We Already Knew That, Y'Know
by tristero
Gail Collins:
We had a shooting near the Empire State Building...
Nine passers-by were also wounded, and it seems almost certain that some or all were accidentally hit by the police. This isn’t surprising; it’s only in movies that people are good shots during a violent encounter. In 2008, Al Baker reported in The Times that the accuracy rate for New York City officers firing in the line of duty was 34 percent.
And these are people trained for this kind of crisis. The moral is that if a lunatic starts shooting, you will not be made safer if your fellow average citizens are carrying concealed weapons.
Yep. But really, no one sane ever doubted that. Just as no one sane believes that two men marrying will have any negative effects on the institution of marriage. Or doubts that evolution is a fact. Or doubts global warming is real. Or believes that lower taxes will mean more government revenue. Or believes that rape victims can't get pregnant. Or...Or... Or...
So why does anyone listen to these people? And how best can we move these and many other ridiculous claims back to the margins of the discourse, where they so obviously belong?
Among the answers:
1. One reason there are so many crazy ideas in the mainstream discourse is that the media treat them as serious ideas, or at least as serious enough to deserve a sober, careful debunking. Taking the NRA's ludicrous claim as worthy of pointing to a counterfactual like the Empire State shootings risks elevating its status, making it worthy of debate and careful thought.
2. We can refuse to dignify idiocy with solemnity. Instead, we should laugh, we should mock, we should denounce. I'm not suggesting we ignore the rightwing. I'm suggesting we sneer a lot more than we are, and only engage when the ideas rise to a level of seriousness where they actually deserve a debunking.
The right has precious few notions that do. Certainly, the claim that a Manhattan street corner is safer when it's teeming with half-trained citizens armed with semi-automatics is not among them. The idea is not worth going to the trouble of discussing. It's too bonkers and life is short.