As Thomas Sowell approaches the age of 92, his work is getting noticed by younger people on YouTube, giving me some hope for the future. This image is very appropriate:

Over the Hunter Biden Laptop scandal:

The New Authoritarians by Alex Gutentag, Tablet Magazine, March 29, 2022.

Excerpt:

It is only by painting themselves as victims fighting against their oppressors that college-educated professionals can rationalize their own authoritarianism. The cult of victimhood conjures the specter of fascism, misogyny, or white nationalism in order to justify blatantly repressive measures. This is why, for example, the professional class consistently portrayed unvaccinated people as Trump supporters even though in many major cities vaccine passports mostly excluded Democrat-voting Black residents from indoor establishments. Under the guise of combatting anti-vax extremism, woke liberal politicians embraced segregation and the exact kind of “systemic racism” they claimed to oppose. While considering themselves to be on the side of righteousness and rationality, commentators called for hospitals to reject unvaccinated patients, and some even celebrated their deaths. This is precisely the type of punitive, regressive tendency that progressives warned would be a consequence of Trump’s election.

RTWT.

Indiana becomes the 24th state to sign Constitutional Carry into law. Three states in the first quarter of 2022. One shy of half the country.

The gun-banners are gnashing their teeth.

Alabama joined the family of Constitutional Carry states, or at least it will as soon as the law goes into effect on January 1, 2023, and it is joined by Ohio where Gov. Mike Dewine signed their bill into law, effective June 12, 2022. Indiana’s law is sitting on its Governor’s desk waiting to be signed.

Slow and steady wins the race.

Here’s the current map of progress in concealed carry law nationwide. At present there are 21 “Constitutional Carry” states, 21 “Shall Issue” states, 8 “May Issue” states, and none that are “No-Issue” by law (though try to get one in New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, etc.)

And now there will be 22 “Constitutional Carry” states: Alabama House Approves Bill to Let People Carry Concealed Handguns without a Permit. Of course there’s always the wailing of the gun-ban crowd about Wild-West shootouts in K-Mart over blue-light specials:

Susan Kirkpatrick, a volunteer with the Alabama chapter of Moms Demand Action, said in statement last month as the bill advanced through the Republican-dominated legislature that lawmakers “ignored research, reason, and expertise — choosing violence over public safety and jeopardizing the wellbeing of our communities.”

“This vote has moved us another step in the opposite direction of where we should be headed,” she added.

Which has never happened anywhere “shall-issue” has passed. But they can’t give up on it. It’s all they have.

The original question was: “What lies at the root of the authoritarianism that seems to be asserting itself in free societies in today’s West?”

Here’s my answer:

The same root that causes irritating busybodies to take over Home Owner Associations. Some people have a lust for power. Government is the ultimate well of power. Author Frank Herbert expressed it well:

“All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.”

Also:

“When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movements become headlong – faster and faster and faster.”

Leftism is itself a religion, complete with an Eden (Earth), an original sin (Capitalism), and a god (government – aka “power over others.”) Another quote I’m fond of by a gentleman by the name of Glenn Wishard:

“The rise and fall of the Marxist ideal is rather neatly contained in the Twentieth Century, and comprises its central political phenomenon. Fascism and democratic defeatism are its sun-dogs. The common theme is politics as a theology of salvation, with a heroic transformation of the human condition (nothing less) promised to those who will agitate for it. Political activity becomes the highest human vocation. The various socialisms are only the most prominent manifestation of this delusion, which our future historian calls “politicism”. In all its forms, it defines human beings as exclusively political animals, based on characteristics which are largely or entirely beyond human control: ethnicity, nationality, gender, and social class. It claims universal relevance, and so divides the entire human race into heroes and enemies. To be on the correct side of this equation is considered full moral justification in and of itself, while no courtesy or concession can be afforded to those on the other. Therefore, politicism has no conscience whatsoever, no charity, and no mercy.”

When your quest is to drag the rest of the world, kicking and screaming, into your utopia, authoritarianism is the way to get there. Never mind that you’re enabling the most greedy, rapacious and psychopathic to grab the levers of power.

In short, it’s human nature.

This is exactly where all of this was always going:

The artist is trolling the Left, just so you know.

I have always understood that there are multiple “gun cultures” both here and abroad.

A. Hunting culture: Guns are just tools to an end. They’re pretty, and members like to argue about caliber/gauge, but it’s not about the guns, it’s about the sport. This includes Trap & Skeet shooters

B. Recreational culture: Going to the range or out in the desert and dump a few hundred rounds over the weekend. The guns are more important here because they’re signs of status (yes, HK fanbois…) but the point is to have a good time.

C. Self-defense culture: Guns are tools for the defense of self, family and property. Which gun(s) you own have aren’t as important as owning them.

D. Collector culture: The guns are everything. Make, model, style, condition is all. These are the guys who have every variation of every caliber of Smith & Wesson N-frame revolver, but shoot only one because the others are pristine.

E. Criminal culture: Guns give a feeling of power and are a status symbol.

Over time the proportions have shifted (and there’s always been overlap between the groups. Up until perhaps the mid-1980’s the hunting culture was ascendant, followed by the recreational culture (plinking tin cans with a .22 was the dominant sport.) Self-defense was limited to a tiny minority probably on par with the Collectors. The criminals? They’ve always been with us, but that portion probably peaked in the early to mid 1990’s when the national homicide rate peaked.B

But in 1987 Florida began the concealed-carry movement by becoming a “shall-issue state,” and in the ensuing 34 years that number has climbed to from eight “shall issue” and one “Constitutional Carry” state to 21 “shall issue” and 21 “Constitutional Carry” states. In 1986 there were 25 “may issue” (but probably won’t) states and 16 that offered no legal path to concealed carry at all. Today there are no states that do not at least appear to allow some form of legal concealed carry, and only eight remain “may issue” (but probably won’t.)

This is a significant change in not only the proportions of the Gun Culture, but the size. Because the expansion has been largely in two areas – Recreation, and Self-Defense. Record gun sales for the last decade have added hundreds of millions of new firearms to the culture, and tens of millions of new owners, with the greatest increases in “modern sporting arms” – largely the AR-15 in all its variants – and handguns.

What does this change look like?

Boom: 5.4M first-time gun buyers, 33% women, blacks up 44%

Opening paragraphs:

First-time gun buyers continued to flood into firearms stores last year, broadening the once male and white market with women, blacks, Asians, and Hispanics.

Retailers reported that concerns about safety helped to drive 5.4 million first-timers into gun stores where many bought more than one gun, and a sizable number also signed up for gun handling classes.

I don’t think these people would react well to “Mr. and Ms. America, turn them all in.”