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Charles Pierce at Esquire online made note of today's on-air assassination of two television journalists in Virginia by noting on his blog that the event marks the "end of American exceptionalism.":
The Virginia TV Shooting and the End of American Exceptionalism
Today's events are a horrifying example of the way we live now.
A news crew, doing a completely ordinary happy-face morning feature at a mall get blown away on camera. If this had happened in Somalia, we'd have a lot of earnest talk about the dangers of a failed society. If it had happened in Syria, Lindsey Graham might liquefy entirely and disappear in a rush down a storm drain. But it happened here, in the exceptional home of American exceptionalism, so, once again, we will be told that Alison Parker and Adam Ward are merely more of the price we pay for the exceptional exceptionalism of a free society.
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a37435/the-virginia-tv-shooting/
The Gadfly, with all due respect to the venerable Mr. Pierce, politely disagrees and would suggest that that particular boat sailed in the days, weeks, months and years after December 14, 2012, a fateful day when a mentally unstable young man sauntered in to a grade school in Newtown, Connecticut, armed to the teeth, and slaughtered a bunch of elementary school children and several adult school staff members in a hail of 2nd amendment exceptionalism. After that heinous incident, precisely what exceptional steps did America take to seriously address the issue of gun proliferation and gun violence in this country? Not a fucking thing. In fact, since that godawful date, several states, under the control of conservative controlled legislatures have drastically loosened gun possession laws and, unbelievably, passed laws in many states make it perfectly legal for any Yosemite Sam wannabe to strut around in public venues openly carrying loaded weaponry.
So no Mr. Pierce, the unfortunate killings this morning did not signify the end of American exceptionalism. The ignominious end of that load of manufactured, narcissistic horse shit occurred after a nation of cowards, led by equally cowardly political leaders, gazed upon the bullet shredded corpses of 20 first and second graders and their teachers in a classroom and turned a blind eye to the horror and went on with life as if it was just something that we all need to put up with -- if only so that a bunch of goddamned, lame-brained gun fetish kooks can get a hard on pretending that they are freedom fighters against tyranny.
And that is about all that The Gadfly has to say about this dismal subject.
----TFG
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