Comment: We are a divided society and this will not change.

We are not going to convince any meaningful number of liberals and neocons to change their minds and endorse freedom. It is simply a matter of them having undeveloped identities. They are not independent personalities. They can't deal with being the only person in their skin so they opt for one form of collectivism or another.

When one is born, he doesn't know he is a separate person, and how to or what to think about himself. He thinks all the world is part of him. The process of forming an identity takes a long time, reaching a crisis point during the identity crisis of teen years. It requires that we develop an understanding of where we leave off and others begin. Some people develop normally and come to see themselves as separate, independent beings, and some never manage to get there, instead failing along the way and always seeing themselves as part of others or others as part of them. Those with failed identities have boundary problems. They opt for dependence. The opt for control. They have difficulty being alone. They identify with and idolize some others, particularly political figures and those whose talents make them famous. These incomplete personalities are dangerous to freedom because they don't want the responsibility and independence freedom requires of us.

Here is a write up from someone at thehighroad gun discussion forum that we all should understand about the collectivist mind:

Personal freedom. This is a non starter with most progressives. They tend to think in collective terms, not individual. Personal freedom is, to them, a euphemism for the rejection of society. Society represents the greater good. The individual exists only to serve the greater good, not to be served by it. Liberty is anathema. Anyone talking about liberty is just trying to avoid contributing their fair share to the greater good of society.

Rights. "Rights" is just a quaint way of saying privileges. Privileges are what you are allowed to exercise in return for your contribution to the greater good of society. But those privileges should never be allowed to interfere or endanger the greater good so their exercise must be strictly regulated.

The Constitution. This is an antiquated document that describes a system of government that has proven unsuitable to the needs of a progressive society. Unfortunately, many people have an emotional attachment to it, so it really can't be discarded. But it can be re-imagined and reinterpreted so that it can be made to allow what needs to be done, and when that isn't feasible, it should just be ignored when it gets in the way of progressive action.

Happiness may not be guaranteed, but Equality is. It is impossible to have economic equality when there is a disparity of wealth. Everyone must contribute to the greater good. From each according to his ability to each according to his need. The wealthy must pay their fair share.

Individuals are nothing without each other. We are all in this together as a society and government is the means by which society achieves its goals and distributes the wealth produced by the society to its members. Individuals contribute to the production of society, but individuals can produce nothing without society and so have no claim on what they think they produce themselves.

The problem with the other side isn't a lack of understanding, it is a lack of common values.

In short, collectivists operate on the assumption that we are all slaves to the system. This isn't going to be resolved at the ballot box or through persuasion; collectivism is an mental disease and would require years of professional help, but unfortunately most of the psychiatric profession is infected with the disease, too. There is not a clear path to resolve this divide, so the federal government, which is essentially run by collectivists, is going to take the nation into collapse and civil war.

Absolutely don't give up your gun because we are probably within a decade of the outbreak of civil violence. The central issue is the role of government.