Black Lives Matter has a strong response to that horrifying, fear-mongering NRA ad with Dana Loesch.
If you want to know why this is necessary, all you have to do is read the comments at YouTube. There is a scary mob of gun-loving racists on that site, that’s for sure.
I like to tell myself the vocal contingent of pro-gun nuts on the internet is out of proportion to reality but I’m not always so sure.
Holy shit you weren’t kidding about the YouTube comments. I just read down two or three pages and saw nothing but unabashed racism. Took a few minutes to downvote all the comments I saw.
I suspect that the shitcommenters have got lots more time on their hands than the rest of us…
The NRA video is so unbelievably fucked up. I don’t want to read the youtube comments. I would rage too much.
I watched both videos.
The NRA video scares the everloving shit out of me. I know I’m relatively safe as a white man, but the literal call to arms does not even have an undertone of racism; if you watch it objectively, they are calling to arm against anyone that disagrees with the NRA or the President. And, even further, the people watching the video are overtly empowered by it to make their own decision about who they should rise up against. They are told to rise against any and every protester, especially nonviolent ones. I wanted to cry at the injustice and hurt they are trying to cause.
I thought the BLM video was a fair and nuanced version of what’s happening. Then they changed the music and brought up the lights. That video at least helped take away some of the anxiety induced by the first one. It also didn’t try to make things okay, but it still makes you feel that we can all make a difference.
Either way, I still agree with PZ’s previous post: don’t come to the USA. And (not that PZ actually said this) if you’re here, you might want to try to leave, especially if you’re a person of color.
Don’t assume that the YouTube comments are real people.
The comments themselves might be (but always assume sock puppets / bots), but the upvote / downvote brigading is absolutely a troll tactic that’s been around for years. I mean, these are the same people who once controlled a Time Magazine vote to the point where the winners list spelled a joke when you read down the first column. Any public up / down / like system online is going to be gamed to within an inch of its life whenever assholes feel like it, or just as a joke. I mean, remember years ago when PZ would post internet polls for us to laugh at / own? Yeah. That’s been weaponized now.
Instead you should be asking: What is the purpose of making the comments page of this video appear to be entirely racist shitlords? What purpose did they want to achieve by making you feel like you’re surrounded by hateful racists in depressing numbers? Who gets a laugh out of this? Yeah, this is the world of 2017.
The suggested videos show a thumbnail of Tucker Carlson making the smuggest, most punchable expression in recorded history.