The ridiculous fallacy

I've told this story before. I had a colleague in my previous life who was a Marine reservist. He was a gun nut. One night drinking we got to talking about gun control. We went back and forth. And then he let out with the most common reason some use as an argument against gun control: The Founders instituted the the Second Amendment to allow citizens to rebel against the federal or state governments. It was at this point that I realized any sort of logical discussion was impossible. The idea that a collection of white landed gentry, who did not extend the vote to universal (white, male) suffrage, would provide for a means of rebellion against the government they were creating is so absurd as to beggar belief. As our Southern brothers and sisters would say, that dog just don't hunt. And of course, nowhere in the text of the amendment does it say that it exists for the purposes of overthrowing the government. (I also remember the look on his face when he made that statement. It was as if he was looking forward to joining in a glorious revolution against "tyranny". I sometimes wonder if he was at the Capitol on January 6th. And then I realize that life is too short to spend thinking about people like that and how their lives turned out.)

Here's another story, from my current, much better life.

At my previous library, I had a wonderful patron named Joel. A real mensch, salt of the earth. He's Jewish, worked for Jewish organizations, and was always impressed with my knowledge of Israeli politics. He lives at a yacht club in Marina Del Rey. And most of the people he knows there are of the Trumpist variety, although back then they were Tea Partiers.

At one point during President Barack Obama's administration, when Jade Helm was the outrage du jour, a few of his friends were talking big and tough. "Yeah, we'll barricade ourselves in here and hold off the jackbooted thugs!", and other such bravado. Joel made one comment. "You know," he said, "they don't send in the troops first. First, they level the place with missiles. Do you... do you plan to shoot those down with your assault rifles?" The way he described their crestfallen visages makes me chuckle to this day.

The idea that the Second Amendment was passed as a bulwark against "tyranny" is absurd on its face. Even back in the 18th century when it was passed, and a ragtag militia could hope to offer up some resistance. (Not even then, though. Study the Whiskey Rebellion—the only time an American president led troops in the field—to see how our first uprising against "tyranny" concluded.) But today? Against the most powerful military this woebegotten world has ever seen?

Here's a video I came across yesterday. It shows just how much superior the US military is to any possible foe, foreign or domestic.

The Wagner mercenaries and their Syrian allies had tanks. Had mortars. And were wiped out in the course of a very long night. Joel's friends at the yacht club wouldn't last an hour.

Those who bruit about that they must keep armed to subvert government overreach don't realize they have already lost. They literally don't know that that ship has sailed. If a putative leftwing dictatorial president got the military onside, there would be not much they could do. Sure, they could go the Taliban route and lay IEDs. But the Taliban took over Afghanistan because Donald Trump gave it to them. Bar that, and they would still be suffering under A-10 Warthogs wiping out their units. Why hasn't Vladimir Putin expanded the war in Ukraine? Because he knows, or at least his generals do, that bringing the US into the conflict would have the Russian military destroyed within weeks, if not days.

This is the ridiculous fallacy which keeps Meal Team Six fed. The idea that they could do to the US military what the Afghan mujahideen did to the Soviets. But the Afghans were armed by the US; and the Soviets, even back then, didn't expand the war to Europe to counter US support to the Afghan resistance, for fear of US conventional might. And no, China also won't match US conventional capabilities. As someone said on some social media platform: We may not be able to provide our citizens with healthcare, but we can destroy any nation's military with alacrity.

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