Sadly, one might think that the big gun-rights rally in Richmond wasn’t about guns at all. From what I can gather, seems like the only idea anyone (including many of the pro-2A activists themselves) was interested in perpetuating was the alleged “diverse” makeup of the crowd.
It’s as if only black folks were at the event, which was attended by more than 22,000 mostly white gun-rights advocates. Yet, the message went from “We will not comply!” to “See, we’re not racists!” How is this not complying with political correctness and the regime that uses it to push for gun control? You know what that’s called? Gaslighting.
Gaslighting is part of a slow and steady leftist strategy that’s been social-engineered into the collective consciousness, apparently, so effectively that even the oppressed will employee it against their best interests. And one of its most sinister symptoms is virtue signaling, a coping mechanism of far too many otherwise smart people trying to exist in our untenable cultural-Marxist reality. But we must stop being those puppets.
Since my husband and sister attended the rally, my sons and I watched live-streams all morning. I originally had the following content in my last blog post, but edited it out because I really didn’t see much of this happening:
“People will spend their valuable air time talking about ‘a few bad apples’ as to shield themselves from being linked to the three alleged white supremacists who were arrested beforehand. Their signs will advertise how ‘diverse’ legal gun-owners are (a fiction, to be sure) and how 2A is good for everyone.”
Most interviews I saw stuck to the point: that Virginia’s gun owners are under assault by the state’s leftist legislators and governor. My husband said that even though he saw many effective signs focusing solely on gun rights and self-defense, there were still too many that trivialized the issue by incorporating in Northam’s “blackface” from 35 years ago. Here’s a good sampling of the disconnect.
Yeah, if Breitbart had interviewed my husband, you could be damn sure he wouldn’t waste his time talking about blackface or racism. He’d be talking about GUNS!
And it was precisely these deflecting social-justice images that saturated conservative and libertarian media post-event. “See, we’re not racists! We’re not homophobes!” clamored the white gun owners, purposefully diverting attention way from the true injustice being inflicted upon them. Why give your enemy a red herring that works against you?
The collage above was created by a pro-gun enthusiast who felt the need to defend against racism. Anyone who goes to that extent to showcase diversity really doesn’t grasp the reality that being pro-gun is an overwhelmingly (and I’m talking 99.9999999%) white issue. Just accept it, people. Have you seen the gun owners who show up at the Sanctuary County meetings? Not a black dude to be seen, save for the very few exceptions. And that’s okay.
Moreover, if you dine out on the angle of your movement’s faux diversity, you’re going to lose. What happens at the next rally when there’s 10 black folks, instead of 12? Or none? You’ve already willingly given progressives the ammo they need to crush you by the PC standard you helped foster.
Plus, where are the photo collages and memes of my husband, the protector of his family, or my sister, a lifelong Richmonder? She’s married to a “person of color” yet wasn’t carrying a sign about that. Make no mistake, these two white folks were there to say emphatically, “We will not comply!” Period.
Some people say that my husband attending the rally unarmed was a win for government, perhaps even evidence of gaslighting. Whereas the VCDL was thinking visuals, he likened his decision to pragmatics, similar to Bundy Ranch activists who considered putting women at the front of their standoff with the BLM because they thought it lessened the chances of deadly force actually being used. Additionally, they calculated that if a blood bath had occurred, the world would consider the crime even more abhorrent had women perished at the hands of feds. That’s optics. It’s risky but serves a purpose.
Virtue signaling, on the other hand, only communicates weakness and undercuts purpose. Nigel Farage is an excellent example of how to not distract from a cause. He’s anti-EU and pro-British. He’s for decentralization and against globalism. But do we hear about how Farage is for gay marriage? Or that he has lots of black friends? Nope. Because none of that matters. Farage’s brand is Brexit, nothing else. He’s laser-focused, as he should be.
And talk about gun-owners wasting their precious political capital, some of the chants were too much to bear. Don’t the gun activists realize that “USA” is one of the entities coming for their guns?
From the mere existence of the ATF; to the regulatory reign of already-on-the books federal anti-gun laws; to growing bipartisan support for federal backing of state red-flag laws; to non-military, non-law-enforcement federal agencies stockpiling (on the federal tax-payers’ dime) huge amounts of arms, ammo and military-style equipment; I hate to break it to you, but ‘Murica is not your friend, law-abiding gun-owner man.
My husband told me the rally even involved “National Anthem” and “Pledge of Allegiance” recitations. Do VA gun-owners not understand the origin of the anti-gun movement they’re facing? Do they not get that it’s the empire who wants to disarm them?
I even heard the statist hymn “God Bless the USA” as the rally was concluding. And all the gaslight people sing, “I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free.” But are you really?
After all, it’s the immigration policy of the “glorious Union” which set the stage for gun control in the Old Dominion and beyond. Statistically speaking, “people of color,” especially immigrants, don’t like guns. Neither do women. So, you’re losing your guns specifically because of diversity! Gun rights aren’t gay rights, or women’s rights, or black rights; they’re white male rights. Gasp!
While you wax patriotic and laud the Constitution, victim-pyramid shysters use the First Amendment that your ancestors fought to uphold to not only clamor for your disarmament, but to also call for your censorship and to call you a Nazi – and all this is after your diversity virtue-signaling. The narrative is you are the “threat to democracy.” Hence, the dangers of gaslighting.
C’mon, resistors. How about “I’m a Good Ol’ Rebel” instead? I mean, what are you even defying at this point if you’re touting the very political correctness that engenders your demise?
Forget Northam’s blackface. If he’s a white supremacist, he’s the worst one in history, since he fully understands and plays the demographic-replacement game. It’s how he got voted into power, and it’s why his policies take aim at laws that will only subjugate white people, attack Anglo heritage, degrade Christianity, raze Confederate statues, and further erode traditionalism. They’re all battles in the same conflict.
Anti-racism, anti-fascism, anti-homophobia, anti-transphobia, anti-Islamophobia, anti-whiteness, anti-[fill in the blank] is all about the state pushing forward cultural Marxism, and gun control is one of the largest cogs in the progressive wheel. It’s a high-stakes game to secure the technocratic globalist order. Just ask these billionaire bullies. This is why Boyd Cathey says, whoever wins the culture war, wins everything.
Is it any wonder that the leftist politicians who promised to “wipe out” pro-firearm bills trying to loosen restrictions, “move forward with gun control bills,” and did indeed vote in favor of a red-flag law are the same ones who just a day after the rally approved of “LGBT-friendly legislation” and a bill ending Lee-Jackson Day, and introduced a bill to abolish the electoral college? Self-defense isn’t a right but transgender birth certificates are, says the Virginia Senate. This is the reality of living in a diverse mass democracy. Egalitarianism as far as the eye can see, and guns and their white male gun owners are an impediment to that progress.
Maybe the alt-right gloomers have a point: only 3,000 people lawfully assembled in Charlottesville with absolutely no police protection and still that Lee statue stands, while 22,000 conservatives rallied in Richmond with the full “blessing” of law enforcement, yet draconian gun control and other cultural-Marxist measures stand taller than ever.
Progressive nationalism, or secular theocracy, as Paul Gottfreid calls it, is part of the invisible hand that has moved society toward worshiping the things that smash true freedom and every vestige of historic tradition. It’s American gnosticsim and the “diversity is our strength” creed is part of the poisonous liturgy.
Because white men are economically and materially comfortable, they don’t so much mind being manipulated, at least so far. It’s like to racial sadomasochism. Or Stockholm Syndrome in which white folks have developed not merely an alliance with their captors, but rather, an affinity for captivity itself.
Disarming law-abiding gun owners is about power and is carried out by browbeating the archetype into submission. And if he won’t willingly obey this velvet-glove tyranny in every aspect of his personal and social life, well then, it will be meted out by force. This is why guns are important; they’re key to the great leftist transformation. That’s the message.
But I’m not all doom and gloom. I have a kind of hesitant optimism. I think the rally was an overall success because it showed white, straight men (the most demonized people in America) peacefully protesting. That if the state does its job of protecting citizens and property, people can exercise their freedom of conscience and their right to assemble. That without the cover of cops and corporate media, anarcho-tyranny doesn’t have to be the new normal. That normies are willing to take a risk, to step out of their comfort zone, even when they think it may run counter to the status quo.
The fearful build-up to the real possibility of state-sponsored violence, either from “anti-fascist” radicals or the police themselves (after all, VA Police took part in the Charlottesville stand-down orders), was a huge eye-opener for the typically law-and-order crowd. This is one of the reasons why gun owners were so skeptical about entering into Northam’s illegal, barricaded, unarmed area.
I think being castigated as “white supremacists” also awakened a few more folks to the globalist narrative and expertly illustrated just how unhinged and untrustworthy the corporate media really is. When law-abiding people realize that the apparatchiks in the media are as much a threat to their liberty as is Antifa, this is a huge development. After all, they and their cohorts in academia and the managerial state are the ones who evangelize American gnosticism.
I pray a critical mass of people finally realize there is no pleasing the progressive order. It doesn’t matter if you once consumed the steady diet of misinformation you were spoon-fed by cable news and carefully crafted public perception. We must be realistic and smart, and not rely upon sentimental notions that truly no longer exist. Keep moving the Overton Window, or maybe just smash it altogether.
Eye on the ball, people! There’s only one kind of diversity that matters when it comes to guns, and that’s what kind and how many you have. And the sooner you stop virtue signaling, shed your gaslighting, and start embracing true reality, the better.
Truth warrior, Jesus follower, wife, and boymom. Apologetics practitioner for Orthodox Christianity, the Southern tradition, homeschooling, and freedom. Recovering feminist-socialist-atheist, graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and retired mainstream journalist turned domesticated belle and rabble-rousing rhetorician. You can read her blog at Dissident Mama.
I thought this was a very good article, deserving of a lot more attention than it has gotten (in the comboxes). Well done, ma’am!
Thanks, T! I was rather proud of it, so glad to know that it’s appreciated. Please don’t hesitate sharing far and wide, if you want.
Great article hopefully it will be widely read by the 2nd amendment crowd.
I appreciate it, Matt. Please do share with all your gun-loving friends, good sir. They must be roused from their slumber.
IMO the most important takeaway is this: “Virtue signaling, on the other hand, only communicates weakness and undercuts purpose.”
Exactly right! Instead of self-policing what we say, to comply with the Overton Window, let us self-police our words to eliminate virtue signaling.
KG, you got that right. If we could stop caring so much what other people think AND back up others when they feel the heat of PC castigation, that would be a game-changer. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!