Truly bizarre NRA ad...

[LittleRaven]

We're getting to that point now, honestly. Not the third world bit, but the "can't play global policeman" bit.

No, we're getting to the "won't play global policeman" bit. We're nowhere near can't. And I know that sounds like semantics, but it's an important distinction.

The whole "leader of the free world" thing is and always has been ridiculous, because not only is the 'free world' a distinctly fractured group of nations, you can't even arrive at any kind of global consensus as to who qualifies. Nobody has even actually looked to us for any kind of leadership. They have often looked to us as an example, or as an excuse, but in either case they always knew what they wanted and would simply use our actions as a justification. Such is the peril of being the Hyperpower.

[The Romulan Republic]

The fact is, even the US does not have the power to unilaterally police the world. Single countries, sure, as long as they don't have nukes. But just Afghanistan and Iraq stretched our resources a bit.

We rely in part on the support of allies, which requires having the respect of other countries and a position of moral leadership in the world, not merely force or wealth. Trump has been steadily undermining that.

He may think he can police the world by threats over Twitter, backed up by American military and economic power. He's wrong. Horribly, dangerously wrong.

[LittleRaven]

The fact is, even the US does not have the power to unilaterally police the world. Single countries, sure, as long as they don't have nukes. But just Afghanistan and Iraq stretched our resources a bit.

Oh, well sure. Heck, Afghanistan and Iraq didn't just stretch us a bit...they're damn near draining us dry.

But when I said we still had the capacity to play global sheriff, I didn't mean we could literally be everywhere at once. No sheriff can do that. I meant that we that possessed the capacity to deploy overwhelming force to virtually anywhere in the globe within days. That's really not something that anyone else can do...Russia can NUKE just about anywhere on the globe, but they can't deploy troops and air power into Chile with any kind of speed.

Now you're also right that Trump is foolishly squandering the decades of work that better men that him have put into building America's position of global dominance, but it's a BIG position and there's only so much that one man, even a man like Trump, can do to destroy it. It will begin to decay, of course, but it will hold for quite a while. I'm certainly betting it will last longer than Trump.

But I do think our position will inevitably shrink, even when Trump is gone. We just don't have the heart for it anymore. It's a hard, thankless job, and I think we're just getting tired of it. (granted, Bush made it a lot, LOT harder than it had to be, but hey, at least you could picture yourself having a beer with him, you know?)

[The Romulan Republic]

Its been eroding, off and on, since W., at least. Our reputation and economic position improved a little under Obama (though he was not able to prevent Putin from annexing Crimea, invading the Ukraine, defending Assad, undermining our elections, and generally playing the free world like a fucking fiddle*), but now we've hit the gas heading toward the cliff.

*Granted, I'm not sure anyone could have prevented most of that, short of starting WWIII. Though I do feel that Obama's failure to do more to secure our election against Russian interference will stand as one of the worst national security failures by any President in American history.

[LittleRaven]

Yeah I don't disagree with any of that. But here's a thought: in the wake of last weekend's...events...what will the next NRA video look like? Will they continue to produce things like this, or will they decide that prudence is the better part of judgment and back off a bit?

[The Romulan Republic]

Yeah I don't disagree with any of that. But here's a thought: in the wake of last weekend's...events...what will the next NRA video look like? Will they continue to produce things like this, or will they decide that prudence is the better part of judgment and back off a bit?

If they moderate themselves at all, it probably won't last for long. They've shown their true colours- as agitators and propagandists for the Trump Administration and the most extreme elements of the Republican Party. They bear part of the responsibility for creating the culture of political violence and extremism that lead to the terrorism in Charlottsville.

[excalibur]

My perspective as an American, a gun owner and from a mix background, I only disagree with the clenched fist approach of this ad. For a while, I did believe raising a clenched fist in the air was a symbol of personal and group power rising up from the darkness. It symbolizes power and strength but the idea of it has been twisted more often to be a symbol of chaos, upheaval and unnecessary violence.

I'm not a card carrying Republican or member of the NRA, but I do believe in the freedoms America represent and how much people take it for granted.

[The Romulan Republic]

As a liberal, I support the right to own firearms, with reasonable restrictions (ie requiring training, background checks to keep guns out of the hands of violently disturbed people and felons, limits on owning military-grade weaponry, etc.). I would probably support some fine-tuning of the Second Amendment if we could marshal the political support for a Constitutional Amendment on the subject, but as long as its the law, its the law, and the government should respect it.

And, really, its not like gun owners have much to worry about. Their is no remotely realistic scenario where private gun ownership is banned in the US.

That's not what this is about, though, and we all know it. These adds are not related to protecting gun rights specifically, but are about attacking (and making thinly-veiled incitement of violence against) the political opponents of an increasingly authoritarian administration.

No matter what you feel about gun rights, you should be willing to unequivocally condemn that.

[excalibur]

It is bad PR when you make an ad that preaches similar lines of thought to the violent protestor types who also raise their fists in the air and essentially calling for retaliation of violence on them.

[Karha of Honor]

Yeah I don't disagree with any of that. But here's a thought: in the wake of last weekend's...events...what will the next NRA video look like? Will they continue to produce things like this, or will they decide that prudence is the better part of judgment and back off a bit?

If they moderate themselves at all, it probably won't last for long. They've shown their true colours- as agitators and propagandists for the Trump Administration and the most extreme elements of the Republican Party. They bear part of the responsibility for creating the culture of political violence and extremism that lead to the terrorism in Charlottsville.

I would love to know how they created the envioroment that got that women killed with a car.
What is wrong with extreme? Why is it labelled as toxic? Why is the word used like it should end an argument?