{"id":33601,"date":"2013-01-21T06:10:18","date_gmt":"2013-01-21T12:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=33601"},"modified":"2014-12-12T14:52:53","modified_gmt":"2014-12-12T20:52:53","slug":"chanting-points-memo-the-history-of-an-illusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=33601","title":{"rendered":"Chanting Points Memo: The History Of An Illusion"},"content":{"rendered":"

To: \u00a0Eric Black,\u00a0MinnPost<\/em>
\nFrom: Mitch Berg, Peasant
\nRe: \u00a0The New JournoList?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Black,<\/p>\n

You built your reputation as a reporter. \u00a0And for that, I give you all due respect.<\/p>\n

I was a reporter, too. \u00a0Not much of one; a couple of radio stations, some free-lance print work. \u00a0Nothing big, and certainly nothing to build a career out of – but I did learn one thing, and practice it; a reporter is supposed to ask questions.<\/p>\n

And while I apply only the broadest possible definition of “journalist” to myself, I do ask questions. \u00a0I’m told I’m not bad at it, at least on the radio; even a reporter on your side of the aisle commented on it<\/a>\u00a0(I’ll direct you to paragraph 16). \u00a0So it’s not a foreign concept to me.<\/p>\n

Now, far be it from me to gainsay one of the deans of Minnesota political writing, but I’ve got a question here.<\/p>\n

Last week, you wrote about Dr. Carl Bogus’ assertion from\u00a0<\/a>fifteen years ago<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>that the Second Amendment was written to protect slavery. \u00a0Now, my friend and frequent commenter Joe Doakes – who actually is a lawyer – pointed out that Bogus’ theory is given no weight by the legal academy<\/a>, because it’s been pretty soundly debunked and, more signally, ignored by legal scholars; Bogus’ theory is only kept alive by anti-gunners who like, as Doakes put it, to “borrow his degree to lend them legitimacy”.<\/p>\n

So here’s what I’m curious about.<\/p>\n

Bogus published his theory fifteen years ago<\/a>. \u00a0It was roundly shredded in short order<\/a>. \u00a0It was substantially ignored (beyond a few trivial references to incidental research) in the SCOTUS’ debates that led to the\u00a0Heller\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0McDonald\u00a0<\/em>decisions, which respectively adopted the “individual right” definition of the 2nd Amendment and incorporated that definition onto the states.<\/p>\n

And yet somehow <\/em>last week Bogus’ theory was pulled from legal history’s scrap heap and restored to glorious prominence by the gun-grabber left.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Hey! It’s Confederate soldiers, defending slavery! The MinnPost ran this image in Eric Black’s story last week about Carl Bogus’ theory. I’m never going to let the MinnPost live this one down!<\/p><\/div>\n

So I got to checking. \u00a0The first I heard about it was a comment on my blog<\/a> on 1\/17, which pointed to your article in\u00a0<\/a>MinnPost<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>the same day; around that time, I started seeing a\u00a0lot\u00a0<\/em>of lefties on Twitter chanting more or less the same thing. \u00a0Danny Glover<\/a> and Roger Ebert<\/a> had spoken or written about it, stating the “slavery” theory as settled fact, around the same time. \u00a0 And the story was churning around the leftyblog fever swamp, as these things do, once the likes of Kos<\/em><\/a> and \u00a0Crooks and Liars<\/em><\/a> repeated the meme (which meant every bobbleheaded leftyblog carried it like it was the revealed truth).<\/p>\n

\"\"

Disarmed people – Jews, in this case – dealing with the SS, which is short for “Sch\u00fctzstaffel”, which loosely translated means “Department of Homeland Security”. Connect the dots, people. The MinnPost can run its<\/em> inflammatory, searing, emotionally manipulative images, I’ll run mine. Mine happen to be good analogies based on historical fact, but whatever.<\/p><\/div>\n

Now, a concerted Googling (and a reading of your piece) seems to show that the “writing” about the subject links back to last Tuesday, when lefty talk show host Thom Hartmann – who is sort of the Dennis Prager of the left, only without the intelligence or credentials – wrote a piece on the lefty \u00fcberblogs\u00a0TruthOut<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>and Smirking Chimp<\/a> , <\/em>lavishly citing Bogus’ theory.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Oops, I did it again! More disarmed people! The sign above their heads says “Arbeit Macht Frei”, which is German for “Work Creates Freedom”, which was sort of the “Hope and Change” of the era. Again – you publish your inflammatory, emotionally manipulative images? I’ll publish mine.<\/p><\/div>\n

And I thought the dynamics of the story were interesting; in two days, the “story” of Bogus’ “theory”, which had laid mostly dormant since being shredded in the court of academic and public opinion half a generation ago, suddenly was on the lips and minds and blogs of, it seemed, every<\/em> lefty, \u00a0from the fever swamp to Hollywood (pardon the redundancy) to, well,\u00a0MinnPost\u00a0<\/em>and a half a million chuckleheaded leftybots on Twitter.<\/p>\n

I’ve been writing online for a long time, Mr. Black. \u00a0I’ve seen memes come and go. \u00a0The “come” side usually takes a while; someone writes something, it gains traction, it holds sway, it rolls away like the tide. \u00a0It usually takes a little while.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The Klan attacking black people! And therein lies the real truth – and the Berg’s Seventh Law reference; Gun Control actually has its roots in American racism. The first serious American gun control laws were aimed at – you guessed it – blacks. In fact, the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment was written in part in response to a Texas law aimed at former slaves who’d been shooting up Klansmen.<\/p><\/div>\n

But the Bogus \u00a0theory went, metaphorically, from zero to sixty in four seconds flat.<\/p>\n

Didja notice that?<\/p>\n

Anyway, those are the facts; Bogus’ theory came, was shredded, went away for fifteen years, and suddenly re-germinated across the broad swathe of lefty opinion over the course of two measly days. \u00a0Now, leaving aside the fact that the theory is, well, bogus (as noted last week) – wouldn’t it have been a useful fact for the reader to know that Bogus’ theory has been languishing in academic obscurity for 15 years for a reason? I know, that would have been a statement against your interest and, I suspect, the\u00a0MinnPost’s<\/em>, but it’s kinda significant, no?<\/p>\n

But here’s my question: \u00a0aren’t you the least bit curious as to the, er,\u00a0pace\u00a0<\/em>at which this meme swept the left? \u00a0From “forgotten” to “conventional wisdom” in two days?<\/p>\n

It almost seems as if there’s some sort of back-channel communication – one might even call it a list of journalists, absurd as that sounds – a, for lack of a better term, “Journo List” that syncs the leftymedia up on the major chanting points.<\/p>\n

No, I know – that’s just crazy talk. \u00a0I know.<\/p>\n

Anyway – did that strike you as odd in any way? \u00a0If not, why?<\/p>\n

That is all.<\/p>\n

PS: \u00a0Well, no. \u00a0It’s not. \u00a0Because while the theory that the Second Amendment was “about protecting slavery” is pretty much a fringe, fever-swamp conceit, it is a matter of settled historical fact and Constitutional Law that the roots of the gun control movement are intensely racist.<\/p>\n

More at noon today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To: \u00a0Eric Black,\u00a0MinnPost From: Mitch Berg, Peasant Re: \u00a0The New JournoList? Mr. Black, You built your reputation as a reporter. \u00a0And for that, I give you all due respect. I was a reporter, too. \u00a0Not much of one; a couple of radio stations, some free-lance print work. \u00a0Nothing big, and certainly nothing to build a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[326,63,30,4,130,51,230,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-alt-media","category-lefty-alt-media","category-liberty","category-media","category-tc-media-bias","category-liberal-tyranny","category-the-fact-check-scam","category-victim-disarmament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33601"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33607,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33601\/revisions\/33607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}