Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that this past weekend there was deadly violence on the streets of America. A terrorist drove his car into a crowd of protesters, killed Heather Heyer and injured some 19 others.
We are angry and sad about that. But that is not what I am writing about today.
There has been much talk of “whataboutism” and how it enables folks to claim some moral equivalence between flag waving, hand saluting, card carrying Nazis and various Anti Fascist collectives (sometimes called Antifa) and Black Lives Matter. To be clear, this equivocation is wrong, it normalizes white supremacy in a way that is unacceptable. You can’t go two clicks on the internet without seeing this “debate” rage, and I imagine by even acknowledging it here, we will have some flames in the comments.
Yet, that is still not what I am writing about today. Not directly.
As the observant reader may recall, we are not particularly fond of the likes of Mother’s Demand Action and the various incarnations of Everytown, Brady, or whatever the nom de guerre will be when they re-brand again. Imagine our shock, when this article appears in their social media feed with the admonition that open carrying of guns is wrong (we can debate that) and a call to action (think, give us money) to:
“…end the unacceptable and un-American practice of open carry, and pass common-sense gun laws that would strengthen public safety.”
It is not about the guns. It is about the Nazis. Saying it is about ANYTHING else, is saying that it is not about the Nazis. That is unacceptable. That is whataboutism salted with political opportunism.
Let me repeat that: Making it about guns is pretending it is not about Nazis.
This is about Nazis. This is about Nazis and the very real and violent threats they bring to our country. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t want the Nazis being the only ones who are armed.
Being armed worked for our grandparents.
