intervention.
“The Dims want absolute power; the Republicrats (“Conservatives”) just want to be invited to all the cool parties.”
Like most things I imagine this is a mix. There seems to be decent evidence for this.
Some of it is wanting to go to said parties, but there’s also some level of fear because they’re so used to losing/being bludgeoned, over-reliance on advisers that suck or just want money, a misunderstanding of how things actually work (theory vs. practice), a lack of a true philosophical base, an inability to figure out how they can stay within their own ethical structures and still be effective etc. (On the latter point, I’d say that understanding the second to last point would be instructive but fuck me for pointing this out, apparently.)
It all manifests as a sort of lack of self-confidence which probably all works to create the appearance of just wanting to be a cool kid so desperately that they do a ton of dumb shit.
But I know because I worked in this area for a bit, that neither elected GOP members or the grass roots have a wide-spread and shared philosophical base which is well understood because most of them can’t talk about political-tension being a good thing or articulate why Conservatism is actually good in anything other than bumper sticker sloganeering.
For example: “Things worked better back when” isn’t much of an argument. What worked better and why? What should we keep and what should we change? Which things should be Conserved not just because they maybe work but because they’re critical to society?
Just going back to 1950 (a common Lefty allegation, btw) ain’t a solution because it’s never going to happen. Which, hilariously, isn’t what the Right actually means anyway but they have trouble articulating what they DO mean, especially in the face of being slandered before they can even make their first point, historically with accusations of racism or other bigotry.
Strych even if the connection was bullshit (doubtful given your previous track record with anything I have looked up) the explanation is exactly the functional reality such as to not matter. I was aware of the paperclip issues (especially in the medical and media fields) but damn how many other flavors of totalitarian do we have mixed into our predominate political power points (not parties just nodes)?
Oh and shockingly refreshing to see a no fucks given approach in communication as I am just overly used to having to lowest common denominator everything at work just to get basic issues covered let alone get critical thinking introduced anywhere.
…how many other flavors of totalitarian do we have mixed into our predominate political power points…”
Oof. Good question. It depends on definitions, I suppose.
Broadly, I’d say “at least four” with loci centered at the extreme Left/Right and also in the center Left/Right. I’ll stick with the Left/Right classical liberal designation thing here because otherwise it’s gonna get waaaaay too complicated and we’re gonna need heat-maps, pie charts, distribution curves and shit.
Obviously, you can break these groups down nearly infinitely if you like. I don’t much see the point unless you’re going for stupidly accurate targeting, politically speaking. Obama-style “microtargeting”.
On the edges, the extreme Left is more numerous, more active and obviously better at recruiting than the extreme Right. Mostly that’s due to the constellation of issues they activate around.
The Right has numbers so low as to not really be worth talking about outside some very specific LE contexts that might make headlines but are statistically are irrelevant in most cases.
The Left, honestly, mainly falls into the same category. Their agitation is mostly social and political. Their real power lies here, not in riots. Though, clearly, they’re not afraid to hit the streets either and when they do they can muster some quite good organization.
It’s the centrists that are unknowing jackboots that actually bother me in a serious way, counterintuitive as that might seem. They’re also, not for nothing, the ones I refer to as the “target audience”. They’re also unknowing tyrants in waiting. Jacobins awaiting activation. Pick your phraseological poison.
Lacking perspective, education in civics, a true anchor point in reality, tribal like everyone else but without a serious in-group and with basically no one engaged in outreach to them in a serious manner meant to educate them, they are a large group that is easily swayed by manipulation because their main pastimes are pastimes. Some call them “sheep” (I find this term to be off-target, patronizing and counterproductive).
They’re the ones who often say that “There oughta be a law!” even if that makes zero sense. They want protection, generally, because they have little in the way of group identity outside maybe some form of fandom. They’re members of the “three generations” that Yuri Bezmenov was talking about in the early 1980’s and a product of the system Bill Buckley Jr. accurately described in the early 1950’s.
They’re the ones who made extended lockdowns possible in 2021, ditto jab mandates, the TSA or the Iraq war.
If activated in the right way, they become the most ridiculously helpful and benevolent community oriented folks you can imagine but if activated in the wrong way become the backbone of the Third Reich real fuckin’ quick.
These people are extremely sensitive to emotional arguments about “safety” that are properly presented but they are NOT stupid and they can actually make trade-off calculations while considering a temporal horizon when given information. While you can scare the fuck out of them now with a mass shooting they are equally sensitive to the idea of their kids growing up without any freedoms.
Fucked up as it sounds, they are the marbles we play for, if we’re actually playing to win. Mostly bland cats-eye littles but, some boulders and occasionally, a really nice galaxy queen or king, the kind of person Bernays considered a true prize.
Regardless of their stature they can be, well, used. They can also be fortified against attack. I’m personally of the opinion that this is the group which we should not just try to win over, we should try to win them over for a good reason, because we help them and in doing so make them much more resistant to future manipulation via educating them. Because we’re better people, frankly.
But, so far as I can tell, I’m in the minority opinion on that topic. Most people either want to outright use them or, alternatively, have the attitude of “fuck ’em”. I find both views aborrent and short sighted. There is no justification I can find for either view, even in pure Utilitarianism. Both views, IMHO, invite a walk down a road that ends poorly for everyone.
But then I’m also of the opinion that a good chess player is such because s/he kinda actually cares a little bit about their pieces, even the pawns. Not in some sort of pathological way, but in a manner that takes into account that they have value.
These are actual people we’re discussing here and therefore we should be quite careful not to stray into monstrous territory in our dealings with them by viewing them as numbers to be pushed around for our benefit. But if we keep doing what we are currently, the people who have no problem with monstrosity will use them to great effect again, and the more the masses get used the more desensitized to totalitarian impulses they become.
Not going to lie I did have a fuck them opinion for that middle group for much of the lockdowns up to hearing about VAIDS being a thing. You are correct that improving their ability to resist manipulation is the best option both for our own interests as well as for the betterment of the country (resisting foreign manipulation in any anti liberty form it may take). The turning point here in NY may be the migrants being bussed in to displace our poor and minorities who are getting quite irate as the process goes on and they realize they are no longer useful. Well back to the drawing board and reminding people the ammo check is unnessary and likely building a database.
The way that such things were sold is impressive, if we’re honest.
On the one hand they were threatening the people in what you call the “middle group” with the idea that they’d be somehow morally responsible for the death of a great number of elderly while on the other hand offering them membership in a morally virtuous group that did everything to save the elderly.
That’s moral blackmail on a scale that is impressive and it says a great deal about the nature of the people doing it, especially since they knew at the time that it wasn’t actually true in the vast majority of cases. It’s doubly diabolical for the fact that it places all blame for some potential future outcome on *you* for the actions of both a necessary but not sufficient intermediary (a virus in this case) and at least one secondary willful actor.
That’s a bit of a masterstroke, really.
It’s also interesting to note that the artificial moral quandary uses relies entirely on a set of Christian values centered on protecting the vulnerable, yet many of the people who fell for it the hardest, and in some cases still do, are openly proclaimed non-religious or even avowed atheists. Yet more interesting in that vein is that they convinced such people to not only take on this burden but to do it while deriving no gain from it.
Doing the right thing and suffering for it, that’s the archetype of Christ crucified being acted out by avowed atheists. Fascinating. There’s something there in the human psyche if you dig at it.
Of course, there is a key difference: Christ wasn’t an insufferable, virtue signalling twat about everything afterwards…