12.18.12
Rats desert indefensible sinking ship
Corporate America liked WhiteManistan only insofar as its not a public relations nightmare or liability.
From the wire, the giant investment brokerage that holds much of the US domestic firearms manufacturing base in a consortium called the Freedom Group is bailing on it and Bushmaster.
A major private equity firm has decided that putting its clients’ money into a company that makes assault-type weapons isn’t a wise strategy.
At the same time a large sporting goods chain has said that, at least for now, it would not sell those types of weapons.
The decisions came as pressure rises for the government to do something about the proliferation of assault-type weapons that have been used in several recent mass shootings.
Cerberus Capital Management said Tuesday, after discussions with investors, that it would sell its stake in Freedom Group, a major weapons producer whose portfolio includes such well-known gun brands as Remington and Bushmaster Firearms.
“Separately, Dick’s Sporting Goods also said Tuesday that it would temporary stop selling guns at a store near Newtown and suspend the sale of ‘modern sporting rifles’ for all stores nationwide,” the piece adds.
However, that is trivial in comparison with a partial display of Walmart money-makers.
It’s possible to see how the gun lobby and its corporate backers can be beaten. Lacking the numbers of a genuine multicultural majority, allow them to loudly defend the right to purchase assault guns and high capacity magazines and to blame the horrific on other causes.
They became paranoid ogres over the years and the political will and interest was not there to show people what precisely it was they were up to. Now that everyone has been shocked by the tragedy in Newtown, let the ideological monsters of the gun right and NRA show the country what they really care about — still being able to buy Bushmasters because it’s right wing white guys and, damn it — leave us the hell alone, you’re trying to victimize us!
Shunning is a viable strategy. Cultivation of national revulsion toward an unacceptable sporting hobby and a covetousness toward horrendously inappropriate weaponry is a legitimate thing to do.
That how you make people lose in the voting booth. You tell their story, just as it is.
People may lose interest. It may fail. But it’s certainly worth attempting.
Floormaster Squeeze said,
December 19, 2012 at 7:15 am
It is interesting thing you continue to bring up the self-absorbed (fake) victimization. Alan Lankford, a social psychologist from the University of Alabama on the radio yesterday, has studied nearly 200 mass shootings and his findings clearly showed several things but the one most striking to me is that feelings of victimization was one of the biggest common themes (I would say biggest but 96% of the mass shooters are men so phalluses is probably the biggest reason). He was talking about all the other motivations that are generally overstated or not really present (interestingly he mentioned that political ideology was remarkably seldom present).
This feeling of victimization is probably the single most surprising development politically over the last 30 years. The right used to ridicule generally victimized people/groups for bringing up their victimized status into debates. I would never have guessed that the right would throw the weirdest and whiniest hissy fits–that sadly, way too many times, lead to violence.
George Smith said,
December 19, 2012 at 7:59 am
Yeah, the victimization bit sticks out, across the board. It’s indivisible from the offense taken when one expresses a negative attitude toward the fool’s idea of having more guns, or ar-15’s — particularly, or anything that ties white guys, masculinity and the cult of gun fetish to these mass slaughters.
I’ll be posting this again later today, but it’s a good accumulation of argument and statistical plots.
http://globalsociology.com/2012/12/15/on-the-guns-thing-i-would-just-like-to-point-out/