The NRA declares war on reality

Written By: - Date published: 9:01 am, June 30th, 2017 - 39 comments
Categories: International, us politics, you couldn't make this shit up - Tags: ,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtGOQFf9VCE

Not many words are required for this. Above is a video the National Rifle Association released recently (h/t Russell Brown).

The sense of removal from reality is extreme. And America must be a scary place right now. Imagine if Hunting and Fishing in New Zealand released something similar locally.

Business Insider Australia has posted a transcript of the video.  Here it is:

They use their media to assassinate real news. They use their schools to teach children that their president is another Hitler. They use their movie stars and singers and award shows to repeat their narrative over and over again. And then they use their ex-president to endorse the resistance.

All to make them march, make them protest, make them scream racism and sexism and xenophobia and homophobia and smash windows, burn cars, shut down interstates and airports, bully and terrorize the law abiding  —  until the only option left is for police to do their jobs and stop the madness.

And when that happens, they will use it as an excuse for their outrage. The only way we stop this, the only way we save our country and our freedom is to fight this violence of lies with the clenched fist of truth. I’m the National Rifle Association of America and I’m freedom’s safest place.”

There are lots of other videos like this although as far as I can see this is the worst. Just check out the NRA Youtube channel if you want to see. Just be prepared to be very afraid.

There is also video of the “star” of the video, Dana Loesch, apparently destroying a gun control advocate on Fox TV.  I watched it for my sins.  All I saw was a shouty feisty insistence that she was right and he was an idiot and his facts were totally wrong and her facts were completely accurate.

Is this what current political debate has come to?

39 comments on “The NRA declares war on reality ”

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  1. Tricledrown 1
    30 June 2017 at 9:20 am

    More children dying in the US.
    Nearly 1/2 of all child deaths from gun shot.

    • Richard McGrath 1.1
      2 July 2017 at 11:45 pm

      I would bet the vast majority of these “child deaths” are teenage gang members killing other gang members.

      • McFlock 1.1.1
        3 July 2017 at 12:00 am

        Yes, and the reason you’d bet that without reading any of the links is so that it makes it easy for you to not give a fuck.

        Actually, most of the child deaths are suicides, not even homicides, so you lose the bet.

        • Richard McGrath 1.1.1.1
          3 July 2017 at 12:31 am

          Can’t help being nasty, can you McFlock?

          “…most of the child deaths are suicides, not even homicides”

          Actually, most child deaths would appear to be due to medical conditions, gestational and neonatal problems, or unintentional injury.

          https://www.cdc.gov/injury/images/lc-charts/leading_causes_of_death_age_group_2015_1050w740h.gif

          From the American Academy of Paediatrics paper on childhood firearms injuries in the U.S. between 2012 and 2014:

          “On average, from 2012 to 2014, nearly 1300 children (N = 1297) died each year in the United States from a firearm-related injury, for an annual crude rate of 1.8 per 100 000 (Table 1). Fifty-three percent of these were homicides (n = 693), 38% were suicides (n = 493), and 6% were unintentional firearm deaths (n = 82)”

          http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2017/06/15/peds.2016-3486

          You’re also wrong about the firearms deaths in ‘children’ – as the quote above states, there were 693 homicides and 493 suicides.

          • McFlock 1.1.1.1.1
            3 July 2017 at 12:45 am

            Fair enough, I was going by the ABC link below that showed suicide having a higher per100k death rate than homicide.

            Although if you want to include non GSW causes of death, your original comment was just as bunk.

            Although now we can explore why your assumption about child victims is of any value. Does it advance discussion on the topic, or is it just a broad stroke to write off the entire issue?

            • Richard McGrath 1.1.1.1.1.1
              3 July 2017 at 1:01 am

              I hope it advances discussion – but it’s only relevant if you drill down and focus on gun-mediated homicides in ‘children’, which in many studies includes juveniles under age 18, and thus counts gang shootings.

              • McFlock …
                3 July 2017 at 10:13 am

                Why shouldn’t we count children killed by gang members?

                • Richard McGrath …
                  5 July 2017 at 12:43 am

                  We do – it’s children killing children

                  • McFlock …
                    5 July 2017 at 1:03 am

                    Even if gang members are doing the killing (big call there), why do you bet that the vast majority of the victims of criminal organisations are themselves members of criminal organisations, as opposed to kids with bad luck in who they bump into, after-school clerks at convenience stores, or innocent bystanders? Are gang members known for their discretion, impulse control, and excellent aim?

  2. Carolyn_nth 2
    30 June 2017 at 9:29 am

    The only way we stop this, the only way we save our country and our freedom power and privilege is to fight this violence of lies with the clenched fist of truth. I’m the National Rifle Association of America and I’m freedom’s power and privilege's safest place.”

    FIFThem – as Orwell groans in his grave.

  3. esoteric pineapples 3
    30 June 2017 at 9:30 am

    The word “destroy” is used a lot on youtube videos eg Bernie Sanders Destroys Republican senator. But usually it is an over-exaggeration.

  4. Adrian 4
    30 June 2017 at 10:07 am

    I’m in Hawaii, lucky bastard, heard a supermarket counter conversation yesterday about the fact that not a single firearms licence was issued for Hawaii last year.
    The board of control doesn’t like them.
    And even off duty cops are not allowed to carry a gun.
    Hawaii 5-0 is all bullshit, who would have quessed?
    And last week the only Republican Senator jumped ship to the Democrats. Something about healthcare and education.
    P.S I’m only here because it is totally Democrat. And warm, and has surf , and water temp27 degrees. Unfortunately only for 8 more days. Bugger.

    • dukeofurl 4.1
      30 June 2017 at 11:12 am

      Doubt that was the case, as the NRA would take them to court if they are too restrictive.
      More likely no licenses for ‘carrying a firearm ( usually a pistol) ‘

      “In March 2014, the 9th Circuit US Court of Appeals has ruled Hawaii’s restrictive concealed carry policy unconstitutional, but the court has allowed the law to remain in effect while the State of Hawaii appeals the ruling.”

      “http://freebeacon.com/issues/hawaii-state-not-issue-single-gun-carry-permit-2016/

      But its true Hawaii has the strictest gun laws in the US but the NRA is workig on them now Gorsuch is on the Supreme court

    • Richard McGrath 4.2
      3 July 2017 at 12:06 am

      “And last week the only Republican Senator jumped ship to the Democrats.”

      Really? I don’t think Hawaii has had a Republican Senator in its legislature since 2016 when the last one was defeated in an election. And there hasn’t been a U.S. Senator from Hawaii since 1977.

      To whom do you refer?

    • Richard McGrath 4.3
      3 July 2017 at 12:52 am

      And Hawaii has the second lowest rate of murder (including non-negligent manslaughter) of the U.S. states… but the lowest rate is in New Hampshire, which has extremely liberal gun ownership and carriage laws.

      Similarly, the District of Columbia (with restrictive gun laws) has the highest murder rate, five times that of Texas (which has liberal gun laws).

  5. saveNZ 5
    30 June 2017 at 10:08 am

    Propoganda is the new weapon of the right.

  6. mac1 6
    30 June 2017 at 11:07 am

    ” A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided.” Abraham Lincoln, Republican President.

    The language of the video text is that of the “other”, the enemy, the feared adversary- “they, them, their”. It is divisive and hate-inducing, despairing and in its way, violent.

    I fear for Lincoln’s hopeful expectation.

    On a lighter note, micksavage, watching Ms Loesch on Fox should earn you a plenary indulgence, and thus your sins are forgiven you.

  7. Andre 7
    30 June 2017 at 11:12 am

    Long ago the NRA abandoned any pretense of representing its original constituency, hunting-type outdoorsy people. It’s now just the marketing and lobbying division of the small-arms industry with even less ethics and morals than big tobacco.

    • weka 7.1
      30 June 2017 at 11:19 am

      I was thinking a better NZ comparison than Fish and Game would be the Business Round Table crossed with Federated Farmers and maybe the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers for the libertarian core 😈

      • Andre 7.1.1
        30 June 2017 at 11:36 am

        Compared to the NRA, all those organisations are … mostly harmless.

        Of those NZ examples, it’s really only ACT that have abandoned their stated principles in favour of ethics-free shilling for their big-dollar patrons.

        • weka 7.1.1.1
          30 June 2017 at 11:42 am

          “mostly harmless” (was that an intentional Douglass Adams quote? 😎 )

          Yes it’s relative but I’d hardly call the Business Round Table harmless. BRT literally tried to prevent the democratisation of NZ’s electoral process. I threw in FF for the outdoorsy aspect plus the powermongering and destruction under the guise of acceptable business. NZ’s demise isn’t via violent revolution, we’re just going to strip mine the place and leave the best bits of rich people.

  8. Paul Campbell 8
    30 June 2017 at 11:34 am

    I’ve seen a number of people refer to this as a declaration of Civil War

    • RedLogix 8.1
      30 June 2017 at 2:23 pm

      It’s hard to measure. Just because a mass breakdown of civil order in the USA is unthinkable, does not mean its impossible. Indeed you only have to look back a few decades to consider the race riots to see what can happen:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_racial_violence_in_the_United_States

      On the other hand all of these events turned out to be self-limiting; they were terrible locally, but on a national scale the USA carried on mostly unperturbed.

      But this culture war is somehow scarier. A potent mix of class, race, inequality and conflicting social values has dramatically polarised over the past decade. There is no doubt in my mind the internet has made it worse. And some pretty fucked up responses on both sides of the divide have only sharpened the discomfort.

      The USA has always been an incredibly diverse nation; once this could be counted as a strength, now not so much. And with Trump deliberately exploiting these latent fault lines the prognosis is poor.

      And we’ve already seen the first skirmishes of this kind of culture war:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundy_standoff

      But again it proved self-limiting, but I really do feel sorry for the very large number of ordinary, generous and civil minded Americans, and wonder little at the sky-high levels of anxiety and depression they suffer.

      But I have no idea of where or if there is a tipping point into full-scale civil war. Predicting the future is a game for mugs.

  9. Sabine 9
    30 June 2017 at 12:38 pm

    those gun sales must be down now that they can’t keep people afraid with Obama and Hillary taking away their guns.

  10. greywarshark 10
    30 June 2017 at 3:38 pm

    That’s the excuse for civil terror. Civil war preaching. Out of control. Scary.
    They are coming to NZ in October (for practice maneouvres of their Offensive Forces).

  11. Gabby 11
    30 June 2017 at 7:49 pm

    ‘They’ will be arming themselves now.

  12. Guerilla Surgeon 12
    1 July 2017 at 9:32 am

    Comparing Hunting and Fishing New Zealand to the NRA is a bit on the nose. The former is a lobby group for people who like hunting and fishing, the latter is a shill for gun manufacturers, whose existence depends on stirring up enough fear so that more Americans will buy guns. Actually not more people so much as the people who already have them will buy more.

    • RedLogix 12.1
      1 July 2017 at 10:02 am

      Fair enough up to a point; but I think the OP was not so much comparing Hunting and Fishing with the NRA, as making a contrast. Indeed it would be quite unimaginable for H&F to release such material.

      At least that’s how I read it.

  14. Rae 14
    2 July 2017 at 5:37 pm

    You’d have to wonder why they feel the need to get all prickly about immigrants, I mean, seriously, who in their right mind would want to get INTO that fucking insane asylum, aka USA.