America and Australia walk into a bar.
Australia: “When are you getting it together about gun control?”
America: “When are you getting it together about marriage equality?”
Bartender: “It’s the same bloody question; are we equal or not? You both know the answer; you already answered it on one of the issues. Now shut up and drink your appletinis.”
The bartender’s right, of course. The major issues that are currently facing both countries are, at their core, about equality. An even playing field. In Australia, it’s the right for couples to get married, regardless of sexuality or gender. In America, it’s for every unarmed person to be given a chance to live freely and not expect to be shot.
Both are a debate about the value of human life, and if some lives matter more than others. Both are a fight for basic human rights. Both affect the lives of thousands, if not millions, of each country’s citizens. Both issues, whilst they remain unresolved, are taking and ruining lives.
We should help each other see the simplicity of the respective issue before us, and how, like a small child who takes itself off to bed when it needs a nap, we already know what to do. But that hasn’t happened, and it’s clouded the conversation.
This week, the Australian media has been full of reactions to the Las Vegas massacre. We’re proud of the fact that we’ve done it better over here, and rightly so. Appalled at the senseless loss of life, we’ve repeated our cries for America to tighten their gun control, and expressed our dismay at the country’s stubborn attitude to their Constitutional and completely outdated right to bear arms; which, when it was written, didn’t envisage weaponry that could kill 59 people and injure more than 500 from the 32nd floor of a building across the street from thousands of innocent people.
Top Comments
People with liberal views (like myself and the Mamamia website) tend to highly value equality and fairness. So the equality argument is the one that liberals naturally use all the time on issues like same sex marriage and gun control, and then wonder how come the other side doesn't get it?
That's because conservatives tend not to value equality and fairness as highly - in fact, they're prepared to sacrifice equality and fairness for some people for what they perceive to be the benefits of the wider group, or the principle that they wish to uphold.
Each side believes they're right - so much so that often they truly can't understand why the other side thinks the way they do!
So if you really want to win over conservatives on same sex marriage or gun control, stop talking about equality - it won't work - and instead look at the issues that matter to them.
"Both issues are taking and ruining lives" yeah right!!!