It translates as "Law/Constitution is to Conservatives as Gun Free Zone signs are to Liberals".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colon_(punctuation)#Mathematic...
I've never seen this notation used in modern mathematical logic papers. I've even had (non-US) logic phds ask me about this notation.
> which was also used by standardized test writers like the SAT. The SAT removed those questions because they were ineffective at assessment, not because the notation was out of favor.
Yeah, standardized tests that have since phased it out were really the only place it was used. Hence anachronistic. If you didn't take the SAT during a certain period of time there's a god chance you didn't see this notation.
Liberals tend to think they can manifest reality just by saying the right thing. This causes them to be very vigilant about the words we use to describe things and they also think things like putting up a gun free zone sign at a school will prevent school shootings.
When a cop is beating a liberal to death with a stick, the liberal understands the cop is exercising his power and will get away with it. When a cop is beating a conservative to death with a stick the conservative will righteously complain about how that's illegal and I want this bad apple's badge number.
So, conservatives are the starry-eyed idealists and the liberals are the hard-nosed realists? That's an intriguing reversal of the usual framing.
However, when a mass shooting of some sort occurs there is a distinct difference between how conservatives tend to respond to such a thing and how liberals do. Liberals will want more areas to be gun free zones. They will pressure businesses like grocery stores to put up gun free zone signs or push for stricter gun regulations that would not have prevented the event in the first place.
This behavior is directly analogous to the conservative behavior. The state does not care about Constitutional rights any more than mass murderers care about gun free zones. Hopefully it's understandable why this analogy might be difficult to get for both conservatives and liberals because it is difficult to step outside ones entire worldview.
The law signed by Bush in 1990 was struck down in 1995, but Congress made a weaker law after that.
A Constitutional right or law prevents the state from harming you in exactly the same way a gun free zone sign stops a school shooter from murdering you.
In general, it's not a good idea to try and make a nuanced political point with something short and pithy. People invariably project the worst interpretation onto it. You need to spell out what you mean.