The Screwing of America – They Are Not My Friends

by Jeff Knox, Opinion

U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- The recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia should have every liberty-loving American deeply concerned. Ronald Reagan’s warning, that “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction,” sounds ominously prescient today. Clearly the people involved, mostly young men, have no understanding of what freedom and the great American experiment are all about.

This is not just a problem of the “left,” nor is it owned solely by the “right.” This is a universal problem among all of the participants in this horror show playing out in our nation’s streets, whether they be Constitution-quoting, white separatists or Marx-spewing, anti-Fascists, or anyone else in the rainbow coalition of trolls and idiots that have been capturing the national spotlight of late.

The most obvious evidence of their corrupt concepts and ideas lies in the glaring hypocrisy of their alliances. On one side, you have violent, nihilistic anarchists, who espouse an end to government and all forms of government authority, teaming up with revolutionary Marxists, who support an all-powerful authoritarian state, along with racist separatist groups like La Raza (which recently repackaged itself as UnidosUS), the Brown Berets, the Black Panthers, Muslim groups that endorse Sharia theocracy and oppression of women, and LGBTQ+ activists who are disliked by several of the previously mentioned groups, and condemned to death by the last one, as well as a wide variety of “enlightened” people of “tolerance” who just want all “haters” killed or beaten out of existence.

On the other side, you have Constitution-loving, flag-waving “patriot” groups, marching in lock-step with the patriotic, “God-fearing” morons in the white sheets, and the goose-stepping idiots that revere a socialist dictator that their grandfathers were willing to give their lives to defeat. Alongside these thoroughly incompatible ideologies, are the various anti-feminists, anti-homosexuality, anti-Muslim, and anti-immigration groups that fear they are being oppressed and supplanted by the various aforementioned groups.

The mainstream propaganda outlets feed the anger with their painfully one-sided “reporting,” while much of the “alternative media” is skewing even farther off course with outrageous stories, rumors, and unproven claims. Politicians, pundits, and academicians fall in line with the PC Police, to denounce the white, straight, Christian male dominated groups as evil hate-mongers, while ignoring, or playing down the blatant, racism, sexism, and anti-male, anti-Christian pronouncements of the “left.”

No one is interested in the cause of the sudden prominence of “white power,” and “men’s rights” groups (simply laying it at the feet of Donald Trump), nor are they interested in hearing the complaints of these groups, or anyone who has foolishly associated with, or are arbitrarily lumped in with these groups. They simply apply a derogatory label and declare their views and opinions invalid and unworthy of being heard, or even being allowed to be uttered. This, of course, frustrates people with valid concerns and complaints, driving them into these awkward alliances with people with whom they have so little agreement.

I warned several months ago in this space and elsewhere that one of the repercussions of the rise of the violent left, and the cover provided for them by the media, politicians, and academia, would be increased recruiting by white identity groups. As frustrated people get together to complain about the unfair treatment they are receiving, they are sucked into associations and actions that they would not have dreamed of a year ago. They feel a kinship in sharing a common enemy, and feel that the only way they can be heard is if they yell – loudly – and take actions that will attract media attention, like the march in Charlottesville.

Here’s a newsflash for those guys: mainstream America is never going to give serious consideration to anything said by anyone wearing a swastika or a pillowcase, or anyone who talks like someone wearing a swastika or a pillowcase. Nor are they going to give credence to anyone associating with people wearing swastikas and pillowcases.

Using racist epithets and speaking derogatorily about people’s race, religion, ethnicity, sex, or sexual preferences, will never be socially acceptable or tolerated, unless the epithets and derogatory comments are aimed at white, Anglo, hetero, Christian males. Everything else is strictly off-limits. It isn’t fair, but trying to force the issue just makes things worse – as the march in Charlottesville did.

The natural response to unfair assaults – verbal or physical – is to retaliate, and give as good as you get. In the real world of national politics and public opinion, that just doesn’t work, especially coming from the “privileged majority.” Instead of participating in the escalation the ugly rhetoric and violence, aggrieved groups need to take a page from Dr. Martin Luther King and Gandhi: non-violence. That doesn’t mean pacifism, meekly taking a beating, but a non-confrontational approach that focuses on facts and reason, and gives the opposition plenty of opportunity to demonstrate their irrational hatred and bigotry. That was actually happening to a large degree until the sheet-heads and brown-shirts moved up.

Why is this important to the Second Amendment movement? Because we are frequent targets of the broad-brush smear campaigns that flow from disasters like Charlottesville. As I am writing this, I just received a fundraising plea from a division of Bloomberg’s anti-rights conglomerate, associating the NRA with white supremacists on the grounds that they supported Trump, and had the temerity to criticize lying media and leftist violence earlier this year.

The ancient proverb: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” might be applicable in some circumstances, and for now it seems to be working for the “left,” though they will undoubtedly turn on each other eventually. It certainly doesn’t work for the “right,” when that “friend” is a pariah to the world, devaluing the overall message by their mere presence.

Any alliance with evil is evil, and all sides of this mess are corrupted.

About Jeff Knox:

Jeff Knox is a second-generation political activist and director of The Firearms Coalition. His father Neal Knox led many of the early gun rights battles for your right to keep and bear arms. Read Neal Knox – The Gun Rights War.

The Firearms Coalition is a loose-knit coalition of individual Second Amendment activists, clubs and civil rights organizations. Founded by Neal Knox in 1984, the organization provides support to grassroots activists in the form of education, analysis of current issues, and with a historical perspective of the gun rights movement. The Firearms Coalition has offices in Buckeye, Arizona and Manassas, VA. Visit: www.FirearmsCoalition.org.