Right now, things are very tense in the United States. They’ve been that way for a while, actually. Even before COVID-19, the political landscape was incredibly tense. Violence was no longer an uncommon occurrence when it came to political “discussions” in places like Portland and many others. We were almost used to riots breaking out at any given time.
Hell, people wore protective clothing to go and exercise their First Amendment rights.
And now, we’re all locked down in our homes while our grocery store shelves remain far barer than any of us are comfortable seeing. That’s not a recipe for happy-making.
On top of this, we have someone like David Chipman.
Chipman is a former ATF agent turned professional gun grabber, and in recent weeks, he’s been on something of a tear.
First, there was the video of him comparing folks like us to Joe Exotic, the subject of the Netflix documentary series Tiger King. Next, he made reference to the “zombies” we were all worried about.
This was, of course, just one interview. This is really all part of a single clip.
But that’s because to David Chipman, you’re not a real person. You’re the parody he has built up in his head of the kind of people who buy a gun, especially in stressful times.
Let’s remember that Joe Exotic was a flamboyantly bizarre character who is currently doing time for trying to hire someone to kill his rival, Carole Baskin (Yes, I think she killed her husband. Duh!). This is not a good person, despite the entertainment value many of us have gotten from his antics, and Chipman just casually compared millions of Americans to him.
Then the whole thing about zombies, well…
Like I said, you’re not a real person to him.
You see, many anti-gunners have built up a strawman version of who we are in their head. They actually think we’re Joe Exotic, walking around with a gun just because we can, wanting attention above all else, and actually being “white trash” cliches. They don’t realize we’re doctors, lawyers, journalists, teachers, and every other walk of life.
Chipman and folks like him think we’re lost in a fantasy world, one complete with a zombie menace just over the horizon.
If Chipman is supposed to convince people in the veracity of gun control advocates’ claims, it might not be such an awful idea not to treat your opponents with complete and utter disdain.
After all, I know how full of it he is talking about those people who just bought all those guns. Oh, they may need training, but the vast majority went to Google and at least learned some basics, particularly about safety. But Chipman doesn’t know that because he looks down on those folks. They’re caricatures, not living, breathing human beings who are concerned about what happens next.
Frankly, if he can’t see folks like you and me as real people, how are we supposed to take anything he said seriously? How are we to have a reasonable debate with someone like him?
Of course, we’re not. We’re supposed to just allow him and his ilk run right over our rights and thank them for the tyranny.
