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Greg Felton: “Parkland shooting exposes the terrible power and appeal of sacred violence”

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Canadian journalist Greg Felton, author of The Host and the Parasite, writes:

“A media narrative of a mass shooting generates quasi-religious loyalty for three main reasons. First, it gives people what they want: a patsy and moral reassurance. Once the patsy is identified and either killed or captured, the narrative then acts as a form of catharsis by providing closure, commiseration and reassurance. People accept it because they want to.

“Second, a media narrative is championed by political interests that ‘decouple’ the narrative from its putative cause so that it takes on a life of its own. The narrative then becomes its own justification. The shooting, once a horrific crime, becomes a de facto positive event, an act of sacred violence that justifies the existence of the political crusade.

“Third, loyalty is magnified when converts, attracted by the political crusade, self-identify with its black-and-white morality and help stifle dissent. Typical is the resort to tired, risible epithets like ‘conspiracy theory,’ ‘Putin apologist,’ ‘Russian bot,’ and the caricaturing of critics as right-wing kooks and disinformants.”

Is Greg Felton right? In this interview we agree on some things and argue heatedly about others. Listen and make up your own mind!

One Thought to “Greg Felton: “Parkland shooting exposes the terrible power and appeal of sacred violence””

  1. Vauen

    You did school Mr Felton on RKBA very well, I just hope that was not the reason why he seemed so acrimonious about religion!?

    I do see one problem with not having a standing army though, and that is that these days warfare is very high tech, and you do need personnel with very specialized training.

    And to further answer the questions about why everyone has the right to buy guns under 2nd Amendment. It is for the simple reason that stock piling (some spouses call it “hoarding”) of guns and ammunition has to be decentralized for safety reasons!

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