And now Walmart...

[Newtosavage]

I think there are way too many potential points to assess this on personally, but a lot of historians vehemently disagree with this statement and believe the opposite. The usual point I hear as reference being post WWII Republican demigod President Eisenhower warning that the military industrial complex and it's growing role in politics was one of the greatest threats the US faced.

Newt and co. set out to move the R party to the far right. So that's now the reference point for a lot of younger folks who don't remember that happening, or those who have forgotten because of old age or convenience.

 

[Poser]

If it was just about "power" they could run on either side. So there must be two totally different ideology structures for each side, so it can't just be about power. But what's interesting is the direction that the entire swamp has moved. The current Democrats are way more liberal than the Dems used to be, and the current Republicans are also "way more liberal" than they've ever been. And then look at where our nation and society has gone..........completely off their rockers into la-la land. Yet you don't see many folks becoming more conservative than past generations. That should explain a lot........with our government and our society. People are getting more and more liberal as time goes on, and the nation and society are getting worse and worse every day. Hmmmmm.

When I read statements such as this, I must ask: When was America as a society at its peak? I think one would have to make a compelling argument that society as a whole is progressively getting worse every day as opposed to problems and symptoms of those problems shifting and changing, which cause some people to perceive a general worsening of society depending on how those problems and symptoms affect the individual.

90s?
80s?
70s?
60s?
50s?
40s?
30s?
20?
10s?
19th century?
18th century?

When was it better and for whom exactly was it better?

 

[Newtosavage]

When I read statements such as this, I must ask: When was America as a society at its peak? I think one would have to make a compelling argument that society as a whole is progressively getting worse every day as opposed to problems and symptoms of those problems shifting and changing, which cause some people to perceive a general worsening of society depending on how those problems and symptoms affect the individual.

90s?
80s?
70s?
60s?
50s?
40s?
30s?
20?
10s?
19th century?
18th century?

When was it better and for whom exactly was it better?

The second part of that question is usually quite revealing.

 

[blackdawg]

Maybe we can take it a step further. Maybe mega-monolithic stores like Walmart weren't a good thing for our country to begin with.

Bingo! All of these big corporations have destroyed small town America and haven’t given back to the communities, really, who cares if they don’t sell guns or ammo, they used their power to make a profit and run the little guys out of business, bunch of poorly paid idiots that work at Walmart’s stores and the like anyway, no service before, during or after the sale, let em make their money on toilet paper or Nike shoes or what other cheap junk they sale.


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[Backyard]

Were's the popcorn eating emoji when ya need one?

 

[blackdawg]

IMO it opens up another avenue of approach for the anti gun crowd.

If the anti2a crowd raise hell with Walmart, Dicks, Kroger etc. and get them out of the business of guns and ammo, then they push the whole industry further to the margins. You end up with situations like REI rejecting Vista Outdoors and then vista is forced to sell its firearms related businesses in order to get back in with REI. It turns into death by slow strangulation. If you can’t win head to head against 2A, tax guns, tax ammo, pressure retailers, create regulation and administration friction. It is an effective strategy and one we will see more of in the coming years.

Heck, Walmart is probably complicit in killing more people by selling bad food, cigarettes and booze in any given year than they ever will be by selling guns or bullets. You don’t hear a peep about them pulling Marlboros or twinkies off the shelves.

Why in the heck would anyone that hunts, shoots or owns firearms ever buy anything from those wolves in sheep clothing corporations? You really should evaluate if you need to be wearing the “stupid” sign if you can’t find other people that are supporting our agenda to purchase from, really ,aren’t you lubing yourself up to get bent over if you buy from those corporations that have publicly spoken out against our kind!


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[Midwest.Bushlore]

The biggest threats to our rights now is tribalism. I'll admit that I'm not really all that into hunting anymore, was when I was younger but I have a hard time imagining hunting without my dad who passed seven summers ago. No, I'm more of a "gun nut" than hunter and nearly all of my firearms are of the extra scary kind that hoplophobes especially loathe. I want to support the 2nd Amendment but the crowd that seems most apt to do that is also in favor of imposing Biblical sharia law, science denial, crony capitalism, is blase about human rights violations, and is opposed to social equality for those that aren't lily white and heterosexual. I want to keep my guns but not in a world where the sea level is 30 feet higher and it's 70 degrees F at the poles. I like to shoot but how will I afford it when the little wealth still in the hands of the middle class gets transferred to the 0.01%?

Thanks to the hyper-partisan, hyper-tribal environment in the US now we have to pick which parts of the Constitution to fight for and which to shred. You can't value the whole document, you have to pick a side. And I really can't support either group now.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Why in the heck would anyone that hunts, shoots or owns firearms ever buy anything from those wolves in sheep clothing corporations? You really should evaluate if you need to be wearing the “stupid” sign if you can’t find other people that are supporting our agenda to purchase from, really ,aren’t you lubing yourself up to get bent over if you buy from those corporations that have publicly spoken out against our kind!


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Hmmmm.

I am gonna push back on that “stupid” thing a bit. While I agree we need to vote with our $$$, I live in the suburbs of New York City. Live in a small town, and I am a deliberate local business supporter, but it is becoming nearly impossible to buy certain things from non-national retailers. In the last 10 years our local hardware store closed, independent auto parts stores are gone, etc. I also spend a lot of time in a small town in rural PA where my wife is from and there local retailers are slipping away too in favor of a super Walmart, a big box grocery store and an very corporate True Value store.

While I agree that voting with dollars is helpful, I have also been in business long enough and met enough senior executives to know that big corporations are subject to group think in certain ways and trends tend to sweep through board rooms and executive suites. If the anti gun agenda gets picked up by the “responsible investing” or “environmental / social governance” movement, then you will see a lot more of these types of moves by companies. If the institutional investment world takes a stance, like the did against cigarettes, it will get a lot harder for gun and ammo companies to find financing. The big fund managers, pensions, endowments will simply put out a policy that says “that’ll shalt not invest in guns” and suddenly it becomes a lot harder for these businesses to find funding. These companies and funding organizations are also big political donors and suddenly their lobbying teams will add this to the agenda they push and the politicians will start feeling heat. You are already feeling the heat on social media platforms. Masked content and changes to algorithms that are impairing views and visibility for any gun content, including hunting. The positions they adopt won’t be nuanced or narrow. It will be broad rejection of anything and everything guns and bullets. You can bet the animal rights crowd will make enough noise that hunting will get dragged right along with the anti gun movement.

It’s a slippery slope. No one likes to see a mass shooting or a shot up Walmart but we do need to push back on the knee jerk reactions that will impact legit gun owners and hunting. We have to do it in a way that is thoughtful and impactful. If we don’t use our voice, we risk losing our rights and our access to the past time we all love.

Edit: I wrote the post above before I saw the Andrew ROSS Sorkin article in the New York Times. He calls the Walmart’s CEOS announcement a “watershed moment” in the gun control debate. The article and its sentiments are making the rounds in media circles and being echoed by a number of outlets.


The NY Times podcast, the Daily, interviewed Sorkin and he does a very good job of explaining the dynamic I described above around the business community and how they are moving against guns. Worth a listen, if only to understand the other side of the debate. Pay attention. This is how momentum builds.

 

[browning2480]

Bingo! All of these big corporations have destroyed small town America and haven’t given back to the communities, really, who cares if they don’t sell guns or ammo, they used their power to make a profit and run the little guys out of business, bunch of poorly paid idiots that work at Walmart’s stores and the like anyway, no service before, during or after the sale, let em make their money on toilet paper or Nike shoes or what other cheap junk they sale.


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This is not true. Just a quick google of Walmart Foundation or any of the other big companies will show millions being poured back into the towns and areas they are in. Walmart is the biggest giver when it comes to disasters like hurricans and other terrible things. Do some research and then come back with an actual opinion based on fact. I am not supporting their decision here, but to say that they don't provide anything is a lie. They also have specific programs to buy from local farms and sell that product in their stores.

 

[RockinU]

The biggest threats to our rights now is tribalism. I'll admit that I'm not really all that into hunting anymore, was when I was younger but I have a hard time imagining hunting without my dad who passed seven summers ago. No, I'm more of a "gun nut" than hunter and nearly all of my firearms are of the extra scary kind that hoplophobes especially loathe. I want to support the 2nd Amendment but the crowd that seems most apt to do that is also in favor of imposing Biblical sharia law, science denial, crony capitalism, is blase about human rights violations, and is opposed to social equality for those that aren't lily white and heterosexual. I want to keep my guns but not in a world where the sea level is 30 feet higher and it's 70 degrees F at the poles. I like to shoot but how will I afford it when the little wealth still in the hands of the middle class gets transferred to the 0.01%?

Thanks to the hyper-partisan, hyper-tribal environment in the US now we have to pick which parts of the Constitution to fight for and which to shred. You can't value the whole document, you have to pick a side. And I really can't support either group now.

I'm trying to decide if the irony here is intentional or not, but regardless, it's spectacular...

 

[Bowfisher]

Unless you're a person of color who can use a restroom or water fountain, or a woman who gets equal pay to a man.

People being treated equally, with dignity, and less crime than 40 years ago sounds like things are headed in an okay direction to me. But that doesn't feed the narrative.

Unless you're a person of white color you mean? If you can't see the bias built into EVERY single system now, that exults " minorities and women" at the expense of while males, I can't even have an adult conversation with you.

From gov't contracts to LEO and EMS careers, to hiring practices at major corporations to the porous border to allow cheap labor flood this country, to PELL grants for college...it's all there and has been going on for 30 years..

Your narrative is right out of the socialist handbook. , not a conservative thing about it...what the powers that be and the hard Left have been saying for years is that the white male is the problem, and more specifically the white male with a gun , is the problem. The only standing between this country and the Utopian society . Complete hogwash.

 

[5MilesBack]

Unless you're a person of color who can use a restroom or water fountain, or a woman who gets equal pay to a man.

The far right wants you to believe the nation has gone off it's rocker. It suits their purposes and gets your vote.

People being treated equally, with dignity, and less crime than 40 years ago sounds like things are headed in an okay direction to me. But that doesn't feed the narrative.

I think you need to go back and study your history. You've fallen into the media trap. And quite frankly, I doubt if there are more than 10% of the people in politics that are "far right". The media keeps calling the white supremacists as "far right". But the funny thing is......the KKK was full of Democrats. All I know is that the skinheads and white supremacists are so far left of right, that when I look left I can barely even see them on the horizon. People are confused these days by what's conservative and what's not. In simple terms I would put Jesus Christ as the "far right", and Satan as everything else. And when you study out every single ideology.......every one of the left's is in direct contradiction with what God's Word says. Satan knows what he's doing, and it's absolutely working on people..........at least for a time.

And of course it's getting worse.......Matthew 24:3-14
3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.
10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

2 Timothy 3:1-5........1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

We're there. I chuckled at the bolded part, as that one really kicked in when Trump got elected.

 

[spike camp]

Walmart, Jesus and satan...what a dumpster fire.

 

[5MilesBack]

Walmart, Jesus and satan...what a dumpster fire.

..........eventually, and we get closer every day.

 

[Poser]

And here we are. We started at Walmart and guns, sidetracked on what time period MAGA is actually referring to (which I still have yet to get a definitive answer to), dived slightly into the new world oppression of white males and arrived at [paraphrase] “Jesus Christ is a Republican”

I’m sure this entire thread would have been great source material for George Carlin.

 

[Poser]

..........eventually, and we get closer every day.

Just so I’m clear: Walmart is team Satan and Donald Trump is Team Jesus? Up to this point, mostly team Jesus people have shopped at Walmart, but since they stopped selling certain types of ammo and rifles, team Jesus should shop elsewhere else they are suddenly supporting team Satan?

Glad we cleared that up. You’d think that Trump would have had the foresight to just open a Guns and Ammo store some years back instead of running airlines and casinos into the ground, socializing with the Clintons, banging pornstars in the bathroom and arguing about the path of hurricanes, but I suppose that would have been too much of a definitively clear line drawn in the sand between Team Satan and Team Jesus. It’s best to keep these things unclear and convoluted so that the average person has to wade through internet hunting forums to obtain the truth from the select few capable of analysis of such situations and provide the simple and obvious solutions the rest of us are looking for with regards to such matters.

 

[Newtosavage]

5Miles you got some intereting interpretations of the facts. To each their own I suppose.

It's no surprise where this thread ended up considering the premise that it was started on.

 

[Newtosavage]

Unless you're a person of white color you mean? If you can't see the bias built into EVERY single system now, that exults " minorities and women" at the expense of while males, I can't even have an adult conversation with you.

From gov't contracts to LEO and EMS careers, to hiring practices at major corporations to the porous border to allow cheap labor flood this country, to PELL grants for college...it's all there and has been going on for 30 years..

Your narrative is right out of the socialist handbook. , not a conservative thing about it...what the powers that be and the hard Left have been saying for years is that the white male is the problem, and more specifically the white male with a gun , is the problem. The only standing between this country and the Utopian society . Complete hogwash.

LOL you'd put those colored drinking fountains back on the street, wouldn't you. Tell the truth.

 

[jfs82]

Aaand I'll be bowing out of this ridiculousness right about now.

 

[Ratbeetle]

LOL you'd put those colored drinking fountains back on the street, wouldn't you. Tell the truth.

And this is a perfect example of why discourse with liberals is impossible. The default reaction to any opinion not in line with the left is to go straight to "you're clearly just a racist."