Guns are a great example under "accepting we're mortals in an ugly world", actually. Nobody is seriously claiming they're going away, but the way they're talked about by the left, you would think undoing a technology is on the table.

I mean, you can still want more gun control, and most other nations have gone that way, but the only people mentioning they'll still be around in some way tend to be on the right - because that's ugly.

For example: the US flag. It has become a stereotype in the US that if you fly an American flag on your house or car, you are a conservative/right-wing nationalist. “America bad” is a lefty stereotype for good reason.

Fun fact, it was leaking into Canada for a while. Unnecessary maple leafs meant you probably didn't like vaccines or Trudeau. Then you guys (well, Trump; we know there's another party) talked about annexing us and made patriotism neutral again. Thanks?

January 6th was a weapons demonstration, not a real attempt at coup.

That's an interesting way of looking at it, although I'm not convinced it wasn't just stupidity on their part. The right also have hangups that will self-correct, in their own way.

That's kind of what I was going to say about tribalism as a force, too. Nobody turns their noses up at an Irish name today, and nobody will be impressed by lifted pickups and ill-informed scriptural references in the future. The idea of elected representatives has been around for centuries, though.