Bloviated scorn definition6/20/2023 ![]() 'I don't beat anybody up, it's not really my style, except for that jerk,' says Boehner. In it, Boehner is seen telling CBS's John Dickerson he doesn't like to 'beat anyone up' but makes an exception for 'that jerk' Cruz. Ted Cruz (left) has hit out at John Boehner's (right) 'drunken, bloviated scorn' and mockingly told him 'don't cry' after the former House Speaker branded him a 'jerk' who just 'makes a lot of noise' Texas Senator Cruz took to social media Friday to lambast his longtime foe in the latest spat between the two Republicans Cruz's comments came in response to the release of a clip from a CBS News interview, airing Sunday, which the Texas lawmaker shared alongside his scathing tweet. 'Please don't cry,' he added, taking a jibe at Boehner's reputation for becoming emotional during his tenure in DC. I wear with pride his drunken, bloviated scorn,' Cruz tweeted. Texas Senator Cruz took to social media Friday to lambast his longtime foe in the latest spat between the two Republicans. He writes about free speech and criminal justice at Cruz has hit out at John Boehner's 'drunken, bloviated scorn' and mockingly told him 'don't cry' after the former House Speaker branded him a 'jerk' who just 'makes a lot of noise'. Unless we approach all rights in a principled manner - whether it’s the right to free speech in the face of offense, or the right to due process in the face of the war on terrorism - we’re not going to have a productive debate about any of them. It is therefore inevitable that talk about gun rights will be met with scorn or shrugs, and that discussions of what restrictions are permissible will be mushy and undisciplined. We’ve become a nation of civic illiterates, mystified by the relationship between individuals and the government. We don’t know where rights come from, we don’t know or care from whom they protect us, we don’t know how to analyze proposed restrictions on them, and brick by brick we’ve built a fear-based culture that scorns them in the face of both real and imagined risks. When it comes to rights, we’ve lost the plot, particularly since 9/11. The 2nd Amendment debate is full of assertions like “My right not to be shot outweighs your right to own a gun” and “I have an absolute right to own any gun I want.” How can we evaluate these assertions, except on a visceral level? Third, and perhaps most importantly, we can’t debate gun rights when we’re terrible at talking about rights in general. But we can identify breeds that civilians just don’t need to own. I’m not obsessed with violent dogs the way you are. Me: OK, maybe not actually “hounds.” Maybe I have the terminology wrong. You: I have no idea what dogs you’re talking about now. But civilians shouldn’t own fighting dogs. Nobody’s trying to take away your German Shepherds. You: Huh? Pit bulls aren’t military dogs. We need restrictions on owning an attack dog. Me: I don’t want to take away dog owners’ rights, but we need to do something about pit bulls. Imagine I’m concerned about dangerous pit bulls, and I’m explaining my views to you, a dog trainer - but I have no grasp of dog terminology. If you think precision doesn’t matter, forget about guns for a second. Such linguistic flimsiness drives the perception that mainstream gun control advocates want to take away all guns. Confused gun control advocates may suggest a ban on “semiautomatic weapons,” believing that means automatic rifles, when it actually refers to nearly every modern weapon other than bolt-action rifles and shotguns. Second, we could recognize that accurate firearms terminology actually matters to the debate. When you culture-bundle guns, your opponents don’t hear “I’m concerned about this limitation on rights” or “I think this restriction is constitutional and necessary.” They hear “I hate your flyover-country daddy who taught you to shoot in the woods behind the house when you were 12” and “Your gay friends’ getting married would ruin America and must be stopped.” That’s unlikely to create consensus. That’s great for rallying the base, I guess, but that’s about all. The gun control argument gets portrayed as the struggle against Bible-thumping, gay-bashing, NASCAR-watching hicks, and the gun rights argument gets portrayed as a struggle against godless, elitist, kale-chewing socialists. Second Amendment advocates don’t just attack gun control advocates they attack liberal, Democratic, urban and secular values. Gun control advocates don’t just attack support for guns they attack conservative, Republican, rural and religious values. Our unproductive talk about guns is rife with this. We culture-bundle when we use one political issue as shorthand for a big group of cultural and social values. ![]() We can’t debate gun rights when we’re terrible at talking about rights in general.įirst, we could stop culture-bundling.
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