By deaths of despair I mean suicides, including mass shootings, and drug overdoses . . . . . it’s fairly obvious to me based on common sense and the evidence: it’s the guns. — Mikie
By deaths of despair I mean suicides, including mass shootings, and drug overdoses . . . . . it’s fairly obvious to me based on common sense and the evidence: it’s the guns.
— Mikie
Guns cause drug overdoses? — jgill
School shootings, for example. Unlike any other country and unlike any other time in American life. — Mikie
Sure, we can claim there’s no answers to why this is the case, but it’s fairly obvious to me based on common sense and the evidence: it’s the guns, — Mikie
Is JSTOR access some kind of flex? You guys are cute. — Baden
This thread is specifically about deaths of despair and their roots in the aforementioned (neoliberal) policies. — Mikie
This thread is specifically about deaths of despair and their roots in the aforementioned (neoliberal) policies.
— Mikie
Which is why I referenced anomie again (and again). — Pantagruel
How does a government impact your life without a policy? — NOS4A2
And which is why I’ll reference, again and again, why that’s completely irrelevant. I’ll do so as long as it takes. I’m not interested in hand-waving, I’m interested in REAL POLICIES — Mikie
And which is why I’ll reference, again and again, why that’s completely irrelevant. I’ll do so as long as it takes. I’m not interested in hand-waving, I’m interested in REAL POLICIES. — Mikie
The ills of any society will be seen to have something to do with government policies or the lack of whatever is needed to make the world perfect, so it's not a particularly meaty topic. — frank
Ask the families whose kids died in one of the many school shootings we have.
Deregulation is a policy and a choice. It’s the choice to let industry do whatever they like, with obvious outcomes.
Yes, you can easily argue that everything, whether because of regulation or because of lack or regulation, can be blamed on the government. Since this is true, the government might as well be tasked with fixing social ills. — Pantagruel
To be clear, you are interested in laying the blame for something that pre-dates these policies on these policies. Got it. — Pantagruel
It appears your main gripe is with my OP framing, and that’s fair enough. It’s arguable whether being provocative is the best way to open a serious discussion. I find it piques interest and does more to get people to pay attention than a disquisition on economics. But that’s me. — Mikie
It should be easy to name one neoliberal policy that contributed to just one school schooling. — NOS4A2
Deregulation is a policy and a choice. — Mikie
it is that I find politics often descend into bias, emotional appeals, and tribal warfare. — Philosophim
The rest of the internet is flooded with such posts, and I do not want to see it infecting these boards here as well. Please, continue to be provocative! But, also try to make the post philosophical and not a general political statement. — Philosophim
Perhaps, some speculate, it is because American society is unusually violent. Or its racial divisions have frayed the bonds of society. Or its citizens lack proper mental care under a health care system that draws frequent derision abroad.
These explanations share one thing in common: Though seemingly sensible, all have been debunked by research on shootings elsewhere in the world. Instead, an ever-growing body of research consistently reaches the same conclusion.
The only variable that can explain the high rate of mass shootings in America is its astronomical number of guns.
You want a gun in Switzerland even after you finished military service? Fine, but you have to apply for one and get a license unless you want a hand bolt-action rifle or a multi-barreled hunting rifle– in which case you do not need a license.
So, let’s say you are Swiss, you have military experience, and now you want a real, thoroughly lethal gun, not a multi-barreled hunting rifle that’s good for bringing home venison, and also, you’re 18 or older: Can you pack heat without a bureaucratic problem?
Here for the Swiss, unlike Americans, regulations are quite a bit more finicky. Not only are you supposed to be criminal record-free in order to get a gun, but you also must be deemed unlikely to cause harm to other Swiss. Local police who have doubts about a prospective gun owner’s well-being (or even those who are assured of the same but worry nonetheless) may and sometimes do ask local psychiatrists or friends about an applicant’s mental state or alcohol and drug use.
Also, that gun license, even when approved, is only valid for a maximum of nine months, and applicants are allowed only one weapon. Period.
That’s right. Twenty semi-automatics are unlikely to find their way into the basements of Swiss adolescents. So if the NRA wants to point to Switzerland, it needs to tell the whole story, please…
I’ve just want to know of a single neoliberal policy that has led to a single death of despair, which for some odd reason includes mass shootings. — NOS4A2
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