Increase In Right Wing Paranoid Political Ads. Guns & Taxes.

Shortly after VP Joe Biden was asked by President Obama to put together the latest gun safety task force, the level of advertising for the paranoid right-wing has skyrocketed. (In our case… Hey, if they want to spend their money putting ads on blog posts that are calling them crazy, well then in the words of  the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre, “call [them] crazy.”)

Backstory: During the 2012 election, POLITUSIC decided to NOT block any specific ads on this website. At first it seemed strange to have posts bastardizing the policies of right-wing extremist while there was an ad from one of them on the post… but it is free speech after all – money being directly so in the realm of politics. If people who live in a reality that is so skewed they believe that Sandy Hook was a hoax… if that realm of lifestyle and constant paranoia want to show scary pictures of Obama, and photos of guns with crosses on them (or guns with women in their skivvies crossing them)… then they are free to advertise their crazy-ass viewpoints. To promote conspiracy theories makes them feel strong and smarter than the average Joe (deeply, ant-farm-like ironic), so it’s doubtless such contradictory activities will ever stop. Bottom line, though: we don’t want to be censored, so we won’t censor them – but we do pray for better education and much less Beck-and-Limbaugh-ation.

WHY the massive increase in paranoid ads online should be noted.

… and we must remember that these are BUSINESSES. Guns, security devices, weekend “survival training” courses, mass food storage, Super PACs trying to get people to sign (and donate money) to protest against the President’s latest pick for his cabinet… they’re all businesses who are trying to get people to buy something. That’s it. Nothing more. They’re doing it for a dollar – a lot of dollars. AND THAT’S OK. People are fully free to operate a business… but the consumers must not overlook the Why, the true motivation behind the rhetoric.

They might very well believe Obama is secretly an alien (secretly backed by the UN, who aren’t aliens so much as beings from an alternate Universe who for some reason hate home schooling… yeah… whatever, Santorum), and that Obama and his Dark Lords of Progressivism Posse can melt (or vaporize depending on who you read) all the AR-15s in America with lasers (green or red depending on who you read) streaming out of their eyes… but let’s not get carried away… that’s not the point of their advertising. Their advertising is meant to sell something…. while the groups on the gun safety side of this debate are trying to stop people from killing something…  that’s quite a sharp contrast in terms of motivation.

There are ideas and entities that ought never necessitate being pitched or spun: religion, health care, Humanity, the Earth, Life. When a lifestyle requires a billion-dollar PR campaign or social isolation… it’s time to throw in the towel. What the extreme right is trying to sell is a future constructed from a facade version of history – low-temperature-baked inside a deformed and malnourished interpretation of Christianity with saccharin-ized American Freedom sprinkled on top. It’s trying to sell a lifestyle that’s stuck in the past and scared of everything… then they convince their customers that the fear they feel isn’t really fear… it’s ANGER… and that’s the point at which it all goes to metaphorical sh#t. Most regrettably,  we are very deep inside that particular microwaved-dinner-flavor of right-wing extremist effluvia stew.

Gun money, scare-tactics money, paranoia money, blood money… plain old money… call it whatever you want, but all across the Internet the very people who are trying to freak out the gun lovers of America are advertising like crazy to exacerbate that paranoia to sell products… and as a result make millions, and millions of dollars. It’s so extreme in its purpose that there’s no middle ground. They’ve eliminated compromise. That’s the most disturbing part of this situation.

The NRA and right-wing radio have eliminated the middle of the gun debate, which is dangerous and irresponsible as members of a society. But then again… we have seen that big business will to anything – including crashing economies – in pursuit of another dollar to add to their pile. Money over family. Money over kindness. Money over morals, and all across the world, country to country, money over life. Pretty damn amazing, and gawd-awful, head-shakin’ sad that THIS – money – is what 95% of the population spends 95% of their day striving to accumulate…. and just LOOK at the levels of fear-mongering and hatred that the gun lobby and its allies are willing create simply to make more of it. Astounding.

One would think that when offered opposable thumbs, heavy brains and large hearts that we humans could have thought of something better than monetary compensation and accumulation to be the core motivation of human life… Oh well. Better luck next round, I guess.

Does “Freedom” Really Mean Being a Manipulated and Terrified Consumer?

To all those shouting “FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS!!” : How does it feel living inside someone else’s greed-induced nightmare? Is that a type of “FREEDOM!” that’s worth shouting about and threatening revolution over? Does being manipulated and exploited make you feel more free? – Apparently so… if and only if you have a gun to shoot in the general direction of the nightmare.

… I’m wondering, though… did your parents ever tell you “way back when” that if you stopped reading those scary monster books before bedtime you would sleep better… that if you stopped scaring yourself into fits, then you wouldn’t need the huge pile of toy swords and toy weapons that made it so uncomfortable to sleep in your tiny bed… that there’d be no need to fend off the imaginary monster nightmares if you stopped creating them and fighting them in your own head first… Did they ever mention that to you as a tiny tot? Maybe a long time ago… back when you had rosy cheeks and optimistic thoughts? Maybe just in passing? How about hearing the phrase chasing ghosts? Self-fulling prophecies? Chasing your own demons? Chasing your own tail? (It’s only cute when puppies do it.)

At least people who want to increase gun safety are chasing windmills instead of monsters. Chasing windmills doesn’t hurt anyone. Such people also tend to radiate optimism… while amicably patting a rotund sidekick on the top of his pudgy and well-meaning head… the monster chasers tend to pack pessimism… while patting a menacingly designed, cold and concealed side arm. Both are crazy, but only one is dangerous.*

*OK, yes: I realize that Don Quixote THOUGHT that windmills were giants, which are basically monsters – unless we’re in a Pixar movie – but since I couldn’t determine with certainty whether or not that made it a too-muddy analogy, or would just spark some acoustic-version-of-an-Alanis-Morissette-song-type critiques… I went ahead with it anyway. Besides, you gotta give me some earned leeway for the contrasting visuals of the well-meaning sidekick vs. menacing side arm part. That’s down right witty, that is.

It all comes down to what motivates you: optimism and happy dreams, or pessimism and glorified delusions.

Oh… and sex. We can’t leave out sex when talking about deep-seeded fears and anxieties of the American populace.

“Sex sells” has been the good ‘ole standby for marketers and advertising agencies since the beginning (that and puppies). Fear, however, has also been the omnipresent and unspoken undercurrent marketing theme keenly targeted at certain areas of the population. Clearly, as “a people” such a practice (intentionally making people scared so that they’ll buy a product) makes us a little squeamish, but nevertheless, fear sells just as much (if not more) than sex does. When it comes to power-branding, religion, and cult-building it’s top notch! (Did I just type that last bit? Probably the POLITUSIC doppelganger again.)

Since radio waves first tickled the stratosphere, fear in advertising has been the dirty little secret of the men in black suits and skinny ties. Creating and exploiting fear is the marketer’s love affair with their much younger secretary. Too sweet to stop, and the fear makes life exciting…. gives meaning where it might be lacking elsewhere. “Insert big, scary ad here” has worked for everything from bomb shelters to diet pills; guns to earwax vacuums; votes to fake gold-plated coins. (I was scared of that Einstein Chia Pet for awhile, but that’s a little different. Turned out I was just misinterpreting the General Theory of Relativity, which was also, as it turned out, why I kept falling off my bed in my sleep.) Create an enemy in an advertisement, and your business will prosper. That’s the American way.

The Extreme Right Should No Longer Be Considered Republicans

It’s unfair to call those on the extreme right what the rest of America think of as “republicans.” They’re not. The extremists have officially become something else – something… beyond. It’s only history that ties right-wing extremists to the word “Republican” and the Republican Party – but the current batch – (who sadly are controlling the Republican Party because the party leaders have no idea what the hell to do with them… because they are afraid of them?) – these extremists are not Republicans. They are most definitely something outside of politics – and they don’t belong in politics.

Thusly assessed… we owe the Republican Party an apology.  There are still a boatload of policies that we here at POLITUSIC think wallow in greed, self-interest, and disturbingly fundamental misunderstandings of “freedom” and the whole “separation of church and state” thing… but for all those times we’ve lazily truncated you in with the extremists on the right… yeah, well… sorry about that. Our bad.

(…unfortunately, we’re also grossly irresponsible – like all other people wandering around the planet in search of “Why the F&CK am I here?” – so it’s likely to happen again… but no hard feelings… and good luck with the whole “reeling in the crazies” thing…)