Quote:
Originally Posted by Deadmanwalking_05
I am a product of my background,as you are of yours.
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There is another dimension to our existence: yes we are a product of our environment, but we also have the freedom to think, and to change ourselves regardless of our upbringing. Rather than trying to conquer others (I speak as metaphorically as you did), face the ultimate and most difficult challenge: change yourself.
Rather than adopt ideologies of others blindly, think about the entire process and your real place in it:
1) You gain a sense of belonging by clinging to an organization larger than yourself, to achieve a sense of purpose. In your case it is the NRA and a brotherhood/sisterhood of gun owners. I too belong to these entities but do not promulgate it to make myself feel important. I function within these entities separate from this forum because they have little to do with each other. Gnet is intended for a completely different social strata. Your promoting gun ownership here is as appropriate as promoting gun ownership on a mathematics forum dedicated to the application of Maxwell's Equations.
2) This being the case, realize the context of your attempted adoption into this arena. The majority here have different interests. If you genuinely wish to be welcome, you must demonstrate similar interests and make sensible contributions to those interests. Instead you continually attempt to shoehorn an undesired topic into this forum. This will not lead to a "battle until both are destroyed" as you say colorfully, but will only lead to you being continually ignored. The majority will carry the day regardless of your unrelated posts. You must understand this if you are to progress to the next step:
3) If you think about things, think about others and think about
yourself, you will realize that you do not need to attach yourself to larger entities to feel self worth, but that you do belong; you belong to the human race, you belong to those that think, and you belong to countless other larger entities by
de facto . Now having realized this, you may still belong to larger entities but now you can do so for the right reasons, to help them achieve some goal. Now you must look at their ultimate goals and evaluate whether or not you still wish to participate and support them.
4) One can participate in these forums without agreeing with them, but one must truly listen to what others are saying, demonstrate respect (once earned you can tease the hell out of us!) but also demonstrate that you can think and learn, not merely parrot another's agenda.