Cucktard, your comments are appreciated too--I’m sure the palpable difference at the border is very real.
Ocelot, the funny thing is, much of my work (especially in my dissertation) is exactly trying to connect nihilistic and anomic behavior in young people to suburban and exurban landscapes and ways-of-life of through film, music, and literature (Over the Edge, Suburbia, White Noise, The Crying of Lot 49, etc.). so, i’m fully aware of the many ways the suburbs are represented in culture and in the media--in this regard, I guess you could say my questions about the suburbs are kind of hypothetical…i know what i think these geographies and lifestyles do to young people, it’s just that plenty of people don’t seem to even consider it.
i do want to make it clear, that i am also a gun “enthusiast,” so i also own guns because i am interested in their “economy of design.” is this “fetishizing” them? maybe, but no more than i fetishize my skateboards when i use and/or work on them. i definitely love and enjoy going to the shooting range, and learning to consistently shoot handguns accurately is one of the most humbling endeavors of my life thus far…almost as humbling as, say, tyring to do five-0s on round rails. being an “enthusiast” is very much about being a bit of a “tech geek,” only it’s guns. when i decide i want a new gun, it’s almost always based on me wanting to learn the nuances and experience of shooting a new caliber, and then i decide which specific brand and model…this is also in response to Rasmus’ questions i guess…
all of this being said, this is just my perspective at this point…i’m not trying to be one of Slap’s “pro-gun” advocates. unlike others like Oblow, i’m not on social media at all, or advertising what i think other people should do, and i’m not trying to tell anyone what to do in these fucked times--i acknowledge that my experience is just as limited as anybody else’s and it is just one of many, and that circumstances are different for lots of different people…