"Reality is more complicated than that."
That is my view on most "spurg" that people bloviate at me. Beit 3rd wave feminism, Environmentalism, conspiracy theories, American Exceptionalism, etc, generally the "spurg" is so simplistic that I'd expect it out of the mouth of a 5 year old.
Now I love a good discussion, and I love taking a devil's advocate position to nearly any topic, but please, if you're going to start a consipiracy discussion, back your <ddeleted> up.
Keep in mind that the Federal Government is the single largest employer in the US BY FAR, so attributing any monolithic concept to it is going to be simply WRONG. Hell, attributing any monolithic concept to a political party tends to be simply wrong (Unless it is the foundation of the party, IE Libertarians are always for smaller government. Just HOW small is up for debate.)
If it is a negative for me to hear people in gunshops gong on about oversimplistic conspiracy theories, I can only imagine how bad it is for my more liberal friends. Virtually ALL of my friends are far more "liberal" than I am, and all of them are into firearms and the RTKaAB. (Largely my influence. I will take any of my friends, coworkers, or acquaintances to the gun range, free of charge and teach the simple 4 laws gun safety, and let them fire a wide range of firearms. Generally they then turn around and buy a couple of their own.)
IMO, the best thing responsible members of the community can do is be as accomodating to new and prospective members of the community and do everything to show >>US<< in a good light. Want to talk Bad Government Laws? Pick specific laws, don't talk in generalities. Want to talk about how evil a certain female senator from CA is? Be specific. To quote wikipedia "Citation Needed"