The "Gun Nut" Narrative

Poletical.com ^ | February 2nd, 2013 | R. Rados

[PingPongChampion]

The word narrative is used a lot by pundits, journalists, and personalities to explain how media organizations create storylines and patterns to build and reinforce perceptions about certain subjects and people. One of the common narratives is that gun advocates and proponents of the 2nd Amendment are insane. The only major American televised news network that doesn't feed this narrative is Fox News (they feed their own narratives). There is no better way to keep the “gun nut” narrative relevant than by exhibiting the utter madness of America's right wing. By exhibiting Alex Jones' lunacy on live television and subjecting viewers to what was the equivalent of a clinical meltdown, Piers Morgan was able to link paranoid conspiracies and insanity to the 2nd Amendment. In one single moment, CNN was granted a reel of footage that could be played over and over again, be linked to other gun advocates, and be used as an example of why people shouldn't own guns.

[Old Sarge]

Alex Jones and Infowars is the case study of “stopped clock is right twice a day”.

[cripplecreek]

I’d say he’s often right and almost never credible.

[gaijin]

The substance of what he says is spot-on. It’s just the histrionics of HOW he says it that can get him into trouble.

His fans love it when he screams because they (and I) feel trampled on; when he screams, they feel like they’re screaming THROUGH him.

I don’t think he cares when he gives ammo to the other side -it brings ratings, and that’s what he wants. Sort of like Savage.

I do listen to Jones, sometimes.

If the media genuinely questioned authority then Alex Jones would not have a job. My prediction is that he thrive even more, in the future.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

The Gun Nut (1500s)

I am an upright citizen.
I cannot stand the smell of powder even.
Yet I own all kinds of weapons,
Bringing me but few laudations.
Since I know not how to use them,
Just to see that rust does not suffuse them.

[Noumenon]

You know things are gettign wierd when Alex Jones starts to make sense.

[MtnClimber]

They are really against the “Freedom Nuts”. Freedom and guns are baa baa bad they bleat.

[Yardstick]

ABC radio news just gleefully reported the gun range killing of the sniper guy. They emphasized that he was a supporter of gun rights. They followed that with a report on the “anti government” nut who’s got the little boy held hostage in Alabama. Their intent is obvious and it drives me up a wall.

[Monorprise]

The trouble is while theses things get him attention and ratings it also helps the left undermine and label as extremist the very legitimate causes he sometimes touches on.

[Monorprise]

I never imagined a press core could be so completely in the tank for a particular agenda.

You would think they would at least make some serous efforts to appear more balanced.

[paratrooper82]

“. . .The only major American televised news network that doesn't feed this narrative is Fox News (they feed their own narratives).” You did not watch the Fox News Sunday with chrissy Wallace where Mr. Wallace interviewed Wayne LaPeirre of the NRA? Mr. Wallace treated him like he was some kind of a “nut” not to mention that Mr. Wallace stated: the Heller case was a great victory for the NRA!” Hey asshat Wallace, the Heller decision was a great victory for the American people!

Will NEVER watch Fox News Sunday with Chrissy Wallace again!

[DuncanWaring]

“Ministry of Truth”.

[FunkyZero]

I think it is important to not miss the prevalent message here: the media is to blame.

Leftists scream bloody murder about Fox news, but Fox news only exists due to decades of one-sided leftist media with no one to counter or call them out.

Leftists scream bloody murder about mass killings and blame the guns, but if media refused to politicize or make the stores and names infamous, most of these guys would likely have never done what they did.

Leftist media created rush. Leftist media created Alex Jones. Leftist media created the Tea Party. There would be absolutely no demand for any of these personalities or outlets if the media had done their jobs properly.

Think about it: If the NBC and CBS of yesteryear had remained 100% unbiased and reported 100% truth, 100% of the time and covered stories and politics regardless who they made look bad, why would anyone want to look anywhere else for news? Who would trust a media outlet that campaigns for a particular party? Fox news is the same to me, I tend to watch them because I get at least SOME impartial coverage, but I still don't trust them for absolute truth. I've heard Fox refer to (along with all the other outlets) certain mass killings as "the worst in history". They can't even be bothered to be thorough. Has a single person EVER heard of the Bath school disaster in 1927? Of course not, because this has to be about guns, not crazy people. Oddly enough, that killer had free access to cheap, fully automatic machine guns in 1927, but guess what? He didn't use one.

There isn't a single outlet or politician in existence today that has the USA's best interests in mind above all. It is downright despicable to hear a politician attempt to belittle ANY American citizen, let alone HALF of them in huge lumps based solely on political affiliation. The President of my country has openly called me names, some of them downright filthy.

Our entire system is sick. Just go to the DU site and read for 5 minutes. It will absolutely turn your stomach. Some Freepers aren't much better unfortunately.

And to the likes of ashwholes like Peirce Morgan, all I have to say is this; If you have to be dishonest with statistics and tell half-truths to promote an agenda, what kind of person does that make you and just how valid is your position if this is the only way you can sell it? I mean really... I don't even want to hear you refer to it as "The Constitution", you asshat, it's OUR constitution, you don't even belong here. Why are you on TV in America pimping socialism anyway? As far as I'm concerned, your an enemy propagandist and need to be locked up or deported.

Sorry for writing a book, I'm just getting seriously fed up with everything and everyone in this country. Most people have lost focus and a good portion of them know it and don't care. Our country is sick and it looks to me as if it will succumb to it's illness in the very near future. What a terrible waste of 200+ years of hard work and success, only to be lost to an internal invasion of idiocy that lacks any common sense or ethic.

[3Fingas]

Nothing but an attempt to marginalize supporters of the 2nd Amendment. If you want to discredit an idea, give its advocates a disparaging name. This is a puerile form of propaganda that can be effective with low-information voters.

[lentulusgracchus]

I’d say he’s often right and almost never credible.

Which is what the Left has in mind for all of us.

Classic case-in-point: Sen. Joe McCarthy, who was right as rain, and whom the liberals and Communists joined forces to drive out of the Senate and into his grave before his 50th birthday. His penalty for getting in the way of the liberal agenda, which was so important that the sanity and life of a single senator, and the presence of over 250 documented Soviet spies active in the Truman Administration, just couldn't be allowed to louse things up, was alcoholism, madness, and an early death.

[lentulusgracchus]

If you want to discredit an idea, give its advocates a disparaging name. This is a puerile form of propaganda that can be effective with low-information voters.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, in The Gulag Archipelago, documents how Stalin always preceded pogroms with campaigns of invective and name-calling directed toward his intended victims, whether it was steppe tribes he intended to strip of their gold or kulaks he intended to murder for their farms and their crops -- and their freedom.

We're about to find out how much Stalin that Barack Obama has in him.

[Yosemitest]

You know, LIBERAL ARE CRAZY!
You should read excerpts from The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness, by Lyle H. Rossiter, Jr., M.D..
Watch 3 minutes 44 seconds of Youtube.com at BREAKING! Professional PROOF! Liberals Are Mentally ILL!".

We must use the Liberals Laws against them. Read Background Checks and Criminals' Sources of Guns and find the tools the liberals want to use against conservatives.
It's time we used their laws against these certifiably "mentally defective" liberals.
We know that most liberal use drugs and several have been dishonorably discharged from the military.
Some liberals are subject to certain restraining orders, or some have been convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor.
A few liberals have even their U.S. citizenship.

Remember:

• It is illegal and punishable by up to 10 years in prison for the following people to receive, possess, or transport any firearm or ammunition:

someone convicted of or under indictment for a felony punishable by more than one year in prison,

someone convicted of a misdemeanor punishable by more than two years in prison, a fugitive from justice,

an unlawful user of any controlled substance,

someone who has been ruled as mentally defective or has been committed to any mental institution,

an illegal alien,

someone dishonorably discharged from the military,

someone who has renounced his or her U.S. citizenship,

someone subject to certain restraining orders,

or someone convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor.

Let's get them on a list and take away their guns and their security/body guards.

[stevie_d_64]

“Their intent is obvious and it drives me up a wall.”

Then you need to cool off...Seriously...You are better than this!!!

But you don’t have to listen or do what I say...That is your right...

But understand this, now is not the time to fly off the handle, that is what they want you to do...If you are just venting steam, then I can dig it...

When it is time to take action, it should not be done in anger, or hatred...It take precision, and cleverness that will win the day, and it might not take a single shot to do this...

Do something that makes you happy these days, take you mind off this nonsense, it will certainly be here when you get back, it ain’t going away, so find a way to challenge yourself to be able to turn this stuff off, but always remember that cooler, more mature heads WILL prevail...

Check yer FReepmail...

[itsahoot]

but always remember that cooler, more mature heads WILL prevail...

Heads are always cooler after this.