There is temporary insanity as when a middle-aged man buys a motorcycle on which to ride though his midlife crisis, wisely selling the bike after the crisis subsides. But my theme is topical insanity, that species of temporary insanity that can occur when certain topics are brought to one’s attention. Someone so afflicted loses the ability to think clearly about the topic in question for the period of time that the topic is before his mind.
Try this. The next time you are at a liberal gathering, a faculty party, say, calmly state that you agree with the National Rifle Association’s position on gun control. Now observe the idiocies to flow freely from liberal mouths. Enjoy as they splutter and fulminate unto apoplexy.
Some will say that the NRA is opposed to gun control. False! Except for certain extremists, everyone is for gun control, where this is not the control one exercises at the shooting range, but gun control legislation; the only question being its nature and scope. Nobody worth mentioning wants no laws relating to the manufacture, sale, transfer, transportation and use of firearms. Everyone worth mentioning wants reasonable laws that are enforceable and enforced.
Others will say that guns have only one purpose, to kill people. A liberal-left favorite, but spectacularly false for all that, and quickly refuted by counterexample: (i) Guns are used to save lives both by police and by ordinary citizens; (ii) Guns are used to hunt and defend against nonhuman critters, some ranchers, for example, use AR-15s to control the coyote population (iii) Guns are used for sporting purposes to shoot at non-sentient targets; (iv) Guns are collected by some without ever being fired; (v) Guns are often used to deter crime without being fired; merely ‘showing steel’ can be a marvellous deterrent. Indeed, display of a weapon is not even necessary: a miscreant who merely suspects that his target is armed, or that others in the vicinity are, may be deterred.
Despite liberal mythology, criminals are not for the most part irrational, and their crimes are not for the most part senseless, despite the penchant of lefty journalists for the thoughtless phrase ‘senseless violence.’ In terms of short-term means-ends rationality, it is quite reasonable and sensible to rob places where money is to be found — Willy Sutton recommends banks — and to kill witnesses to the crime.
Still others will maintain that gun ownership has no effect on crime rates. False, see the work of John Lott.
Here then we have an example of topical insanity, an example of a topic that completely unhinges otherwise sane people. There are plenty of other examples. Capital punishment is one, religion is another. At the present time, however, Trump Derangement Syndrome looms largest, so large in fact that it needs a separate post to do it justice.
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