NRA Issues Call for White Supremacy and Armed Insurrection
Saturday, July 01, 2017
By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship, Moyers & Company | News Analysis
A demonstrator from CodePink holds up a banner as National Rifle Association
Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre delivers remarks during a news
conference at the Willard Hotel December 21, 2012 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
Take a look at the ad below and ask whether the National Rifle Association
can go any lower. Ponder this flagrant call for violence, this insidious
advocacy of hate delivered with a sneer, this threat of civil war, this
despicable use of propaganda to arouse rebellion against the rule of law and
the ideals of democracy.
On the surface this is a recruitment video for the National Rifle
Association. But what you are really about to see is a call for white
supremacy and armed insurrection, each word and image deliberately chosen to
stir the feral instincts of troubled souls who lash out in anger and fear:
Disgusting. Dishonorable. Dangerous. But also deliberate. Everything
deplored by the NRA in the ad is committed by "they" -- a classic
manipulation turning anyone who disagrees with your point of view into "The
Other" -- something alien, evil, foreign.
This is part of the dialogue in the video - Miriam
"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 comedy shows and award shows to repeat their
narrative over and over again."
"And then they use their ex-president to endorse the resistance."
End of portion of vide
Well, we all know who "they" are, don't we? This is the vitriol that has
been spewed like garbage since the days of The Protocols of the Elders of
Zion, blasted from lynch mobs and demagogues and fascistic factions of
political parties that turn racial and religious minorities into grotesque
caricatures, the better to demean and diminish and dominate.
It is the nature of such malevolent human beings to hate those whom they
have injured, and the NRA has enabled more injury to more marginalized and
vulnerable people than can be imagined. Note how the words "guns" or
"firearms" are never mentioned once in the ad and yet we know that the NRA
is death on steroids. And behind it are the arms merchants -- the gun makers
and gun sellers -- who profit from selling automatic rifles to people who
shoot down politicians playing intramural baseball, or slaughter children in
their classrooms in schools named Sandy Hook, or who massacre black folks at
Bible study in a Charleston church, or murderously infiltrate a gay
nightclub in Orlando.
Watching this expertly produced ad, we thought of how the Nazis produced
slick propaganda like this to demonize the Jews, round up Romani people and
homosexuals, foment mobs, burn books, crush critics, justify torture and
incite support for state violence.
It's the crack in the Liberty Bell, this ad: the dropped stitch in the
American flag, the dregs at the bottom of the cup of freedom. It's a
Trump-sized lie invoked to bolster his base, discredit critics, end dissent.
Joseph McCarthy must be smiling in hell at such a powerful incarnation on
earth of his wretched, twisted soul.
With this ad, every Democrat, every liberal, every person of color, every
immigrant or anyone who carries a protest sign or raises a voice in
disagreement becomes a target in the mind of some tormented viewer. Heavily
armed Americans are encouraged to lock and load and be ready for the
ballistic solution to any who oppose the systematic looting of Washington by
an authoritarian regime led by a deeply disturbed barracuda of a man who
tweets personal insults, throws tantrums and degrades everything he touches.
Look again at the ad. Ask yourself: What kind of fools are they at the NRA
to turn America into a killing ground for sport? To be choked with hate is
a terrible fate, and it is worst for those on whom it is visited.
Take one more look, and ask: Why do they get away with it? What is
happening to us? How long do we have before the fire this time?
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not
be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
Michael Winship
Michael Winship is an Emmy Award-winning writer, and served as senior writer
of the public television series, "Moyers & Company." He is also a senior
writing fellow at the public policy and advocacy group Demos, and the
president of Writers Guild of America, East.
Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers is the managing editor of Moyers & Company and BillMoyers.com.
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