In the middle of our gun crisis it's important to take a look at the role strategically inspired paranoia has played in manipulating gun owners, particularly by the GOP and NRA. 1/
Many members of my family believe they need their guns, all of them, because they're going to be fighting the armies of the UN following a takeover or possibly a live race war. 2/
Both are embarrassingly paranoid, but they've been cultivated for decades by parties and lobbies that benefit by perpetuating the delusion, the GOP with fear of minorities and world government, the NRA with abject fear. 3/
Lots of what the GOP does, when it talks about the 2nd Amendment, is make rhetorical appeals that sound like the American Revolution is neverending in that we might have to free ourselves again. 4/
I know MANY people who believe in their lifetimes they'll be defending their families via door-to-doo insurgent-style fighting with UN forces. This is why they "need" assault weapons. To make it a "fair" fight. 5/
I've been at shooting ranges where they hang pictures of UN troops, the UN logo, etc. In their minds they're preparing for another revolution and they're convinced they'll see it in their lifetimes. 6/
The GOP has used these manipulations to keep so many things at bay, including healtchare and programs that European countries enjoy. It's all about sovereignty and it's all tinged with Christian End Times rhetoric. 7/
By the same token, and they'll never tell you this, but the people who stockpile these guns are also doing so because they believe minorities are planning a giant race war/revolution. This is really prevalent when you listen to anti-Antifa screeds or Islamaphobic rhetoric. 8/
Sometimes it's as subtle as mentioning guns next to stories about crimes in the "inner-city" or by minorities, but it's right there. If you don't stockpile, you and your family are going to die in the coming race war. 9/
Thus, anytime you talk about gun control or gun safety, it suddenly becomes a front for The New World Order, a conspiracy that's meant to literally take every gun and kill everyone. 10/
If you want to hear it, listen to Alex Jones one day. He says it explicitly. If you give up your guns, you'll be in a camp, you'll be a genetic experiment, your wife and children will be raped or murdered by the UN or immigrants. 11/
None of this is accidental. The GOP and NRA have engaged in this for years, though they've always tried to be subtle. The subtlety is fading away in a hurry. 12/
The biggest problem is that this isn't going to go away easily. That paranoia is handed down by the generation. When parents tell their kids about the world, they seed it with fear of the New World Order, with clandestine plans. 13/
The NRA isn't going to stop. They've made way too much money to go back. The GOP probably won't either, but they need held accountable whenever they try and peddle this stuff for political influence. It's irresponsible, and it's lead to deaths. 14/
Which is part of what we don't talk about ever, which is that this paranoia peddling has cost so many lives and puts everyone in constant danger, both by mass shootings and also political murders and acts of domestic terrorism. 15/
There are very real consequences to stoking this fear, and we've seen plenty of people die. It has to be recognized, and it has to be challenged, because this is as corrosive and dangerous a thing as there is going. 16/16
