WHAT: An ad that urges gun enthusiasts to draw battle lines for the coming culture wars.
WHO: The NRA.
WHY WE CARE: After spending the entirety of Obama’s two terms falsely claiming that the president wanted to take the nation’s guns away, the NRA now has a new cause: defending Donald Trump, who cares about domestic gun violence only in terms of his Islamophobic agenda.
The NRA’s latest ad conveniently ignores the fact that Trump’s easing of Obama-era gun restrictions can only increase the rampant gun violence in America, and instead goes on the offensive against… Trump’s opposition. The ad features a woman speaking directly to camera in harsh tones about the rising tide of left-leaning liberals terrorizing the country and everything its (REAL) citizens hold dear. While the ad stops short of advocating actual violence, it has the feel of a rallying cry, inciting patriotic viewers to keep the wolf at the door with extreme prejudice. It is a wildly irresponsible ad designed to make gun-loving Trump supporters feel under attack and ready to lash out.
Let’s go through it line by line:
“They use their media to assassinate real news.”
Right off the bat, in one line, the ad establishes: a) there are two kinds of news, real and fake, b) any news without a right-leaning slant is among the latter category, and c) assassination is something the left apparently endorses.
“They use their schools to teach children that the president is another Hitler.”
Wait, so the left OWNS SCHOOLS now? And they contain teachers who stridently explain to students that the President of the United States is Hitler? I’ve read a lot about racist teachers getting fired since the election, but not about this.
“They use their movie stars and singers and comedy shows to repeat their narrative over and over again.”
Yeah, it’s almost as if an extremely high percentage of the entertainment industry happens to be on the same page about the president, a former game show host, because of his policies, crudeness, constant lying, and infinite number of other reasons beyond being activated by some vague, nefarious “they.” Also, it’s too bad the right definitely doesn’t have any sort of mechanism to get out its narrative over and over again.
“And then they use their ex-president to endorse the resistance.”
Again, who’s ‘they’? Who makes the oft-vacationing Obama do anything?
“All to make them march, make them protest, make them scream ‘racism, and sexism and xenophobia and homophobia.'”
Or maybe people are screaming those accusations because there seems to be an uptick in all of those things? And maybe calling someone racist is not the same thing as actually being racist?
“… to smash windows, burn cars, shut down interstates and airports, bully and terrorize the law-abiding. Until the only option left is for the police to do their jobs and stop the madness. And when that happens they’ll use it as an excuse for their outrage.”
This line seems to be a direct attack on the Black Lives Matter movement, which was founded on the extremely reasonable principle that police shouldn’t be allowed to kill black people without reason and get away with it. It also appears to link BLM to Antifa violence, something that far right trolls are working overtime to greatly exaggerate as a threat.
“The only way we stop this, the only way we save our country of freedom is to fight this violence of lies with the clenched fist of truth.”
Okay, except this is the National Rifle Association: why would they ever use their fists when all they need is a trigger finger?
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