NRA seeks to mainstream and monetize the alt-rights paranoid, racist talking points

[billh58]

The "alt-right" wants America to believe violent radicals are on the attack; the NRA knows paranoia can sell guns

Whenever Donald Trump feels like he’s on the ropes, he throws himself a rally in a red state that would make Mussolini feel envious. So it was on Tuesday night in Phoenix, when Trump — furious that the media took issue with his claim that a torch-wielding mob of white supremacists was replete with “fine people” — unleashed a 75-minute rant about his own victimization to a crowd who, despite their immense love for the Bigot-in-Chief, started getting bored and drifted away.

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Trump’s conservative audiences are disturbingly comfortable with these talking points, and that’s due to a larger right-wing media infrastructure that has been pushing these notions into more mainstream conservative spaces. Earlier this week, I reported on the role that Tucker Carlson and the Daily Caller are playing in injecting more radical rhetoric into conservative discourse. But the NRA — a gun lobby that in recent years has built its own little media empire through blogs and NRATV — has also played a major role in promoting ideas that used to dwell on the fringes.

“For years, the gun lobby quietly dog-whistled to white supremacists,” said Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense In America, which is part of Everytown for Gun Safety. “But as gun sales plummet under this administration, they are now openly trafficking in paranoia and fear, and inciting violence in order to advance an increasingly radical ‘more guns for anyone, anywhere’ agenda to sell more guns.”

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“Right now, we face a gathering of forces that are willing to use violence against us,” LaPierre said. “If the violent left brings their terror to our communities, our neighborhoods or into our homes, they will be met with the resolve and the strength and the full force of American freedom in the hands of the American people. Among them and behind them are some of the most radical political elements there are. Anarchists, Marxists, communists and the whole rest of the left-wing socialist brigade.” (NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre, who gave a speech in February at the Conservative Political Action Conference warning about the rise of the “violent left.)

http://www.salon.com/2017/08/24/nra-seeks-to-mainstream-and-monetize-the-alt-rights-paranoid-racist-talking-points/

Of course the gun culture says that NRA "talking points" don't exist, but between Dana Loesch and Wayne LaPierre, the talking points jump from the screen and the page. The projection about the "violent left" is almost comical, until one realizes that the violent white supremacists and alt-right Orange Anus-Mouth obedient thugs are all too real.

These Nazi wannabes are more than willing to display their hatred and racism openly, and are itching to employ the "Second Amendment Solution" that the NRA and the Asshole-In-Chief have repeatedly called for.

[guillaumeb]

1. Fear is the prime motivator.

And fear sells guns. The NRA can no longer talk about the black man in the White House coming to take your guns, so a substitute villain must be found.

[billh58]

2. The fear that they are

promoting now is not only designed to sell more guns, but also to promote bloodshed and violence against "the other" (anyone other than white, Christian, and Republican).

[ProgressiveValue]

3. I've said this for a while now.

They are using a few real examples of ANTIFA bloodying Trump supporters from Berkeley, just after his election and a few other rallies as a broad brush that paints all protests against Trump and racism as violent.

I've seen some of their reactions online to places like Berkeley where a couple of antagonizers made the left look bad. Their reaction is along the lines of "let them come to our so and so pro gun state and try hitting us". What they are wanting is to go armed and provoke an antagonizer (who isn't really there for progressive reasons even if they think they are) without being physical, in the hopes they take a swing over words so they can shoot them. They'll claim they feared for their life and disparity of force.

I hope it doesn't happen, but if it does, the shooter may find that saying "I fear for my life" isn't a magical phrase that gets them off for murder over a punch.