Why is the US so conservative?

[Mercenary]

It isn't. Not even close.

What is the US?
Economically? Corporatist
Socially? Libertine

I'm not really sure what conservative economics would be. I guess if you want to argue that corporatism is conservative you could claim we are economically conservative as corporatism has been around long enough that conserving the economic system of the past is basically conserving corporatism.

Socially we are not even remotely conservative. Yes there are some people who practice social conservatives. And there may be some laws left around that have some social conservatism. But society as a whole is definitely not. Is virtue promoted at all? Is purity and innocence? Society uses sex to sell, values promiscuity, adultery, abortion, the degradation of women as a whole. It values basically every vice imaginable while belittling any virtue.

I'm talking about lifestyle and practices, not laws. The laws are irrelevant since they don't change someone's inner thoughts and values. If you want to live any kind of wholesome life, you have to pretty much tune out of the culture of modern society as a whole.

We really have the worst of all worlds. We still have various authoritarian laws, combined with a libertine culture and corporatist economy. I think our society is a pretty massive failure in this regard. But I have been looking around and I don't see any other society that doesn't fail in the same way.

But in the end, I guess it depends on what you view conservatism to be in general. Since I separate the law from the culture, I don't see it. Since I think of corporatism as non-conservative, I don't see it.

[Mercenary]

The argument shouldn't be why something should be allowed, it should be why it shouldn't be. The default position should be that freedom reigns unless there is a compelling reason not to allow it.

I'd prefer guns not existing, but I don't trust the cop to have one any more than a random thug. Yet if you make them outlawed, it is the cop and random thug that still have them, and not the law abiding citizen. Sure, you'll decrease gun violence as random rage acts and accidents with guns would decline. But I like to at least have the option to have one if I want while cops and other thugs can have them.

[Mercenary]

Well we're going to remain at odds in how we think about legality in general then.
However, you could still use your own argument even from my point of reference and still arrive at your conclusion regarding gun ownership.

I agree with you in that we need to move in the direction of no guns. I don't really have a problem with banning assault weapons, but I must say I don't know a lot about different types of firearms so I don't know what these kind of guns really are. I don't have a problem with reasonable checks either. I'd prefer that cops and the like didn't have access to specific weaponry as well then. And in general we need to clean up the massive corruption in law enforcement.

But yes, general safety can be the starting argument towards disallowing gun ownership. The default is it is legal, but then one sees that there is a problem with it being legal, that a legitimate reason to make it illegal is because gun crime is less in areas that ban it. So even if I disagree with you on illegality being the default, we could potentially arrive at the same conclusion. I just feel there needs to be a compelling reason for the state to intervene in something.

I don't know what degree of regulation would be effective though, especially since pro-gun culture has been a part of things for so long. I'm a bit wish washy on this issue...