Unlike guns, knives are actually helpful in a lot of everyday situations. So it’s obviously terrible that politicians keep using the politician’s syllogism (“we must do something - this is something - we must do this!”). Over the long run, we ruin law as a whole with often expensive, symbolic additions whose negative consequences massively outweigh the positives. And the acting politicians definitely know what they’re doing is wrong—they’re reacting in a (predictably failing) bid to appease populists. And I am not sure how we’ll ever get out of this, because in the moment this logic is definitely appealing, even though immediately past that moment, it becomes clearer how harmful it is.
Otoh, the same politicians also currently discuss his to fix actual issues, such as the social-media radicalization topic that has sweeped over us in various forms over the past years, with anti-Covid-measures movements, Islamist movements, pro-Russian movements, and radical right movements (there are tons of convergence points between all these).
It’s an outcome that comes from people demanding that something be done because they think we can somehow live in a perfectly safe world.
Shit happens, no matter how many laws are passed no country is going to never have violent crime or mass killings never ever never. Yet the people still demand their politicians do something even if there’s nothing useful that can be done.
Unlike guns, knives are actually helpful in a lot of everyday situations. So it’s obviously terrible that politicians keep using the politician’s syllogism (“we must do something - this is something - we must do this!”). Over the long run, we ruin law as a whole with often expensive, symbolic additions whose negative consequences massively outweigh the positives. And the acting politicians definitely know what they’re doing is wrong—they’re reacting in a (predictably failing) bid to appease populists. And I am not sure how we’ll ever get out of this, because in the moment this logic is definitely appealing, even though immediately past that moment, it becomes clearer how harmful it is.
Otoh, the same politicians also currently discuss his to fix actual issues, such as the social-media radicalization topic that has sweeped over us in various forms over the past years, with anti-Covid-measures movements, Islamist movements, pro-Russian movements, and radical right movements (there are tons of convergence points between all these).
It’s an outcome that comes from people demanding that something be done because they think we can somehow live in a perfectly safe world.
Shit happens, no matter how many laws are passed no country is going to never have violent crime or mass killings never ever never. Yet the people still demand their politicians do something even if there’s nothing useful that can be done.