I know it was just a coincidence, but these two headlines came one after the other at Townhall.com last Thursday, and the combination thereof has pissed me off mightily, for two different reasons.
Here’s the first:
Dem Congresswoman: Musk Can’t Be Trusted Because He’s an Immigrant
…because he’s only been here for 22 years, you see, so naturally his patriotism must be suspect.
Well fuck you all to death, Congresswoman Kapur. Like Elon Musk, I’m a naturalized U.S. citizen (since 1990, i.e. 34 years ago), and I was living here for four years before that. That’s nearly five decades, you fucking socialist sow, and I’ll tell you what: I’ll put my (and Elon’s) patriotism ahead of yours, for one, any day of the week.
You see, Musk and I have a lot in common. We were both born into the same racially-stricken society. He left to get away from it, while I (briefly) struggled against it — by lawful means, of course — but left because I could see no solution to the problem that would not involve pain and bloodshed. We both arrived in this country legally, and both made our respective ways as productive, law-abiding citizens (he a lot more successfully than I, but that’s the way it goes). What we came to was the promise of America, where everyone was equal under the law, and had the freedom to seek the happiness and success that would probably have been denied to us in our country of birth. Our story, or its foundation, is no different from millions of others, and what the country has come to mean is a place which has absolutely replaced any allegiance to another, and instilled in us a lasting gratitude for the opportunities we were able to grasp. Our patriotism is not one that we were born into, but one we chose — and in all fairness, it may run still deeper in us than in many native-born Americans. We were not changed by the “magic dirt” of the United States; we found that magic for ourselves, and I bitterly resent your belittlement of our patriotism.
Then there’s this little slur (behind a paywall,sorry, but the headline says it all):
Violence Policy Center Tries to Paint Citizens Carrying Concealed as Threat
Fuck me, another country heard from.
Listen, assholes: I am a gun owner who carries a gun, and I can say categorically that the only person who could ever be “threatened” by my gun is someone who wants to do me or mine harm. In other words, it would be a reaction to a threat, and not a threat to others.
I came from a country where not everyone was “allowed” to own a gun, because there was absolutely no Second (or First, or any other) Amendment. And guess who was denied that right? Yeah, Black people. That’s how oppression was maintained, and it was one I fled as rapidly as Elon Musk did. And the only way my right to own a gun (or carry; the two are indistinguishable) might ever be a “threat” is to those who would deny me that right. Or to threaten me with violence, in any form, whether felonious or State-inspired.
That’s it. End of sentence, end of statement, end of story. Leave me alone, and all will be well. The alternative is your choice.
These people — both groups (and there is considerable overlap between the two) — make me fucking sick, projecting their fears and their prejudices onto me and others like me. I won’t stand for it, and I will fully exercise my First Amendment right to make statements like the above.
Fuck you, all of you.
