There’s Videos, and Then There’s Videos

t0hqzuxrhiifdkba5gej

Gosh, Dana Loesch is really outraged by doctored videos, isn’t she? Well, no, actually. The right-wing radio mouthpiece didn’t seem to have a problem with the doctored videos targeting Planned Parenthood — she even praised their supposedly revelatory nature. But when someone released a doctored video that featured her, she went apeshit.

Granted, it was a different ball of wax altogether; the Planned Parenthood videos were presented as being accurate, whereas the cartoonish video of her  apparently shooting herself was an obvious satirical riff on her (rather deranged) pimping video for the NRA — a playful but blunt reminder of what happens when people play with guns.

Now you could always call this video unfunny and in questionable taste if you like (I might tend to agree on at least the latter point). But Loesch wasn’t satisfied with that. She tabbed it as a threat to her life, and a typical gesture by gun-grabbing librulz; she even contacted the FBI. See if you can follow the logic here: Them librulz hate her because they hate guns and she loves guns. So they want to kill her using some of those guns they hate. One of the big problems with firearms is you don’t have to be particularly bright to own one.

She even thought it pertinent to point out that she’s a mother, which didn’t seem to stop her from hawking a product that kills thousands of children every year; yet her own children apparently are supposed to be an impenetrable shield against anyone illustrating the very real consequences of her actions.

Loesch posted the clip online, and her fan base took the bait, denouncing it as “sick”, “disgusting”, “hateful”, and entirely typical of them librulz. (And by the way, it wasn’t nearly as “grisly” or “graphic” as they all proclaim, but only implies the gunster shooting herself in the head, by a splatter of obviously fake blood.) None of them have seemed particularly outraged about her own sick, disgusting and hateful allegation that Planned Parenthood is “selling black market baby parts”.  And few if any of them have shown any outrage over reports that Trayvon Martin’s killer boastingly posted a photo of his trophy kill. But if you dare impugn The Almighty Gun, all hell breaks loose. As one commentator so succinctly put it:

People tweet gun related violence threats against government and President Obama on a daily basis, but nobody on the right cares. One spoof video and everybody loses their minds.

Let’s emphasize that whatever you may think of the video, it was the work of one person. It did not represent the “gun control” movement or any other group. Yet Loesch and her drones did their best to dishonestly link it to Moms Demand Action. And they proclaimed in loud and unanimous chorus that it was a tactic typical of gun-grabbers and librulz in general. (This is an example of conflating a small number with a large number, as discussed in a previous post.)

In short, this episode serves to illustrate a sobering and inescapable fact: the rabidly delusional, toxically polarized, shoot-first-and-ask-questions-never mentality pervading the gun culture is what makes gun ownership in America such a problematic and deadly proposition.

 

2 comments

  1. Personally, in today’s political environment I don’t blame anyone for being spooked by any video, even one obviously not real, because the possibility exists that some kook somewhere will act on that video. But you’re right that a completely double standard exists in regards to all of the violent threats made against liberals who support unwanted policies that conservative find offensive. However if one has to pick which group is more deceitful and dishonest, conservative Republicans and Tea Partier win the contest hands down.

    I have been recently upset by the latest propaganda effort to accuse PP clinics of doing terrible things to fetus’s (falsely), since virtually all of the fact finding websites have found no real instances of the atrocities claimed. Yet those on website commenting threads who automatically believe the worst about anything liberals support, are virtually foaming at the mouth over the latest evil and unethical activities of those damn liberals. One commenter included a link to an approximately ten minute video that was made by the muckraking group that is very skilled at creating the very same muck that they rake. In the film, called (I think), “Human capital,” I saw a very UNDERDEVELOPED fetus which may have been the result of a miscarriage rather than an abortion. Its legs moved slightly a few times, but no one tapped its heart to keep it alive and it was not “kicking and screaming” as Fiorina claimed. those who defend the video anyway, will probably mention that this group recorded many hours of videos, some of which do show the scene they describe, but fact checking websites have watched every second of those videos and at the most, can only verify that stock footage of a similar scene was shown, but it was not recorded in a PP clinic, and was therefore not verifiable as being authentic.

    The real crime is not that anyone freaks out over videos which are not even intended to create the impression that they are real—it’s the narrow minded tunnel vision displayed by those who will not fess up to the many lies they have spread just to discredit the political groups which they are busy lying about. Instead, they doggedly try and persuade voters to believe that liberal Democrats are actually capable of such infamy.

    I sympathize when Sarah Palin’s daughter becomes the brunt of cruel jokes, but I don’t sympathize with those who create outrageous myths such as the existence of government death panels, or, who falsely claim that President Obama was not born in America. Even when these allegations are proved false, it seems their motivation for keeping up these lie, is that the end justifies the means, and many Republicans only respond by convincing voters they are virtuous by doubling down on their lies.

    I haven’t yet heard about this incident involving Dana Loesch, but it certainly bolsters the observation that due to political greed, truth is being portrayed as meaningless, especially by those who are very adept at spreading lies, to promote their own political views.

    If we learn anything at all, it should be that the truth is sorely needed if free people are to make informed decisions, and that, news outlet need to have the balls to begin rejecting false reporting and stories that are built on obvious lies—as they so far have refused to do concerning our, Communist, Socialist, atheistic Muslim, anti-colonial Nazi President. Sheesh!

    If we don’t have access to verifiable and accurate information, the siren songs of power hungry, Greedy opportunists, will dash our fragile freedoms onto the rocks, and we will eventually ruin this democracy.

    The sad thing about such propaganda, is that it’s supported by some of the wealthiest billionaires in America, or, in the world—(we don’t know because full disclosure of funding sources are not required by law)? And when the airwaves waves are dominated by deceitful ads which just aren’t true, it becomes very possible for such groups to persuade significant numbers of voters, to vote against their own interests.

    This is another good one POP which poses many questions and observations that we all need to consider!

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s