I should know better. I do know better. You don’t post to a public discussion site with people of as high an intellect as people on K5 without doing some good research, backing up your arguments with quotes, links, and statistics, and taking a somewhat standard geek point of view.
Oh, and its nice to search for information on a topic before posting a new article about the same topic while being completely ignorant of the previously posted discussion and resulting formation of a non-profit corporation. Whoops!
Suffice to say my reasoned views on how I think guns should be dealt with were not taken to kindly by the K5 readership. And rightly so — again, I should have known better. It is opinion, I said it was opinion, but I didn’t spend enough time working eloquence and prose and editing into my rant, as I usually don’t do with posts to AgBlog but do with legitimate news stories. ::sigh::
That sound you are hearing is me banging my head on the table. Here are a few juicy comments:
“This one misconstrues positions on both sides, is ignorant of the legal and political history it tries to lay out, hasn’t been proofread, and does little more than propose the same strawman arguments everyone’s seen before but with less eloquence.” – cp
“Other than being totally wrong on every single count, this isn’t bad. “-trhurler
“Your entire article, from beginning to end, is filled with the most unimaginable untruths that one must only conclude that you’ve been reading Michael Bellesiles’ book, which has been roundly derided and proven to be an agenda in search of supporting facts, which he misquotes and misstates to prove a point which his sources simply do not prove.
Try again.” – Beergut
And a few thought out responses, such as: “You are wrong about what “right to bear arms” means. One doesnt bear arms against rabbits, or criminals, or shooting targets. When one “bears arms”, one goes to war. Thugs dont bear arms, soldiers do. The Second Amendment is a military amendment, not an individual right. I hope people take the time to read the law journal article links cited above and also consider the evidence of case law.” – eLuddite
What have I learned here?
- When this many smart people can get this upset, I probably should review my facts, logic, and conclusions and see if I still think I’m on the right track.
- It is good to get criticized ones in a while because it helps you to really see alternative points of view and understand weaknesses in your own argument.
- Personal attacks are Not Nice ™ and I’m going to try to avoid them in the future, seeing as how they did wonders to my already deflated ego, and I wouldn’t wish such a punishment on anyone else.
- Liberals think you’re conservative if you say one “conservative” thing, while conservatives think you’re liberal if you say one thing left-leaning. Well then, that’s nice. What if I’m neither, but on each issue I take the approach I believe most thoughtful? Nah, couldn’t happen. Must be a crazy liberal/conservative abortionist/gun-nut!