‘Terrorist Enabling’ NRA May Have Crossed Line Between Free Speech and Illegal Incitement

[This article was supposed to run last week, just after this video was released. But, alas, I dropped the ball in publishing it for Ernie before leaving town for the week! My apologies. But, of course, it’s never too late to call out the “terrorist enabling” NRA. So, here ya go. – Brad]

By way of this deeply troubling recruitment video, Dana Loesch, the unhinged spokeswoman for the “terrorist enabling” National Rifle Association (NRA), may have crossed the line between protected free speech and unlawful incitement aimed at producing imminent violence against the many non-violent demonstrators who’ve taken to the streets as part of the resistance to the Donald Trump/GOP fascist-like, anti-egalitarian agenda.

In the video, Loesch, a former Breitbart “News” editor, who once equated feminism with advocacy for “female genocide,” attempts to erect a picture of an ominous, violent leftist threat to “law abiding citizens,” by which she means mostly white, often well-armed NRA card-carrying Trump supporters…

Utilizing out-of-context violent videos, the NRA’s Loesch deliberately paints, as ominous, violent mobs, what The New York Times describes as the “overwhelmingly nonviolent” protests that hundreds of thousands of Americans have engaged in as part of the Trump Resistance Movement.

Appealing to the oft exploited paranoid fears of the uninformed and misinformed American Right, Loesch proclaims that an undefined “they” have incited mobs “to smash windows, burn cars, shut down interstates and airports, bully and terrorize law-abiding citizens.” She proclaims: “The only way to save our country and our freedom from their lies is to fight the violence with the clenched fist of truth!” (Emphasis added).

The video was interpreted by Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson, as “an open call to violence to protect white supremacy,” The New York Times reports, adding: “Jon Favreau, a former speechwriter for President Obama, called the video “revolting and frightening.” Yet, according to the Times, Loesch insisted she was “condemning” rather than “inciting violence.” Displaying a remarkable lack of self-awareness, the NRA spokeswoman added: “I really question the reason and motive of individuals who conflate peaceful protest…with violent riots.”

In the past we’ve expressed concern about the carnage wrought by the NRA’s profit-seeking lies. But this latest video may have truly crossed the line into unlawful incitement. The call to respond with a “clenched fist” is a call directed at an overwhelmingly white and oft well-armed NRA membership. That makes this video extraordinarily dangerous, and possibly an illegal form of incitement.