The National Rifle Association has issued a video in which conservative talk radio star Dana Loesch declares war on … them. Where “them” is Americans.
They use their media to assassinate real news.
They use their schools to teach children that the president is another Hitler.
They use their movie stars, and singers, and comedy shows, 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. 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.
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.
In less than a minute, The NRA paints an America irrevocably divided between “we” and “they.” An America where the media has fallen into their hands. Where the schools are instruments of their lies. Where every action is designed to threaten “the law abiding.” Where the only way “to save our country” is strike back with a “clenched fist.”
How many of those Republican Congressmen who were calling for a reduction in rhetoric following the ballfield shooting, will step forward to condemn this video that uses that incident to call for civil war on Americans?
Since Donald Trump’s election, the organization of gun manufacturers and retailers known as the National Rifle Association has found it difficult to raise sufficient levels of paranoia. Gun sales are way down, and the highly profitable AR-15 style assault rifles that were snapped up when right wing media could simply point their cameras at a black man running the country, have been gathering dust.
How can the NRA restore sales? By convincing half of America to declare war on the other half.
Using quick cuts and black and white images, the video splices together incidents from across years and across the nation to make it appear as if America is already embroiled in a civil war. Though most of the images are of nothing but people marching or standing at protests, the fast cuts and violent language send clear signals of danger and threat.
Those images, of course, include an injured man in a Donald Trump T-shirt and a waving American flag. The injured man is from a scuffle that took place more than a year ago between groups of pro and anti Trump protesters, but in the video both the man and the flag are examples of how they are after us.
With more than 1 gun per person in the United States, and sales falling, the NRA clearly feels that they need to do something to bolster their “brand.” Civil war seems like just the ticket to sell a lot of guns. And even more ammo.