Perspectives: Orlando mass murder, a dog whistle for opportunists

Photo (expanded) by Paul Bradbury / OJO Images / Getty Images; St. George News

OPINION – Tragic headlines are proving an irresistible mating call for the political opportunist.

It’s sickening how many are willing to jump at the chance to hitch their political agenda to the latest tragedy.

Sunday morning’s mass murder in an Orlando nightclub has already become a rallying point for ideological ambulance chasers. Whether their pet issue is Islamic terrorism, hate crimes or gun control, here come the people with all the answers.

Predictably, the answers they’re seeking come at significant cost to the lives of those who have done no wrong. When there are agendas to be imposed, the overall cost to the innocent somehow never seems to merit consideration.

No one seems capable of accepting the idea that a malevolent individual bears responsibility for the carnage that he set out to create. Fewer still have the empathy to consider the victims themselves and their loved ones.

All that matters at this point is to wave the bloody shirt and push the agenda while emotions are high. That outrage isn’t going generate itself you know.

That’s what happens when we become so consumed with grandstanding on someone else’s tragedy that we forget how to act like human beings.

Senseless violence challenges our notion of how much control we really have over the world around us. Because of this, the opportunists will be desperately appealing to our inner control freaks.

Fear- and enemy-driven people will use the nightclub attack to foment their fears of terrorism and Muslims. Cultural Marxists will focus on the fact that the attack took place in a homosexual nightclub to call for greater protection from so-called “hate crimes.”

Gun-control advocates will seek to blame the firearms used in an attempt to preemptively punish law-abiding gun owners by restricting access to similar firearms.

Here’s where each of our opportunists is dead wrong.

The fearful folks who think that ISIS is coming to get them are buying into a greatly exaggerated threat promoted by proponents of a safety-at-any-cost police state.

Yes, statistically, any one of us could face the prospect of being killed in a terror attack by Muslim extremists. However, the probability of that happening is somewhere below our chances of being struck by lightning while celebrating a winning lottery ticket.

Let’s try to keep things in perspective.

For the people who were in the nightclub and their family members, this act of evil has directly impacted them. For the rest of us, it’s entirely our choice as to how much we allow it to affect us.

Stronger laws against hate crimes will do nothing to deter individuals who are perfectly willing to die in the process of carrying out their crime. They will simply drive a larger wedge between the designated “victim” groups and the rest of society.

Divide and conquer has proven very effective along ideological lines.

Likewise, placing blanket punitive restrictions upon tens of millions of firearms owners who have done no harm nor been given due process is tyrannical.

The fact that the nightclub killer misused firearms doesn’t disqualify the rest of us from owning and using them for their intended purposes. Had he used gasoline and matches, the body count would likely have been even higher.

Any gun-related tragedy is like a dog whistle to the morally bankrupt disarmament crowd. Saving innocent lives is a very distant concern to their real priority: consolidating control over the public.

Politicians want the public disarmed because they know we’re quickly approaching the point where an armed public may finally stand up and say “no” to what they are trying to foist on us.

Truth be told, this already happened in Bunkerville just a couple of years ago when heavily armed government thugs were backed down by citizens who refused to allow their fellow Americans to be abused over an alleged debt.

Real political opportunists are relatively few in number. However, they are very skilled at playing the rest of us against each other by manipulating our fears.

The incident in Orlando is a reminder of how inhumane one human being can be to another.

That doesn’t mean that the rest of us should shed our humanity and live our lives in a constant state of fear and loathing that has us lusting to control others who’ve done us no wrong.

Look beyond the emotionally laden buzz words and use your noggin. Don’t get played like a fiddle at a barn dance.

Don’t reward the opportunists who wish to seize on someone else’s tragedy to empower themselves. Don’t give them the control they desire.

They’re not worthy of our support or respect.

Bryan Hyde is a news commentator, radio host and opinion columnist in Southern Utah. The opinions stated in this article are his and not representative of St. George News.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @youcancallmebry

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2016, all rights reserved.

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6 Comments

  • BIG GUY June 13, 2016 at 8:32 am

    The political opportunists, including Bryan Hyde, are indeed “…hitch[ing] their political agenda to the latest tragedy.” Bryan’s opinions have nuggets of truth intermingled with his libertarian ideology bordering on encouraging armed insurrection.

  • blahblahblah June 13, 2016 at 9:54 am

    “It’s sickening how many are willing to jump at the chance to hitch their political agenda to the latest tragedy.”

    Um, that’s exactly what followed in your article.

  • Bob June 13, 2016 at 12:43 pm

    the neo-liberal fascists dream about a disarmed public and a full-on police state, that and swamping the country with mass third world immigration (for some reason they prefer muslims). a one world gov’t police state is their end goal. letting millions of army-aged muslim men into germany was a step in the process, just totally illogical to any rational person.

  • Curtis June 13, 2016 at 12:54 pm

    While I can’t disagree with Hyde’s comments they seem to leave us with — unless you are directly impacted by the event just shrug it off and pay it no mind as it is of no consequence to you. Just keep moving — nothing to see here. I personally find that unsatisfactory and disturbing.

    p.s. Talk about opportunistic !! “thugs”, “abuse”, “alleged debt”.

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