I like how he mentioned the inability of the CDC, due to regulations, to gather a comprehensive database on gun violence. As that seems to be an oft to ignored law. Undo that law, let the CDC gather all the various data points into one set, and then let that set be used for analysis. A gun used to commit a robbery, rape or other violent crime? That needs to be reported to the CDC database, along with any details known such as gun source, legality etc. A gunshot victim gets treated at a hospital or clinic, that gets reported to the CDC database along with cause, which in most cases is accidental. Suicide by gun, homicide by gun, mass shooting, all get put into that database. That data then can be used by all sides to support their cause, perhaps it will show that many of the proposed regulations would have little effect. I suspect, however, the fact that the gun lobby fights so hard to prevent the CDC from gathering the data for others to use, means they fear it will be far less favorable to their side.

I personally would be happy enough for now though for this step to be taken. So that we aren't making choices based on incomplete data and conjuncture.

I personally support the right to own a gun for hunting and self-defense. I'm not sure how an AR-15 or something like that would be useful in either case, short of an unrealistic scenario of a zombie apocalypse... and before the right-wingnuts suggest self-defense of in case of a military invasion, or from some odd right-wing fantasy of our own military, let me remind you of how well even better weapons and training worked out for the Branch Davidians. Admittedly, a military invasion scenario of either type is more likely than a zombie or otherwise apocalypse, but exceedingly low... Now if Trump gets us into WW3, and we lose power for years, and it becomes survival of the fittest, then there may be an argument, the solution to that, of course, is don't get the world into that situation with idiots like him at the wheel.

It's funny that you don't extend the same thought to others that WE attacked first, huh?
...
It's also funny that you say that, when the PC people are invariably MORE educated than those complaining about them. They have already changed the 'American way of life', change IS the American way of life.
...
That's a hilarious statement from someone who owned over 600 slaves, don't you think?
...
America is far from the only country with an armed populace, but we may be the least responsible.
The arms citizens can own are completely useless against the government today. If you think differently, ask a Branch Davidian how well a massive armory of the most powerful weapons they could acquire, and intensive training on their use and tactics worked out for them, and they didn't even come up against any military, only law enforcement.

Didn't watch the video, but did skim the comments... Christ...

First off, moving to Canada and any other decent first world nation be it New Zealand, Australia, the UK, Iceland, Netherlands, Canada etc... not as easy as just packing up and moving. You need a very narrow set of skills to move to those countries. We looked into all this countries, and all of their entry requirements exceeded what we had to offer them. People always say if you don't like it leave, but that ignores several facts. It isn't we don't like it, we just think it can be improved, change isn't bad. Humanity isn't bad. Caring for those less fortunate isn't bad. Guaranteeing everyone a minimum level of affordable health care isn't bad. Working to insure that all workers get a living wage (the way we used to have before the employers/owners started getting greedy and redistributing more wealth to themselves), isn't a bad goal, in fact it's a very good thing. The famed clip from the Newsroom's first episode when he goes on about how America isn't great anymore but it used to be...

Of course the whole concept of American exceptionalism, or any nation exceptionalism is flawed. We are all humans on this planet. Being American doesn't make you superior to somebody born in China or Mexico, Ethiopia, Syria or anywhere else. Location of birth is an accident of timing... and if it is divine intervention by God that placed you here instead of Ethiopia where you may have starved to death with an inflated malnourished belly despite all your prayers, then God is an ass and not worth serving. So if he's not an ass, then it is pure accident that you are here and not there. To think oneself superior and better than somebody in another nation because of their location of birth, and the religion that comes with that location, is insanity. And I draw that all ways. The Muslims who despise Christianity for not being the true faith, and Christians who despise Islam for not being the true faith. You are your faith by accident of birth, be it location and/or parentage etc... all of which is getting away from the point. Which is simply that to say that Chinese worker doesn't deserve a job manufacturing something that you think you should be building is asinine and not respectful of their humanity and a complete lack of any sort of empathy. Christ, I have Aspergers and I have more empathy in my farts than the entire Tea Party Christian Right.

Yes we need to respect the individual, but "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one"... and that quote is in context and not just a cherry pick sample. If it benefits just one and damages the many, then it is not a good thing. Most every faith in the world has some variation of the Golden Rule, to treat others the way you want others (not that specific person, but people as a general whole) to treat you. Christianity's Christ went further and said the greatest commandment was love, to show love to one another. Greed and selfishness is not love. Collectivism has many faults as well, but it isn't tyranny, and is certainly better for society as a whole in the long run than unrestrained greed motivated individualism. Like Pink Floyd's song, On the Turning Away, says, we are all "just a world we all must share". We can't turn away from the coldness inside towards others. We need to lift all of humanity up. Perhaps showing the Muslims love instead of hate and bigotry would convince them that perhaps Christianity isn't the enemy, that perhaps it is the answer, but showing them hate, and bigotry... and denying refugees trying to flee a horrible civil war is bigotry and hatred, and the fact that a rather disturbingly large percentage of the right can't see that isn't bigotry and hatred is scary beyond measure. I again find it amazing that people could lack that much empathy without a neurological disorder.

To invade others, tell them how to live their lives, to force democracy on them if they aren't ready, to insult them and belittle their faith, and all that isn't world building. It isn't reaching out with empathy. It's hate. It's bigotry and as noted by artician, it's what helps drive people to fly into buildings. They know that they know that their faith is the right one, and the lack of empathy to see that people of the Muslim faith have just as much faith in their religion as Christians have in theirs, that they have the same amount of knowledge and comfort from god that they are the correct faith, is what drives extremism.

And oh my god the guns. Guns would have saved the Jews. American mainland can't be invaded because too many people own guns... ask the Branch Davidians how well having not only military grade weapons but also training on how to use them worked for them against a slightly militarized police force, let alone an actual military. Yes, it would be incredibly hard, and resistance would probably eventually wear any invading force down the way the Taliban wore the Soviets down, or the Viet Cong did against the US Military might. So perhaps that can be counted as a victory, but would be long fought. Look, I support gun ownership. All I really call for is 1) allowing the CDC get back to it's job of collecting the data and finding out what's really going on with gun violence, and 2) closing the gun show loophole unless the CDC's investigation shows that it has zero effect, 3) you have to have a legal ID to own a gun and can't be on the no fly list, 4) the existing background checks kept the same, but also add a drug test, the right wants drug tests for welfare, then we should be testing for gun owenrship too. (I see little reason for "assault weapons" but aside from perhaps having perhaps a slightly better background check, I don't know if a ban yet needs to be called for, but I'm in the middle here.) Once we have have better data points from the CDC then we can really tackle the issue of gun violence. Yes, it will take years to get those answers, but I find it insane that the Republicans refuse to allow the investigation to go on, which says to me that they are afraid of what the data will show.

Unless you are nearly a pure Native American, then you are a refugee to the US.

The primary problem here and around the world is poverty and lack of proper education. This drives people to crime and extremism in religion which makes them susceptible to acting out terrorist acts, be it in the name of Allah (as is the public perceived norm) or Christ (ala the Planed Parenthood terrorist attack, the 2011 Norway attacks, etc). We need to address the growing income and wealth gaps. The way to doing that isn't by giving those at the top even more tax breaks and losing regulations (which is funny thing to complain about, too many regulations here in the US, meanwhile the same people complain about the low quality Chinese goods that aren't safe due to low regulations and poor labor conditions etc). We need to push education, and proper STEM programs, not deflated science trying to force Creationism in via so called "Intelligent Design" or "teaching the controversy" stick to the actual science. Don't object to the "new math" if it's teaching better fundamentals of understanding what the numbers are actually doing even if it doesn't teach the shortcuts we were taught... and lots of the stuff people complain about is just the fact we don't skip right to the shortcut that works. Yes, it works, but it helps if they better understand the underlying fundamentals of the numbers and the actual math. Again, change isn't a bad thing, to object just because you don't understand or don't like it compared to the simplified shortcut we all learned doesn't make it bad. Reading also needs pushed, and understanding of logical fallacies and logical and faulty thinking.

I believe that a post scarcity world is impossible due to the nature of humanity. There are far too many greedy people that will never want the world to get to that point. However, that should be the noble goal. Post scarcity society has many issues, but perhaps by the time we actually got there we'd be able to solve them.

TLDR: Basically it all comes down to empathy. To view everything as the others view it. I get the fear and panic and all that the right has, and not just because I once upon a time was a right wing evangelical Christian who called those who received food stamps lazy bums, who said that Democrats and the liberals just wanted to keep the poor trapped so they would always need help. Yes, I was there and that helps, but I can still empathize with them without that past. I've never been a Muslim raised in a nation dominated by Islam, but I can still empathize with the way they see what the US is doing to them, the way they have to see people like Donald Trump and the scary amount of Americans that support him. It's easy to see why some are driven to extremism. I can empathize with that Mexican who just wants a better life and knows that Mexico can't give it to him so he has to risk it all to try and immigrate to the US. I can empathize with the Chinese worker who has been given an opportunity to build something, to escape the poverty... for while perhaps still poverty, less poverty than before, and I'm thankful that I got that opportunity, and I'm sorry that somebody in the US doesn't get to do it, but I'm a human too. Empathy. Learn it. It can be learned, neurological disorder or not.

Whatcha gonna do when they come for youuuuuu..

You mean the siege that could've been avoided but we didn't because we're macho idiots? Those Branch Davidians?

Someone remind me...what happened at the Branch Davidian compound?

In reply to this comment by shuac:
It's actually the exact opposite. The cult channel is for cult-related stuff (scientology, branch-davidians, westboro baptist church, reverend Sun Myung Moon, etc.) not for cult classics (Buckaroo Banzai, Rocky Horror Picture Show, etc.)
>> ^SpaceOddity:

LOL i would've added it to Cult but I assumed it was cult as in "cult classic"



Good to know, thanks for educating me

It's actually the exact opposite. The cult channel is for cult-related stuff (scientology, branch-davidians, westboro baptist church, reverend Sun Myung Moon, etc.) not for cult classics (Buckaroo Banzai, Rocky Horror Picture Show, etc.)
>> ^SpaceOddity:

LOL i would've added it to Cult but I assumed it was cult as in "cult classic"

@Quboid, I'd wager that David Koresh believed what he was teaching, so much so that he died with his flock in Waco, in the name of his beliefs, and everyone pretty much agrees that the Branch Davidians were absolutely a cult.

For that reason, I don't think the leaders vs. followers thing necessarily holds water. Better: does the religion attempt to "protect" it's members from the outside world by way of separation, either intellectual or physical? Does the religion attempt to hide it's beliefs from non-believers until they are "ready"? It's the seclusion and secrecy that makes a religion suspect.

I think his idea that the monetary system is going bankrupt is quite possibly true, especially in Europe. I don't see how Obama is pulling the strings of a big nuclear, pardon me, thermonuclear war conspiracy. His influence on any meaningful policy changes has been stunted by the ineffectiveness of congress.

[edit - After watching past 32:00:00] OMFG, this guy is nuts. Colonizing Mars? Galactic radiation threats? This is cult logic on a epic, Branch Davidian/Scientology scale. Crazy like a fox, perhaps. A retarded fox.

wow, that branch davidian reference is dated!

I can't imagine, even with the overt racism of the south, that they would go back to slavery (even rhetorically). However, I think that serfdom and open racism would definitely be part of their Southern moral "philosophy".

I don't think they could survive without the North and West's tax money, so it probably would never happen. Not to mention the North's response would probably be along the line of the response towards the 'Branch Davidians'.>> ^NetRunner:

>> ^vaporlock:
I'd love to see the South secede from the Union. I'm sure it wouldn't be long before their roads were unpaved and they were in a war with Mexico. Their low wages and corrupt politicians might do well in the current world economy.

I think my main curiosity about such a hypothetical is how close to reinstating slavery they'd get.
Mostly though, I wish people would recognize that secession would be massively ugly for everyone.

I *know* this will be long. But understanding things should never be allowed to be reduced to sound bites and short sentences.

Police raided a school as an exercise? Not even some warrents? Sounds like some individuals whom need to be held accountible for their jobs. Which could be fines, jail time, lose of job, and so on. People make mistakes, and do dumb things. Can you honestly say you haven't done dumb things in your life so far?

The narrator is trying to use fear, to get the proper response out of you, the audience. To some degree, as with posters above, he succeeds at the task. He uses a collection of words and phrases, and links them to imagery, sounds, and even old pictures. In ways, this concept is known as NLP, or, Neuro-logical programming (look it up in wikipedia, its both fascinating and scary stuff).

Police have to keep up with technology and tactics, as their duty in our country, is to up hold the law. The legistators create laws, the executive signs such law in to effect. Its the law enforcement (i.e. the police, FBI, and other local/state/federal agencies) whom maintain the law. The justices decide on whether the laws are within Consitituional limits, or if they breach them. All these sets of checks & balances do not work, if the citizens of the country let in to the fear this narrator wants you to feel. I know the police in my town. Friendly bunch whom work very hard to keep things normal and safe. They are very much studied and watched. We pay them very well, and make sure they have the proper tools to do their job correctly, honestly, lawfully, and to be responsible.

The 'police state' effect, that the narrator talks about, did come in to effect during the Bush Administration. The US Patriot Act was passed in to law very quickly, shortly after Sept. 11, 2001. One of its passages allowed the goverment to circumvent the 4th Amendment, allowing the White House to 'spy' on over 300 million Americans. This was conducted in an effort to catch and eliminate "...those whom are a threat to our country." This narrator does not hold Mr. Bush, nor the White House accountible to each and every time, this action took place.

If I recall the issue of military 'APC's for Waco, Tx correctly. The Branch Davidians were holed up in a central structure compound with numberous fire arms. Now, this by itself was not illegal. The agents conducting the warrents and arrests initally were met with the civilian sold version of the Barrett M82A1 'light fifty' rifle. This weapon, to my knowledge, is a single shot weapon (the military version can fire rounds from a magizine....I think?). I'm sure the gun nuts on here could inform us, of the gun's name. Anyways, this weapon, like its military cousin, could blow holes through armored police cars. The APCs were used to conduct operations and hopefully bring the matter to a non-violent conclusion. As the history books show, this did not happen. But the police, and FBI, did not racket up their skills and tools in a vacuum. After the event was over, there were a number of studies on the issue, and people held properly (depending on one's viewpoint I guess) of their actions and inactions that led to the events.

If you, the citizen really are consern about the nature of the police or law enforcement, then why not go visit the police. Talk to them, become active in your community and seriously look at how a police state could be formed, and take proper, legal, honest action to oppose it. Believe it or not, the police I know, are AGAINST a police state. And they are in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (since, some of you conversatives think us Mass residents are all commie, liberal, socialistic, islamic happy, tree hugging, yuppy, homosexual liking, religios hating, psych-paths....did I leave anything out?). In fact, thsoe whom are liberal REALLY are against the police state. We voted to remove Republicans at the federal level, out of office (since the Bush admin *IS* Republican).


Finally, recall its Thomas Jefferson that said, (paraphrasingly) that if we are afraid to speak our minds in pursuit of our nations freedoms and equalities, then we allow tyranny to win.

I don't know what to think of this, either. ...and I'm wondering what the heck this has to do with "Waco" so I'm removing it from the tags.

I assume you're confusing the FLDS peeps with the Branch Davidians. ...or I could be an idiot.

Are you a Scientologist on the Run? A Branch Davidian lamenting the things you lost in the fire? A Nike wearing member of Heaven's Gate who missed the comet? Did they run out of Kool-Aid during lunch and now you find yourself lost, homeless and friendless?

You're all welcome here at CultSift, a warm fuzzy place that serves as a clearing-house for cult related videos and discussion on this big blue spaceship we call the internet. Come on in, put your feet up, loosen your cilise, shave your head and cut your nuts off if that's your thing, but make yourself at home.

If you want to become a CultSifter, all you have to do is ask a CultSifter.

http://cult.videosift.com/

'One political event that became an object of interest and fodder for comedy was the storming of the Waco compound of the Branch Davidians under David Koresh. Hicks became convinced that the government initiated the destruction of the compound by setting it on fire (he pointed to footage of a tank allegedly shooting fire into the compound as evidence) and then covered up its actions.'