What groups you are unwillingly associated with? How you handle it?
I ll start : I have been following a pretty known tech/Linux journalist, and always found he is a fun dude to listen to, with interesting tech takes
The fact that he is also very openly "american conservative" (aka, religious & weapon nut, anti abortion, etc) annoys me, but i keep those things separate. And he does keep it separate too (politics channel vs tech channel), which is a great decision.
I own a gun and I strongly think that you SHOULD be able to own one IF you meet the qualifications. But I think those qualifications should be more strict and the penalty for being unsafe with your guns should be to lose them. Forever.
Violent crimes in the past including domestic? Say bye bye to your guns.
Can't pass a background check? No exceptions.
Guns should be accessible to those who can pass strict check and removed permanently for behavior that is indicative of a potential problems.
But because I support the owning of guns I'm assumed to be one of .... them. Ugh. Yucks.
I handle it by showing my disgust and trying to explain that just because I support something doesn't mean that I fall in on a survey.
The entire gun "culture" is just toxic as fuck. To the point that if we ever do lose the right it will be their unwillingness to bend that causes it.
I wish the Democrats in the US were less willfully ignorant about firearms so they'd pass less stupid and ineffectual legislation out of fear and/or pandering.
Every time California passes an "assault weapons ban" that targets a specific ergonomic feature (pistol grips, removable magazines, what the hell ever they're focusing on now) and gun manufacturers find a work around before the bill even comes into effect, I just roll my eyes.
At this point I'm forced to assume it's purely performative.
ForgottenWeapons and InRangeTV are the only channels I still subscribe to, because they're not constantly bitching about gun laws and parroting conservative talking points.
The one time I've actually seen Ian make a statement about pending legislation, and he's coming at it from a very respectable angle, saying basically "this law is poorly worded and over-inclusive and I think it's going to cause some serious issues": https://youtube.com/shorts/aMHGtM051jc?si=nvB2q2vktbwBuULq
I mean, it's exactly what I was talking about. Politicians pushing terrible firearms legislation out of willful ignorance.
All it does is annoy and inconvenience lawful gun owners, and push the center-right further towards the MAGA crowd.
It doesn’t matter. If liberals and centrists did nothing, they’d just fabricate that they were coming for guns. It’s a cult. Facts and Reason don’t come into it.
I too wish they could pass real gun control legislation that would result in less weapons on the streets and in people's homes.
Unfortunately, all we can ever get passed are bs laws that gun nuts won't bother to fight against, considering the massive amounts of political spending on "single-issue" voters that care more about being able to shoot their neighbors than they care about living under a democratic-elected government.
I mean, who needs functioning institutions when you have a fuckin gun?
Can't they just ban auto/semi-auto? Or if those aren't strict categories, define them, eg. "cannot shoot more than x bullets / second"? That one would likely be too broad but you get the idea.