Defense Distributed Is The Greatest

[Idaho]

I think it's cute how gun control is linked to 3D-printing.

Of all the useless things to care about.....

American libertarians are nut jobs, but they have money and an interest in science and innovation, so they are preferable to American religious nut jobs.

[HoreTore]

I love the name "Defence Distributed". I wonder how long it takes before someone defends the crap out of some school kids with one of these?

Well, if you had mental capabilities well below any normal person, your answer to that would be "then we'll arm them teachers with dem paper guns hurr durr"...

American libertarians are nut jobs, but they have money and an interest in science and innovation, so they are preferable to American religious nut jobs.

I've been all giddy over the prospect of 3d-printing for the last 5 years or so. The possibilities are beyond counting. To then see it used like this.... I feel abused.

[HoreTore]

As usual, the Europeans fail to understand a key part of our culture. Its okay, we forgive you for it. That's why generation after generation left your continent for this one in the first place.

"Your" culture....?

Last I checked, roughly half of your population was in favour of stricter gun control. How did you manage to mentally spirit away 150 million people? Are they lesser Americans, or what?

If you want to call something "your culture", it would seem that "bitching, whining and generally disagreeing on the level of gun availability" is your culture.

[Kralizec]

Next: the US government, and states across the world, restrict the availability of 3D-printers.

Carry on.

[Idaho]

"Your" culture....?

Last I checked, roughly half of your population was in favour of stricter gun control. How did you manage to mentally spirit away 150 million people? Are they lesser Americans, or what?

If you want to call something "your culture", it would seem that "bitching, whining and generally disagreeing on the level of gun availability" is your culture.

It's sort of a feature of right leaning Americans that they see their culture (well usually the imaginary culture of 30 years before) as being the finished article. That human culture is not under constant change.

Actually it's all conservatives. That's why it's such a contradiction of being obsessed with the past, yet totally ahistorical.

[Furunculus]

It's sort of a feature of right leaning Americans that they see their culture (well usually the imaginary culture of 30 years before) as being the finished article. That human culture is not under constant change.

Actually it's all conservatives. That's why it's such a contradiction of being obsessed with the past, yet totally ahistorical.

Baron Hailsham:

the role of Conservatism is not to oppose all change but to resist and balance the volatility of current political fads and ideology, and to defend a middle position that enshrines a slowly-changing organic humane traditionalism.

[gaelic cowboy]

Baron Hailsham:

"those Roman Catholic bastards have no right to interfere!"

Yea mighty fella indeed was the bould baron

[Idaho]

Baron Hailsham:
the role of Conservatism is not to oppose all change but to resist and balance the volatility of current political fads and ideology, and to defend a middle position that enshrines a slowly-changing organic humane traditionalism.

I thought it was to kick out the darkies and encourage poor people to enter domestic service?

[Strike For The South]

I thought it was to kick out the darkies and encourage poor people to enter domestic service?

But life has killed the dream

[HoreTore]

You didn't get it. 100% percent of Americans would rather trust their own devices than the government. For now, that Arena is gun control, but that struggle encompasses lots of different facets of American life throughout the centuries. Its also why, in a discussion like this, some of us look over at Europe and just shake our heads.

Pure nonsense, but an A+ for your attempt at rewriting history.

What you say might be correct for rural areas - but the situation is mostly the same in rural areas over here as well. The US has been a shining star and example in both the development of international communism AND our modern social democracies with our welfare states. 30 years of your current neo-con wankathlon does not diminsh the contribution America has given in those fields.

And that, might I add, was a contribution from the american urban working class. The American masses.

[Idaho]

As usual, the Europeans fail to understand a key part of our culture. Its okay, we forgive you for it. That's why generation after generation left your continent for this one in the first place.

I have never for once suggested that you yanks be prevented from shooting the crap out of each other. Go for it.

As for the US being some ultimate bastion of human migration - a perfect example of the ahistorical poppycock I alluded to on my last post.

[Kralizec]

No, no. Not an ultimate bastion of anything. Just the result of imperial conquest (by Europeans), hundreds of years of colonial warfare and intercontinental exploitation (by Europeans) that led to mass migration after (often forced--looking at you, Irish and Slaves) mass migration, and finally--in the early 1900s while you were all busy killing eachother by the millions--an actual bastion of migration away from the evils of a Europe that still can't get along after thousands of years of being packed in closer than sardines in a can. Forgive me for thinking there's a cultural gap.

Meh, a lot of those people went to the USA for economic reasons, real or perceived, and were encouraged by the US government to do so. For example I've read that in the late 19th century many impoverished Dutch people were deliberately lured to settle in Texas with images of a tropic paradise, with palm trees and whatnot. Imagine how dissapointed they must have been.

[HoreTore]

There were several migration waves to the US, all with different reasons for doing so.

If you want broad categorizations, I guess you could say that the first waves were based on oppression, while the later ones(post 1800's) were economically based.

A lot the famous ones from England/Dutchies/France were due to religious oppression. At the other extreme, all of the ones who left scandinavia did so for economic(or adventerous, I guess) reasons. Weirdly enough, all of the groups we've oppressed over the years have stayed put... Not even the Finns left!

[ICantSpellDawg]

Anything that would cause Europeans to eschew technological progress gives us the advantage. 3d printed guns could very well scare them off, more lunch for us.

[Beskar]

Why do I have a mental image of a computer virus 3D printing a bomb on all affected computers?

Food for thought.

[Montmorency]

Material constraints.

But a virus, I'm sure, could potentially waste all the 'ink' and muck-up the machine. That's plausible.

[Husar]

Anything that would cause Europeans to eschew technological progress gives us the advantage. 3d printed guns could very well scare them off, more lunch for us.

And you need all the lunch you can get, because while you're printing guns and celebrating your blackpowderian superiority, 15 million of you are suffering from hunger or malnutrition, probably being very proud to live in such a great country where you can suffer hunger and be called a moocher at the same time! Yeah, the availability of guns is really the most pressing issue you should worry about...

Edit: These photos of the weapons Syrian rebels use also show that some craftsmanship, education and other perks can help as well if you ever have to oppose the government. A 3D printer is not the only way to make your own gun, you have to know a lot about materials and how a gun works anyway. The fixation on guns ignores other important issues and that's a real problem, a lack of guns surely isn't a problem in America.

Edit 2: How's that fiscal cliff coming along anyway?

[Fragony]

There were several migration waves to the US, all with different reasons for doing so.

If you want broad categorizations, I guess you could say that the first waves were based on oppression, while the later ones(post 1800's) were economically based.

A lot the famous ones from England/Dutchies/France were due to religious oppression. At the other extreme, all of the ones who left scandinavia did so for economic(or adventerous, I guess) reasons. Weirdly enough, all of the groups we've oppressed over the years have stayed put... Not even the Finns left!

There has never been religious oppression in the Netherlands...

[HoreTore]

There has never been religious oppression in the Netherlands...

The most famous of them all, the Mayflower pilgrims, set sail from dutchistan, and their reason for migrating was to escape religious persecution

[Fragony]

The most famous of them all, the Mayflower pilgrims, set sail from dutchistan, and their reason for migrating was to escape religious persecution

They set sail from the Netherlands, but they weren't prosecuted in the Netherlands but in England. There has never been any here that's why they came here initially. The south is catholic and the north protestant

[Conradus]

There has never been religious oppression in the Netherlands...

Catholicism has been outlawed in the Netherlands from 1580-1850.

[Fragony]

Catholicism has been outlawed in the Netherlands from 1580-1850.

Not outlawed, protestant was just the state religion. Catholics have never been prosecuted for being catholics. You are probably referring to the haagepreken

[Kralizec]

There has never been religious oppression in the Netherlands...

Catholicism has been outlawed in the Netherlands from 1580-1850.

Papists don't count.

[Fragony]

Papists don't count.

It just isn't true

[Tellos Athenaios]

That's why generation after generation left your continent for this one in the first place.

I believe the expression is:

Bollox.

Thanks! I'm flu ridden so I can do with a laugh or two to cheer me up.