I don’t know about that. When it came out that their executives had been ripping off the NRA members one of my pro-gun friends did mental gymnastics to frame it as something that wasn’t bad.
There is the 2A left, and the people who were active in places like weekendgunnit (broadly anti government, with a lot else mixed in) on Reddit that are both very anti Russia, or at least anti Russian imperialism. So pro gun doesn’t always equate to pro conservative.
As strange as it is to say, conservatives dislike open hypocrisy as much as everyone else. They just usually are lead by the hand to a way of thinking that lets them process the open hypocrisy of their leaders in a way that doesn’t feel hypocritical, and most of them completely lack the critical thinking skills to figure it out on their own (because defunding the educational system has been conservative action item #1 for decades and now they can reap the fruits of their labor…).
But the NRA shit with russia was impossible to spin. Seriously, that was such a bad look. Even the true born-red gun nuts I know lost any respect for the NRA when it all came out.
It wasn’t even big news here, so it wouldn’t have been hard to miss if you weren’t following specifically usa political outlets. We like to hide all the juiciest drama behind the most boring court proceedings, because we suck as a country.
Eehng… the fraud was mostly done against other rich conservatives & the NRA members themselves, so there wasn’t much of a way to convince people it was all the fault of liberals. Plus you can’t let everyone get away with it, so just throw the most inept ones under the bus occasionally and chalk it up as an example of conservative self-regulation.
And when it comes to funded propaganda like the NRA the wealthy and powerful don’t need to discredit the organization or go out of their way to do anything other than change their donations to some other propaganda source and let the old one wither away.
The NRA was long the organization with the least wealthy members. It wasn’t money that made them powerful (though they had a lot) it was they could show their average donation was an order of magnitude less than just about anyone else. They had lots of little guys donating money and that scared politicians - money is second to votes and all those little donations meant the NRA had a lot of voters who wouldn’t be swayed by any amount of money.
The reality is that votes still matter more to politicians than money. The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) is hands down the most powerful lobby in the USA. Their power comes from their ability to get their message out to their followers who are the most likely group to vote in any election.
Yes, the NRA was originally a grassroots organization that was coopted over time. A lot of members kept their membership long after it had changed significantly, letting it keep apprmearances up.
They’ve been pretty quiet since it was revealed they’re funded by Russia.
Even the pro gun folks dislike them at this point.
I don’t know about that. When it came out that their executives had been ripping off the NRA members one of my pro-gun friends did mental gymnastics to frame it as something that wasn’t bad.
You know it would be funny if both the NRA and the SRA were Russian funded
Aren’t the pro-gun folk pro Russia?
Yes, the people who want to have guns to prevent government oppression are pro-russia.
Don’t be ignorant.
Lol they’re not doing a whole hell of a lot right now except supporting it, huh comrade?
Lemmy is fucking wild. It’s literally actual communists calling everyone else communists… Haha
No, I was actually calling the pretend anti-oppession ammosexual fascist dicksuck pro-Russia non-patriots.
Ah yes, ol’ faithful. Everyone I don’t agree with is a fascist!
Look, if you don’t want to have guns, don’t. It’s pretty easy.
Pretty sure we need them to protect us from you and your king.
Because obviously those are the only ones.
The only one, what? That makes no sense.
The only people who support 2A.
Well yeah, there’s plenty of valid reasons to own guns.
The point I’m making is that firearm owners are overwhelmingly against government oppression, and well Russia is… Well that’s kind of Russia’s thing.
There is the 2A left, and the people who were active in places like weekendgunnit (broadly anti government, with a lot else mixed in) on Reddit that are both very anti Russia, or at least anti Russian imperialism. So pro gun doesn’t always equate to pro conservative.
First time I’ve seen WG mentioned on Lemmy. Broadly anti government with a lot else mixed in is a great description lmao.
Too bad it caught a ban. The community generally did a great job at keeping the racist assholes out.
As strange as it is to say, conservatives dislike open hypocrisy as much as everyone else. They just usually are lead by the hand to a way of thinking that lets them process the open hypocrisy of their leaders in a way that doesn’t feel hypocritical, and most of them completely lack the critical thinking skills to figure it out on their own (because defunding the educational system has been conservative action item #1 for decades and now they can reap the fruits of their labor…).
But the NRA shit with russia was impossible to spin. Seriously, that was such a bad look. Even the true born-red gun nuts I know lost any respect for the NRA when it all came out.
Wow, I tuned out the USA so hard, I missed all of this.
American in deep red territory, this is the first I’ve heard of it.
It wasn’t even big news here, so it wouldn’t have been hard to miss if you weren’t following specifically usa political outlets. We like to hide all the juiciest drama behind the most boring court proceedings, because we suck as a country.
or… something like that.
My apologies for linking The Nation, but this was big news. It just happened 6 years ago.
https://apnews.com/article/d8f27546a0da4cafa64bf33ae18de629
https://www.vox.com/2019/4/30/18510946/nra-finances-lapierre-north-accusations-corruption
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/nra-corruption-lawsuit/
So weird to me that any of them would. I guess Daddy Trump wasn’t vocal enough re: the NRA for them to have their minds made up for them.
Eehng… the fraud was mostly done against other rich conservatives & the NRA members themselves, so there wasn’t much of a way to convince people it was all the fault of liberals. Plus you can’t let everyone get away with it, so just throw the most inept ones under the bus occasionally and chalk it up as an example of conservative self-regulation.
And when it comes to funded propaganda like the NRA the wealthy and powerful don’t need to discredit the organization or go out of their way to do anything other than change their donations to some other propaganda source and let the old one wither away.
The NRA was long the organization with the least wealthy members. It wasn’t money that made them powerful (though they had a lot) it was they could show their average donation was an order of magnitude less than just about anyone else. They had lots of little guys donating money and that scared politicians - money is second to votes and all those little donations meant the NRA had a lot of voters who wouldn’t be swayed by any amount of money.
The reality is that votes still matter more to politicians than money. The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) is hands down the most powerful lobby in the USA. Their power comes from their ability to get their message out to their followers who are the most likely group to vote in any election.
The NRA’s power comes from a similar place.
Yes, the NRA was originally a grassroots organization that was coopted over time. A lot of members kept their membership long after it had changed significantly, letting it keep apprmearances up.