Than a
Posted on 03/27/2018 11:47:10 AM PDT by rktman
On Monday night, near the end of his CNN Tonight show, host Don Lemon got into a heated debate with right-leaning CNN political commentator Tara Setmayer after she began criticizing the media for giving the anti-gun Parkland student activists a forum to make incendiary attacks on the NRA and other opponents of gun control.
After she complained that, if you criticize the behavior of some of the students, "all of a sudden you're the bad guy," Lemon shot back: "You are the bad guy. Yes, you are, you are. These kids suffered an unimaginable tragedy. You let them vent, and then you move on."
The back and forth started at 11:53 p.m. Eastern, when Setmayer recalled that "Some of the rhetoric coming from some of the Parkland kids was a bit much," and then complained about the student activists "saying that the NRA has the blood of children on their hands."
Lemon brought up Benghazi as he countered: "During the election, I heard women whose son -- there was this one woman whose son had been killed in Benghazi, and she came out and she said really horrible things about, you know, Democrats and about Hillary Clinton, and no one criticized her because she was grieving."
After Setmayer continued, "You can't criticize the rhetoric because they are victims," the CNN host dismissively responded: "So what? They're kids -- so what?"
The right-leaning commentator then pointed out the problem of allowing inexperienced teenagers to decide what public policy should be: "We're elevating them to a point now where they're not making policy."
She added: "If you criticize some of what they're saying, then all of a sudden you're the bad guy."
Lemon asserted: "You are the bad guy.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsbusters.org ...
Well except the Maria harfwit clone and the assclown next to her. They maintained for this pic at least.
A poster on my Facebook feed took Lemon’s approach when postulating his reaction to what he was seeing and reading on-line. Here’s how the exchange went:
Millenial poster: I have had enough of these gun rights posts. Many of them cross the line. Congratulations. Do you feel better about demeaning teenagers and teachers who watched their friends and students shot to death? And now you’re upset because they’re pushing for reform to try and keep this from happening again? I’m sorry... do you not have children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, brothers, sisters, or friends with kids? By posting/sharing these hateful, derogatory messages, you’re alienating yourself from those you seemingly care about. It’s purposely divisive. It’s ruining relationships. I hope it’s worth it.
Do you really value your weapons more than the lives of children— related or not? It’s completely disheartening to see the utter lack of humanity.
For the record, I’m not advocating for all guns to be outlawed. Sure, they serve a purpose for wildlife management and personal protection.
I am, however, for a ban on assault-style rifles. You want to protect your family? Good for you. Are you concerned you won’t have enough “firepower” if an assault weapons ban is enacted? Maybe you have bigger problems that can’t be solved by guns.
We have to be better as a society to protect our children.
So go ahead and call me and my family names. Chances are, we won’t hear you.
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My response: OK, let’s agree the students who were present at the school on February 14 are traumatized at various levels and should not be criticized. This means we accept they are acting on raw emotion in reaction to what they experienced. How does it become “demeaning” to attempt to raise the discourse from being emotionally driven to using reason and facts to determine what should be learned? Last Saturday’s rallies mostly featured blaming easy targets and scapegoating instead of a reality-driven problem-solving process that seeks solutions rather than the easily-made political charge.
The facts are out there that the system that is supposed to protect society from the likes of the shooter utterly failed to the point of actual malfeasance in office. There were multiple opportunities to interdict this person and totally shut off his access to legally purchase a deadly weapon. Agencies involved in the failure chain include law enforcement, social services, and the school itself. Proper and lawful action by any of these agencies that was then officially reported, as required by law, would have broken the chain. And we’re talking about more than 40 official interactions, including where somebody “saw something and said something” to the FBI, TWICE, yet nothing was done.
IOW, there are enough laws to have made a life-saving difference and all it required was the officials charged with using those laws to have executed their assigned duty. The failure chain extended back multiple years with the culmination on the fateful day where a law enforcement officer chose not to “protect and defend” students at his assigned duty station. Tell me first how to fix these failure points before it’s determined that any fault lay with the existence of a piece of metal that millions legally own and use. How does removal of freedom from a citizen who has caused no harm resolve the tragedy of that day?
A quote from a pre-Revolutionary War Ben Franklin is right on the point: “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
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His response to me: thank you for the thoughtful and civil discussion without resorting to name calling, and belittling others. The demeaning posts I’ve seen recently, among other things, question others’ mental ability— specifically using the term “short bus.”
You are absolutely right in that there were breakdowns at multiple levels that led to the horrific events in Parkland. These cannot continue to be ignored. Fully researching and implementing fact-based change should be carefully considered.
However, the masses, myself included, are fed up with the status quo and not confident in the political process of taking steps to alleviate this issue. The Parkland shooting is the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. Too many deadly school shooting incidents.
There are certainly responsible gun owners, yourself included, out there. But if we restrict access to the kinds of weapons used in some of these heinous crimes, and it prevents even one deadly shooting, isn’t that worth it?
This is, of course, a much larger issue. I also think mental health and domestic violence awareness/training play a role. There is no single method to solve this problem— and in fact, this is way above my pay grade to find a solution by myself. But don’t our children deserve better?
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He’s starting to come around and still operating from emotion instead of logic in some ways. I’ll probably keep trying.
So from what I understand this Hogg kid graduated from high school in California and is not a student at the school in Florida. What does he have to do with it and why is he there?
Agitator, straight up.
Than a
I just looked around searching for the California yearbook... every link I found has been scrubbed. No "let's keep the links up and let people decide"... the "powers" have deemed it fake and the yearbook photo is now a thing of fake past.
Wow, they did that fast.
Don’t see no evil “ass-ault’style’” weapon in the bad to the bone art. Therefore not scary. The “black cats matter” though, maybe.
Honestly?
I rather be considered a ‘bad guy’ by the Commie News Network.
In my opinion, you are only the “Bad Guy” if you accept the judgement of others like those at CNN and on the Left.
I don’t accept it, so I am not a “Bad Guy”.
Lemon, another ignorant individual.
Someone please explain to me how these crisis actors are survivors of anything?
Well, Lemon, you’ve gotta live in the world you’ve gotta live in......
No Don you low IQ fool!
Our Rights don’t end where you feeling being you control freak! Furthermore, more men and women since the founding of our Republic died for us to have our Rights. You step into the the adult arena, then prepare for counter arguments.
How come we have to keep seeing ONLY 4, out of 3,000 students, that are Anti second Amendment students that blame everyone in the world except for those that let them down, the Coward Count police department that stood down during the shooting or the FBI that failed to do anything after they were told this kid is saying he is going to shoot up a school over 40 times!
Blaming all gun owners and the NRA for the shooting is like blaming all car owners and the AAA for a car accidents where people die. It’s stupid and irresponsible.
Finally, if they can’t stand the heat, then get the out of the debate!
What else are "they" planning?
Darn. I guess he’ll have to sue me for violating his uncivil rights...
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