NBA Season Part 2: Life In The Orlando Bubble

Ah, the culture of violence.

Perhaps it's irresponsible to voice my opinion on this matter as a foreigner, but it baffles my mind that possession of guns are legal in some developed countries.

Guns must be strictly regulated to achieve a safe society. That's the 'change' America needs to pursue, in my humble opinion.

 

It is not irresponsible to voice your opinion as a foreigner to the United States. Quite the opposite. I think the perspective that foreigners have towards the USA is very valuable.

 

America is the greatest country in the world because of the freedoms afforded to its citizens. Limiting these freedoms would make it the Soviet Union, but maybe it's the plan?

 

Respectfully, as a German, what freedoms don’t I have, except for the one to carry a gun, that you have? And doesn‘t this particular right also come with the „unfreedom“ of having to be afraid of other people‘s guns much more?

And if you are the most free country, you could probably restrict some freedoms before becoming the soviet Union.

Saying this as someone that has always loved the US.

 

One more thought - from my perspective it seems that all the other freedoms are more under attack, basically throughout the Western world. 2nd amendment appears safe.

 

I'm not American, too, Mitch but this is where communism started. First, they take away your guns, then free speech, then you have to share your wealth equally with lazy bums, then you get a bullet to the head for resisting. The US 2nd amendment guarantees the State can not do this.

 

Rest assured, not all Americans subscribe to the narrative that America is the “greatest” country. I don’t really even know what that means. What metrics are being used here? Military power? Feels a little barbaric as an individual citizen to brag about your country’s capabilities of destruction. Global politics isn’t a sport. It’s not a competition. I’m sure many of you living in other countries share many of our same “freedoms” and have the same (if not better) levels of economic opportunity, education, health,etc.

Nothing against having pride in your country. America is great (even despite the current turmoil). A lot of other countries are great too.

I feel in the US there is too much attachment to vague ideals of American exceptionalism. “We’re the best, we always have been, you can’t tell us otherwise because freedom!” Ultra-nationalism, marketed by the elite ruling class to pull the wool over the eyes of the working class they’re screwing over. Why provide strong social change that disrupts the status quo that benefits the 1%, when you can convince large segments of the population to go to bat in defense of the current institutions out of patriotism.

But sorry, I digress. If we’re having political discussion on the Lakers Discussion forum, I imagine it should stay focused on the political topics pertinent to the Lakers and the NBA boycott.

So on that topic, I’m curious to hear the details of what the players and owners have been discussing today. All we’ve heard is that the playoffs will resume, but that can’t be it right? A few days of boycott and then business as usual? I’m guessing the league will be making stronger social statements and financial commitments.

I think it would be awesome if the Bucks publicly demanded as an organization to remove the chief of police who defended the vigilante shooter. Everything about that situation has really disgusted me the past few days. In a way, it’s a microcosm of the entire issue. Same people who are nitpicking Blake’s history, what he may have had in the car, etc in order to blame him are out here defending the vigilante, giving him the benefit of the doubt at every turn, reaching hard to sell “self-defense” when he was coming from a different state.

Bet the reaction would be MUCH different if a black teen with BLM all over their social media went to one of those heavily white “anti-lockdown” protests with an AR-15 claiming that they just wanted to keep the peace.

 

Not sure why but this reminds me of one of my favorite book series when I was growing up.

 

You'll never know how good you have it as Americans, coming from what is considered as third World, I laugh at what you consider as "problems". The real funny thing to me is the oppression olympics of a spoiled generation of Americans.

 

I understand your thinking but I think that’s just one way history goes. One other could be civil war of the bloodiest kind. Or present reality of so much daily gun violence. Also, I‘m sure the US military would probably still be able to put bullets in all resisting heads. If they wanted to. I understand distrust of authority but the solution to me appears to be democracy, separation of powers, rule of law etc. Every idiot having a gun ensures unnecessary violence, but no security against tyranny.

I dont think the world and economic systems are so bipolar that you can only choose between absolute freedom and soviet style dictatorship. Basically no country in the world works that way. Ideally, you want a balance between freedom and safety and what that balance is will always be subject to debate. The US have had very wide „gun freedom“ for a long time. Meanwhile other rights, eg freedom of speach, Voting rights etc, have been restricted.

In most of Europe (and other places) people havent had guns in decades and I would think most don’t feel less free because of that.

 

I oversimplified it admittedly but look at the history of how the Soviet Union was created. You wouldn't think it would happen to the US but the way Cali and NY is being ran you can see the beginnings of this.

 

No games tonight



On a separate note, there is a reason why the constitution qualifies the right to bear arms within the context of a well-regulated militia. Put an irresponsible person into a chaotic situation with a highly lethal tool and you get what happened in Kenosha with Kyle Rittenhouse. Now personally, I don't know why you would ever need an AR-15 for hunting or self-defense, but wanting to regulate it so that you don't have a bunch of 17-year-old vigilantes running around in cities with them is not, in my opinion, a march towards the Soviet Union.

 

Fair, probably some truth to this even as it applies to myself.

The point I’m trying to make though is that of course there are third world countries that are significantly impoverished and lack human/democratic rights for their people. But there are also other first world countries that are on par or better then America in many aspects. What you call “oppression olympics”, I call a desire for a better future for ALL Americans. Minimizing the points people are making here as being “spoiled” and “oppression olympics” reeks of the nationalistic complacency I’m talking about (I understand you are not from America, but many Americans do echo your views).