Thread:Comments:Gun background checks a no-go in US Senate/The mission of the U.S. government is not to keep the people SAFE; it is to keep them FREE/reply (7)

Your accusation is patently false. I have expressed the opinion that you were probably not aware of what you were doing (an opinion I still hold, btw); this is, of course, as far as I could honestly go in the matter, since I am not telepathic and therefore have no way of knowing for sure that you were unaware of the tactics. You on the other hand have &mdash;if you are being careful about your words&mdash; signally failed to reciprocate, accusing me of deliberate personal attack against you. This is another technique belief systems commonly use to insulate their proponents against rational dialog: condition their proponents to accuse others of the tactics they themselves are conditioned to use. The truly appalling thing about this sort of strategy is that it does not require self-awareness by the person wielding it; indeed, such belief systems would not be so successful if their proponents had to realize what they were doing, because that would make it harder for them to acquire and retain proponents.