# NC Guy wants to kill people or die to reopen businesses **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 25, 2020, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nc-guy-wants-to-kill-people-or-die-to-reopen-businesses/854441 "2020-05-25T13:32:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2020, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nc-guy-wants-to-kill-people-or-die-to-reopen-businesses/854441/1 "2020-05-25T13:32:28Z")
Just so he can freely sit down and eat at Wendys etc > **[Comments ahead of ReOpen NC march on Memorial Day raise concerns of safety​](https://www.wral.com/coronavirus/comments-ahead-of-reopen-nc-march-on-memorial-day-raise-concerns-of-safety/19112681/)** > > The group ReOpen NC plans to protest across the state on Memorial Day, and some comments ahead of that march are raising questions of safety. Adam Smith, a protestor with ReOpen NC, said on Facebook Live Friday that reopening the state is an issue... ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2020, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nc-guy-wants-to-kill-people-or-die-to-reopen-businesses/854441/2 "2020-05-25T16:25:57Z")
> [@](#): > > “We want to pick up arms? Do we want to kill anybody? Of course not, nobody wants to take lives. We don’t want to kill anybody. But are we willing to kill people, are we willing to lay our lives down? Yes. We have to say yes,” he said. Yes, this is appalling and horrifying. On the other hand, your “Just so he can freely sit down and eat at Wendys” is awfully dismissive of the serious effects that the shutdowns are having on some people. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2020, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nc-guy-wants-to-kill-people-or-die-to-reopen-businesses/854441/3 "2020-05-25T19:34:45Z")
Do they have these protests when the governor is GOP? I’ve not heard of any but it’s possible I missed them. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2020, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nc-guy-wants-to-kill-people-or-die-to-reopen-businesses/854441/4 "2020-05-25T20:27:06Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Do they have these protests when the governor is GOP? I’ve not heard of any but it’s possible I missed them. Ohio, but then Mike DeWine is being responsible unlike most Republican governors. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nc-guy-wants-to-kill-people-or-die-to-reopen-businesses/854441/5 "2020-05-26T03:16:59Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Ohio, but then Mike DeWine is being responsible unlike most Republican governors. Larry Hogan of Maryland as well. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nc-guy-wants-to-kill-people-or-die-to-reopen-businesses/854441/6 "2020-05-26T10:32:21Z")
We had some in Indianapolis, but they were small-scale and the media largely ignored them. Which, I think, might be an issue - the more the media covers these protects in Democratic-governor states the more they encourage them and the more wound up the protesters get. The more they ignore the protests in Republican-governor states the more they diminish. ---
**Author:** ![Meltdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Meltdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meltdown)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2020, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nc-guy-wants-to-kill-people-or-die-to-reopen-businesses/854441/7 "2020-05-27T00:49:31Z")
We had at least one here in MA (Governor Charlie Baker is a Republican). It received local coverage in The Boston Globe, but I don’t think it made much of a splash nationally. Here’s a link to the Globe article, although it may be behind a paywall: [Hundreds gather at State House to protest measures to slow spread of coronavirus](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/05/04/metro/hundreds-gather-state-house-protest-measures-slow-spread-coronavirus/) They’re a bunch of idiots, of course, but props to the guy in the photo for quoting “The Prisoner.” I’ll take that over a Confederate flag any day. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2020, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nc-guy-wants-to-kill-people-or-die-to-reopen-businesses/854441/8 "2020-05-27T01:40:54Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > We had some in Indianapolis, but they were small-scale and the media largely ignored them. > > Which, I think, might be an issue - the more the media covers these protects in Democratic-governor states the more they encourage them and the more wound up the protesters get. The more they ignore the protests in Republican-governor states the more they diminish. I don’t think that’s true. These militia assholes have wandered in and out of straight-up terrorism ever since Oklahoma City. One of them is going to murder a Subway sandwich artist who tries to kick him out for not masking up. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2020, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nc-guy-wants-to-kill-people-or-die-to-reopen-businesses/854441/9 "2020-05-27T01:45:58Z")
> [@Meltdown](#): > > …They’re a bunch of idiots, of course, but props to the guy in the photo for quoting “The Prisoner.” I’ll take that over a Confederate flag any day. Looks like he had a little trouble spelling “indexed,” though. He should have thrown it out and started over. Questions are a burden to others. Answers are a prison for oneself. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2020, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nc-guy-wants-to-kill-people-or-die-to-reopen-businesses/854441/10 "2020-05-27T02:51:12Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Yes, this is appalling and horrifying. > > On the other hand, your “Just so he can freely sit down and eat at Wendys” is awfully dismissive of the serious effects that the shutdowns are having on some people. It’s incredibly difficult to have a serious discussion about weighing the relative costs of continued shutdowns versus opening up. The two arguments that drown a serious discussion out are “shut down until there is a vaccine, even if it takes forever” and “Shutdowns are a Communist plot run by Hillary, Obama and Bill Gates.” It’s just another part of continued polarization. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2020, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nc-guy-wants-to-kill-people-or-die-to-reopen-businesses/854441/11 "2020-05-27T03:21:24Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > The two arguments that drown a serious discussion out are “shut down until there is a vaccine, even if it takes forever” and “Shutdowns are a Communist plot run by Hillary, Obama and Bill Gates.” It’s just another part of continued polarization. A nice illustration of what “polarization” looks like in this country these days. On the one side, you have a rationally defensible position based on scientific facts and concern for public safety, even if it can be reasonably challenged as being too extreme and economically unrealistic. On the other side, you have a straight-up fantasy of a deranged conspiracy theory that is impervious to all rational and logical argument. Sadly, this sort of face-off between the arguably wrong and the incorrigibly delusional is how far too many American political controversies shake out nowadays. The lazy bothsidesism of tut-tutting about “polarization” in the abstract isn’t doing the cause of truth and realism any favors.