Look around you.
Kids are going to school, people making coffee, going off to work, mowing their lawns.
People are happy and honest, helpful and law abiding.
IGNORE THAT REALITY. Please substitute that reality for this video.
Eat up the lies and poop out the fear and paranoia.
Because the best America is one in which we are all angry porcupines, quills out, and terrified.
But to for this happen, you must IGNORE the REALITY of your life and substitute your actual day to day experience with this video.
This ad tell us that "It takes a special kind of courage to reject the world that is around you."
Right.
Free Dumb.
Oh, and that "5 million member" line at the end? Complete bullshit.
The real membership of the NRA is less than half this. We know because the NRA mails their magazine to every member, and their circulation is audited by the Alliance for Audited Media. And guess what? A lot of those 1 million "life members" that the NRA claims that are actually dead. Or, as former NRA board member David Gross has noted, "There just isn't that much incentive to go find out when someone passes away, not when the cost of maintaining (a dead member) is minimal and when they add to your membership list."
Right. Liar, liar, pants on fire.
NRA membership is rarely presented against any kind of scale, so let me do that.
AARP mails their publication to over 22 million people.
Game Informer (a video game magazine) mails to 7.8 million people.
Prevention magazine mails to 2.8 million people.
In a country in which 14.6 million people hunt, more than 83 percent of those people are NOT NRA members, and many NRA members are not hunters at all, but testosterone-depleted Walter Mitty types.
But set that aside.
Consider the fact that in their introductory video, one of the first things the NRA does is lie to us about itself.
NRA and PETA and HSUS are all one and the same -- direct mail liars for hire. Kick them all to the curb.
8 comments:
Aside that I am actually quite in favour of gun ownership, I do agree that spreading fear seems thick as two short planks nailed together.
Incidentally, when the ad claims that 'everybody is corrupt', the logical segue is that the three speakers in the ad are corrupt and so is every member of the NRA, right?
In addition another logical inconsistency is that the ad points out that there are problems in the US of A but fails to logically justify why (1) owning a gun or (2) joining the NRA is in any way connected with being one of the few good guys (which cannot exist given the 'everybody is corrupt' statement). I particularly liked the use of firefighters images, because firefighters actually do not carry guns in their work (that is, the NRA is saying 'at least some of the good guys we should aspire to be are not armed')
I am heartened to see that 83% of hunters are not NRA members, it gives me some hope gun ownership could be discussed in an adult manner by somebody!
You nailed it Federico!
Nailed it on every point.
I cannot add a thing, other than to say that I too am for gun ownership. See >> http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2007/11/liberal-case-for-gun-ownership.html
But, as you state so well, are guns the proper response to anything decried in this ad?
Nope.
What you have here is simply full on stream-of-consciousness paranoia tied to jingoistic pictures.
This is ham-fisted and poorly-thought out manipulation of people.
And what it tells you is that the NRA thinks their audience are poorly informed, not self-aware, and easily manipulated. Or, as they said in "Blazing Saddles" -- "... simple farmers... people of the land... common clay of the new West... morons."
Not to mention that most of the NRA members I know are members because their range requires it and in turn the range requires it because they need the range insurance provided by the NRA.
Have you read Richard Feldman's book: Ricochet: Confessions of a gun lobbyist?
I'd recommend it, as it yanks back the cover revealing the slimy tactics the NRA uses to maintain control of their HUGE money machine.
Eye opener for sure.
I have not, but sounds like a good read.
Book availble on Amazon >> http://www.amazon.com/Ricochet-Confessions-Lobbyist-Richard-Feldman/dp/0471679283
From the inside flap:
"In Ricochet, a onetime NRA lobbyist and avid Second Amendment defender unmasks the inner workings, influence, and goals of this highly secretive political behemoth. From internecine warfare, media manipulation, and executive bankrolling to gun control bills and school massacres, Richard Feldman, former NRA regional political director and lobbyist for the firearm industry, exposes the NRA as a cynical, mercenary political cult obsessed with wielding power while exploiting members' fear in order to maximize contributions.
"Among the many dirty little secrets that Feldman exposes are the phenomenal salaries received by CEO Wayne LaPierre and other high-ranking NRA officials. These generous remunerations, which place NRA executives among the highest-paid officials of any tax-exempt organization, are funded by biannual "crisis du jour" fund-raising drives, in which members are exhorted to donate additional funds to fend off the latest alleged threat to their Second Amendment rights.
"Looking back over his long association with the NRA, Feldman reveals the inside stories behind the organization's responses to the Bernie Goetz subway shootings, the Assault Weapons Ban, gun control legislation, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Long Island Railroad shootings, and Feldman's own voluntary gun-lock agreement. He explains how the NRA's inflexible positions have placed the nation's most prominent representative of law-abiding gun owners in increasing opposition to law enforcement, gun makers, and moderate Republicans. The upshot is that the NRA is not an effective advocate for its members' interests. Obsessed with fund-raising, scare-mongering, and wielding political power, NRA leadership undermines commonsense solutions that would protect gun-owners' rights while reducing accidental shootings and gun violence.
"Ricochet is not for gun control advocates: It is a wake-up call for gun owners who cherish their Second Amendment rights. The message is that the NRA has betrayed your trust, misused your hard-earned donations, and strengthened the hand of those who would take your guns away. Read this hard-hitting exposé to discover how this has happened and what you can do about it."
Bottom line: Bullseye!
I'm the NRA and I don't receive a magazine in the mail. A lot of us toothless hillbilly types subscribe to the online editions . Add to the list the households with multiple memberships.
Sorry Verlon, but the Alliance for Audited Media does both digital and print audits, (see http://www.auditedmedia.com/ ), and I was MORE than generous with that 2.5 million number.
In fact, the NRA’s actual membership numbers are not anywhere near that high.
The “Big Brag” of the NRA (as told by a right wing lunatic site that I have no doubt you will salute for its veracity >> http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2014/02/06/NRA-Mag-Replaces-Maxim-In-Magazine-Top-25 ) is that “American Rifleman” has risen from a print run of 1.7 million to 2.2 million to beat out Maxim (a titty magazine).
You can compare the NRA numbers for last year (when “American Rifleman” did not make the top-25 list) with other organizations like the American Legion (which did) and magazines like “Woman's Day”. >> http://www.auditedmedia.com/news/blog/2013/february/top-25-us-consumer-magazines-by-total-paid-and-verified-circulation.aspx
Total online subscriptions for ALL magazines, by the way , is very low -- 2.5 to 3 percent. If we add 4 percent to the NRA print run (to be generous) of 2.2 million, we get 2.288 million subscribers (assuming they are all alive). That's 212,000 people, LESS than what I reported.
So, to put a point on it, the NRA is a BIGGER LIAR that I said they were.
Thanks for helping make that point!
In other news, the state with the most toothless people actually IS the hillbilly state of West Virginia, with 42.8 percent of the population over age 65 not having a single tooth in their head. Next up was Kentucky (38.1%). See >> http://www.statemaster.com/graph/hea_ora_hea_los_of_nat_tee-health-oral-loss-natural-teeth
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