The heading, or course, is a paraphrase of the title of Jared Diamond’s book, Guns, Germs and Steel, although this post isn’t about the book (which I read) or its hypotheses. I was just struck by the commonalities in the US of our societal divisions on these three subjects currently.
These musings were occasioned by a brief and amicable exchange with a Facebook friend whom I know and have worked with personally, and respect as an intelligent, mostly self-educated (like myself), and highly competent in his technical fields (computers, networking and wireless), as well as a kind and generous individual. We are politically very different, and he is very strong in his advocacy for 2nd Amendment rights, where I am not, although I’m not wildly radical about gun control, having owned and used guns myself in the past (I’m not an expert and only a fair shot).
Here’s what I see as the common thread linking these three areas of contention; then tendency on the conservative side to assume the mantle of victimized minorities, despite not being victimized and only minorities in the loosest possible terms, and, in the Christian “God” category, being part of a vast majority in the US.
With guns and the argument over gun regulation, about 30% of people in the US own guns (40+ percent live in households with guns), so they are an actual, although substantial, minority. But the victimization is an illusion, created in large part by gun manufacturers and their lobbying arm, the National Rifle Association. Yet they constantly refer to perceived threats to take away their guns, as though it were based on some nationwide conspiracy, despite nothing of the sort ever occurring in other than isolated instances where it has been overturned by the courts far more often than, for example, violations of voting rights or the right of non-violent protest. “Assault rifles”, more accurately assault rifle replicas, like the AR-15, a semi-automatic rifle based on a fully automatic military weapon were banned briefly, a ban which disappeared long ago and never resulted in anyone having a gun taken away. Still, fundamentalist gun owners consider every piece of legislation regarding firearms as an attempt to take away their guns and leave them defenseless in am imaginary hostile world.
With germs, another 30-40% of the population considers the Covid-19 pandemic either as not serious or as hoax perpetrated by a worldwide conspiracy, or alternately as an attack by the Chinese government on every country in the world, including their own. The facts are clearly otherwise, and the measures taken to combat the pandemic, like washing one’s hands and wearing a mask, are not onerous (closings of schools and businesses are an actual problem, with not unreasonable views on both sides). The germ deniers regard taking basic public health measures as a imposition on their freedoms, despite the fact that wearing a mask or washing one’s hands or maintaining a modest social distance doesn’t restrict them in any noticeable way. Once again, they are a victimized minority who have to create their own vision of victimization.
Lastly, the Christian minority. In 2019, 65% of the population identified as Christian. This is not a minority. Christian imagery, references, churches, and individuals dominate the religious landscape in the US. Being a Christian is a de facto requirement to hold public office, elected or appointed, with a tiny minority of exceptions. There is no way for Christians to be a victimized minority, but that hasn’t prevented some of the for constructing that status for themselves. The delusion is mostly created by Christian right-wing fundamentalists, who construct the category not by describing themselves as a unique and separate form of Christianity, but by declaring every other Christian to not be true Christians. They then turn every attempt to prevent them from imposing their religious beliefs on the entire nation as an attack on them and their true version of Christianity. Worse, this sense of victimization has bled out a bit into other parts of the Christian community, who often feel under attack because of the bitter debate between the right wing fundamentalist Christians and more liberal Christians, as well as the actually victimized non-religious groups, such as atheists and agnostics (who, as noted are practically precluded from holding public office).
So, in these three cases we see a self-created and self-perpetuated status as marginalized communities. Ironically, these groups will often rail against actually victimized minority communities, like racial/ethnic minorities, religious minorities, the LGBTQIA+ community, and, of course, the actually victimized majority – women, when those groups identify and specify real oppression instead of the imaginary oppression claimed by the guns, god and germs groups.
Nothing really profound here, just my musings while sitting around in Covid-19 isolation awaiting my second shot.
A Diary of Interesting Times 