Posted on 01/07/2020 1:00:11 PM PST by Perseverando
Richmond: The Mother of All Buffalo Jumps
The more I ponder the mass demonstration being promoted by the Virginia Citizens Defense League for the annual Lobby Day at the Richmond Capitol, the more it looks like a disaster in the making. I wish it were otherwise, but I see many times more downside risk than possible upside benefit.
Even if Virginia Senate Bill 16 is passed, banning nearly all semi-automatic firearms, the new law will be challenged in court, and given the potential dire outcomes, the case will rapidly ascend to the SCOTUS. This process will take years, and Governor Ralph Northam and the Democrat majority in the legislature may be voted out in the meantime, and the law overturned. So why, before all that happens, go charging into Richmond in just a few weeks? Will rabidly anti-gun urban Democrats be convinced to change their minds because of a mass rally by their despised deplorable enemies? Not a chance. Instead, it will only harden their resolve. Now let’s look at the downside risks, which I have divided into overlapping scenarios, from best to worst case.
Scenario 1: Best Case
Even if nobody is seriously injured on January 20, some percentage of the Second Amendment crowd (or anti-gun trolls posing as such in order to discredit them) will show up wearing camouflage while waving long guns, Confederate battle flags, and, as in Charlottesville, even some Nazi swastika flags. No matter what the VCDL intends, this fringe element will become the national media image of the entire event. And trust me, these morons and bad actors will show up in Richmond. Believe it or not, there is actually a lunatic element that considers Charlottesville to have been a victory for the far right, “because now everybody knows we’re here to fight!”
(Excerpt) Read more at americanpartisan.org ...
As do I.
You are correct.
And the results will be the same.
Not at all. It is called picking your battles and living to fight another day. It is also called never fighting on the enemy’s terms. And knowing your enemy. No matter how many attend, it will not influence the politicians because they do not give a damn what you think. It will give them opportunity to stage incidents to allow the media to turn public opinion against supporters of the Second Amendment Nationwide and President Trump.
You are correct on that.
Amen! He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day.
I trust your judgment totally.
You have not learned the lesson of C-ville, because the lesson of C-ville is DON’T GO THERE, where enemies will control the outcome.
No matter your wonderful intentions, your enemies also get a vote, up to and possibly including a false flag shooting to be blamed on the 2A crowd of “crazy dangerous gun nuts.”
Your intentions going in will have NOTHING to do with the national image after the fact.
“Don’t worry, this time we’ll do Pickett’s Charge right, because we have a better general leading us.”
Sheesh.
“If this is not enough to stop our side from being ostracized, I guess we can just hang up our belts and give up, because effectively the antifa and media will have driven us out of the public square entirely.”
The “public square” in Richmond in 2020 is ENEMY TERRITORY, 100% controlled by people who HATE YOUR GUTS and would love nothing better than to engineer and stage-manage C-ville X 10.
No matter how noble your intentions going in.
You remind me of a wagon train of Quakers heading through Comanche territory, convinced that the love of the good Lord and your pure hearts will keep you all safe.
Good grief.
Please see and read 100, I agree with him 100%.
>>>I believe Charlottesville - how the disaster was first caused by the left/our enemies, and how the subsequent narrative was then so forcefully shaped by these same enemies - is a key factor that tipped the scales leading to the dhimmicrat victories that now see Virginia local government in their control. No Charlottesville; no Northam or dhimmi control of the legislature.
In other words, they caused it, they capitalized upon it; and I think people in VA were alarmed by how ugly the Right was painted post-Charlottesville... and subsequently voted for the party that propagandized themselves as “the anti Alt-Right”.<<<<
I agree 100%, and we are walking right into a set trap that could be C-ville X 10 on an even bigger scale if their is shooting like happened at Twin Peaks.
“Real men”
You mean, “Stupid buffaloes taking the bait and stampeding toward a cliff in the heart of enemy territory.”
But your response makes my point. Richmond is, last I looked, part of the United States, and part of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
If we can be intimidated into vacating that public square, what is the point? The idea of making a stand is to actually make a stand, not sit in your back yard and hold a protest that nobody will see or care about, because it is safe and nobody will bother you.
Meanwhile, while you have a belief that Richmond is 100% controlled by enemies, the people who are organizing the lobby day insist they are in constant communication with the police and other departments, and that there is no animosity, and all are dedicated to NOT having a repeat of Charlottesville, where of course the organizers were there specifically to cause trouble, and the police decided to keep out of the way and allow bad things to happen.
You could well be right that the lobby day will turn out badly. But frankly, your argument would apply equally to a call to cancel the right-to-life rallies in DC, since DC clearly is controlled by our enemies, and they could infiltrate the event and cause trouble. I mean, look what happened to the Covington kids.
Except while they TRIED that, we were smarter this time, the kids were controlled, didn’t take the bait, and the attempt to paint that as another charlottesville turned out badly for the other side.
Why do you think that the white supremist organizer of charlottesville, who essentially lied and obfuscated the true purpose in order to make it look like it was just the standard republican protest over removing a statute, had absolutely nothing to do with the violence that we were then smeared with?
Sure, Antifa caused a lot of violence, and got away with it, but that is in part because the main group on “our” side wasn’t on our side, they were on their own side trying to stir up violence so they could respond, and then they had a guy run over protesters with his car.
We know we don’t get a fair shake. But the difference is that, when the democrats accuse us of spitting on them (like in DC that one time), we have proof we didn’t do it, rather than statements by people on our side that they were hoping to get the chance.
Well, I guess the point is that rather being intimidated about vacating *the* (general) public square, it's much more prudent to concede *a* (specific) public square in enemy territory.
The USA spent 2.5 years amassing an invasion force in allied territory during WWII. We let the Nazis be Nazis (ie controlling "their" public square), until we were strong enough to contest the territory.
Likewise, the battle for control of the USA should follow the type of sage advice Matt is offering here. That is, consolidate, build & expand from strength; don't let ego lead making serious judgment errors about tactical and strategic realities of this fight.
The steps in this dance are so obvious I could have written them years ago.
In fact, I did.
The latest step:
Virginia lawmakers ban guns at state Capitol
Your good intentions won’t mean jack sh!t. Your knowledge of VA “law” (sic) or the U.S. Constitution won’t mean jack either. The cop on the street will just stare at you like a cow at a passing train.
What matters is a very self-righteous good-hearted well-intentioned buffalo herd is being stage managed into stampeding right off a cliff, and they haven’t got the slightest clue.
Your comments are all the proof I need, but unfortunately, you are just one buffalo of a herd of thousands, and none will listen.
Very sad for our side, because the entire stage-managed Richmond disaster is going to be squarely laid on the laps of “crazy dangerous white-nationalist right-wing gun-nut lunatics,” and it will be Exhibit #1 to non-shooters of why more gun control is absolutely necessary.
It will be a 180* ricochet backfire at our own side from your best intentions.
And it’s so goddamm foreseeable that is just makes me want to tear my hair out.
Run, buffalo, run! Be brave! Don’t listen about that cliff ahead!
Good god, we are doomed, with such a stupid herd-mind.
who shapes the narrative, CW? let’s call it 95% the left, 5% the Good Guys... and I might be exaggerating our side.
Take Covington - the boys, our side was lucky to have folks around with smartphones, filming from different angles - and they were filming a discreet, singular event, lasting a couple of minutes. But even then our side of the event wasn’t generally heard by the public until the left had a full news cycle of painting it as another right-wing crime.
Now, I think you’ll agree with me that “hope and practice for the best; prepare for the worst” is a universal wisdom. So Contrast the above Covington narrative description - discreet event, no violence, no fast panning screenshots, nobody screaming out in panic - with a worst case scenario in Richmond. It’s common sense, brother; once shit gets ugly and blood is spilled, people will not view the event through the same lens as they did Covington.
Let me ask you then - assume bad shit happens in Richmond, what’s the reaction plan? What do you think our teams should be prepared to do? What comms plan has been set up by VCDL to respond to any shitstorm rising up, as quickly, safely and calmly as possible - and who on our side is going to be running audio visual teams recording everything, then who on our side is prepared to create a coherent, understandable A/V package that can be provided to the public to countermand the inevitable negative propaganda from the enemy? For that matter, who has organized mass media that will present “our” side of the event? Who has access to a transmission medium that can reach the greatest number possible of viewers, numbers that can be impactful... numbers that can turn the tide against a negative narrative?
And assume you get all the above ducks lined up nice and neat, a tight package that clearly shows our folks comported themselves in commendable manner - the odds still favor the left that their message will drown out ours.
And you know why, CW; we all do. Emotions rule in these sorts of confrontations. Fear is more powerful than Reason, especially in the first few info-cycles. Reason can still win, but it will take time. Time during which the negative narrative imprints in the mass mind.
The enemy knows this - why do you think our very own suckass Chris Murphy of CT - when there have been mass shootings in gun free zones - immediately jumps in front of the cameras, literally dancing in the blood of the fallen innocents, preying upon the wrenching agony of the survivors of the fallen? For the above reasons, CW.
Our side has plenty of brave souls; we need patient ones, too. Build up the strength of the sanctuary counties; train; challenge everything in court, initiate recalls for every politician that votes for these crimes.
Meet the enemy on ground of our choosing.
CGVet58
Anyone going into enemy territory is not thinking strategically. Going into Richmond will be seen as aggressive. The enemy has stated they will go into the counties of Virginia, so let them and fight them there. Make them the aggressors and the violent ones, then use home field advantage against them.
Speaking of videos...
EVERY ATTENDEE should have fully charged batteries in their phones and video every step of the way and every angle possible during the entire event.
Personally, I agree with Matt about the potential for a setup by bad actors, or an innocent minor event which could light a fuse that would mark a beginning for a propaganda nightmare.
If you go, video everything.
Me, I’m not on the area and unable to express my 2a voice, but would weigh VERY carefully, my decision to attend. Probably not wise. This is much different than other events and the left (in the forum of both civilian and IA groups) would LOVE to ff the event to set up a narrative.
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