Boycotts, Social Media & Gun Control

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BarryLee

New member
A couple of yeas ago I expressed concern about social media and how it might ultimately impact the debate on gun control. As I said then many traditional news outlets may support gun control, but still offer at least some information from gun rights advocates. However, social media presents often a very one-sided, limited and often untrue representation of an issue. Social media also moves very rapidly and can place a lot of pressure on individuals, politicians and corporations.

We now see companies like Delta Airlines, Enterprise Car rental. Symantec (Norton), First National of Omaha and Chubb insurance severing ties with the NRA over threats of boycotts being pushed on social media @boycottnra.

Social media often present only a one-sided misinformed caricature of gun owners, but these campaigns tend to carry a lot of power and only add to the ranks of the “useful idiots”.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/02/23/boycottnra-enterprise-omaha-bank-end-gun-lobby-deals-as-boycott-movement-gains-steam/?utm_term=.eb145a3d91c9

https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/23/17044756/symantec-norton-nra-discount

https://www.ajc.com/business/delta-ending-discount-for-nra-members/co2jAVFgLpvTOlP7eYOHwM/
 
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SIGSHR

New member
And we can take our dollars elsewhere. And who was it who said her opponents supporters belong in a "basket of delporables". Where is she today ?
 
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Rachen

New member
I am well aware of the recent abuses of social media platforms to defame and defile certain individuals and groups. All these hashtags, most of which had been started out with good intentions, are now being manipulated in ways that make "Fake News" sound like birds chirping on a summer morning.

BUT, there will be unintended consequences of this abuse of social media. Long before #metoo has turned into a witch hunt and campaign of mass hysteria by certain individuals with grudges or seeking financial gain, I had told a coworker that #metoo is going to blow out of all proportion and instigate an atmosphere of distrust and paranoia which will seep into normal and healthy relationships as well.

And before 2017 even ended, we saw it blow out of control. It all started with a certain South Asian man in NYC whose differing account of a dating encounter led to mass allegations of #metoo being used as a tool of personal vendetta. And pretty soon came the accounts of men refusing to host individual meetings with female business acquaintances, men even hiring chaperones and "guards" to watch over events where both sexes mingle, Corporations requiring males and females to ride in segregated vehicles when on business trips. An entirely new etiquette seemed to be created solely for the purpose of limiting or completely eliminating any contact between the two sexes. There were even stories of male workers in several large companies, including Uber, Google and Yahoo forming special "mutual defense associations" designed to provide each other with legal aid in case of false accusations of sexual misconduct.

NO ONE, and I mean, NO ONE saw all this snowballing. Wasn't #metoo supposed to be a tool of outing all the creeps and miscreants lurking amongst us? It was certainly meant to be used that way, until someone realized they can use it to their own advantage, with potentially illegal gain. Perhaps someone had read Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" and got some ideas? We don't know but it certainly caused a massive influx of unintended consequences.

When I saw this latest news on the #metoo scandal, I had also told my coworker: "Does people know what men in history have done when they feel that their lives and livelihoods are being threatened? We tend to form orders and fraternities for the sole purpose of defense. They were called Templars, Hospitallers, Knights of Malta, and were known by many other names". Apparently we are starting to see the same thing happen all over again with this hashtag nonsense.

So on this topic of social media being used to spread fake news in the interest of demonizing gun owners, this will have it's own unintended consequences. Sure, it may provoke divisions and infighting in the gun owner community. But in the long run, this will cause gun owners to band together and become more of an organized and disciplined force in activism and mutual protection.

Haven't the antigunners always feared, since the late 80s', that the "right wing gun nuts" are going to form "militias"? Their recent social media efforts to portray gun owners as all psychopathic loons may provoke a lot of useful idiots out there to start to attack people that they deem to be "gun nuts" for no reason, and such actions may just cause the "NRA guys" to organize ourselves like a modern day crusader order.
 
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44 AMP

Staff
Social media is mob rule. It is the leadership of human lemmings who literally will run off the cliff if the (mostly anonymous) leaders send them that way.

I just saw some blurb about how some company lost a billon+ dollars in stock value, because some starlet tweeted that she no longer used their app.

lemmings.

individually small, and not particularly dangerous, but when a million of them run over your ass, you're pretty well stomped.

Not particularly dangerous to many of us, but if you run a business that depends on general public good will for customers, potentially deadly.

And, it doesn't even matter if you aren't actually doing what ever thing it is they accuse you of, thanks to social media, you're tried in their court of public opinion, convicted by the fact that you were accused, and punished, all in the space the time it takes to type a text. And, its spread all across the entire world, instantly.

Personally, I don't listen to lemmings, but others do, because they do have money, and they can vote. The tyranny of the mob is sill tyranny, and is potentially the greatest threat to free speech and free thought currently existing.

Tyranny by the government is always a threat, but tyranny by social groups who do their best to destroy anyone who disagrees with them is just as real, and might be worse for us, in the long run...
 
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Evan Thomas

New member
If we can keep this to the influence of social media on the gun control debate, I'll let it run, but this isn't the forum for general rants about everything going to hell in a handbasket.

Keep the discussion focused on gun-related matters, please.
 
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kmw1954

New member
I am still in the Dark Ages as I have no social media accounts. None! And I like it that way and do not feel as if I've missed anything.

The closest I have to social media are web forums like this one.
 
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NateKirk

New member
And we can take our dollars elsewhere
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The problem is that so can the rest of the country. The use of social media is a concern because gun owners are ultimately in the minority. The latest debate is absolutly perfect for social media, as it has the catchy story of not only young people but the victims leading the charge to further their goals. I really don't know how we can combat the social side; polarization and an unwillingness to hear any arguments has given the firearms community zero social credit.
 
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HiBC

New member
I think if you take the whole of gun owners and those who support the 2A,we are not the "minority" that we are represented as.
Both parties know its a bad idea to pass us off.

Here is a critical fact to understand. As few as 10 people with the right apps can seem to be 10 million people,or more, on social media.
That fooled folks for a while. Its no secret now.

If Hertz wants to cut ties with the NRA,fine. No gun owner should ever rent a Hertz vehicle again. It might be time to buy stock in Avis.IMO,the NRA should defy the Mayor of Dallas and have the convention.Then dump Dallas.Take the convention elsewhere.Post billboards apologizing to the friends in Dallas.Use social media to turn it back on them.Thar Dem mayor may be replaced by a GOP mayor. Money talks.

The NRA has a network of millions of loyal supporters.And the NRA can easily put a brochure of every business that has cut ties with the NRA in our mailboxes.

The critical step is for us to write letters and cut ties with each of these companies. Tell them why. Encourage friends and family to do the same.

Look around at how much money is invested in marketing and advertising.

It all gets flushed away if you alienate millions of customers.Look what is happening to the NFL. ESPN.We even made changes at S+W.

There will be a lot of CEO changes. Give it time.

And don't doubt our strength. Be part of it. Stand strong.
 
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rickyrick

New member
First time since 2008, I just sent the nra a chunk of money. Chunk of money by my standards,that is. I also stuffed a bunch of $20s in charity boxes this year.
If anyone hasn’t realized that the big social media platforms are just huge propaganda arms yet... they’re not gonna.
 
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Tom Servo

Staff
If Hertz wants to cut ties with the NRA,fine. No gun owner should ever rent a Hertz vehicle again.
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I'm a bit confused by all these corporate boycotts. I wasn't under the impression that companies like Hertz or Oil of Olay or any of the others were significant donors in any way. They're withdrawing what, $75/year donations? Well, pack it up boys, we're boned. :rolleyes:

It's virtue signaling, just like the vast majority of what we're hearing on social media. The interesting thing is the bubble of confirmation bias that gets created. Clinton wins the 2016 election with a 70, no 80, point margin! Elon Musk is gonna send me to a colony on Mars next week!

Pfft. If social media has proved anything, it's that people are completely bereft of skepticism or any sort of critical thinking skills. The winners are the advertising and marketing execs who are getting a great lesson in how easy we are to manipulate through propaganda and emotional appeals.
 
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BarryLee

New member
I'm a bit confused by all these corporate boycotts. I wasn't under the impression that companies like Hertz or Oil of Olay or any of the others were significant donors in any way.
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Actually most of these companies offered discounts to NRA Members, so they get more customers and NRA Members save a few bucks. I'm not sure any of these folks were really big contributors. I think the impact is not that we lose discounts on car rental, but it feeds into the public demonizing of gun owners as if we are somehow outside the mainstream.

https://benefits.nra.org/
 
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doofus47

New member
"We need action, not ideas" the rallying cry of the student movement. I am thinking that this is a great time to quote the poet W.B. Yeats:

ON HEARING THAT THE STUDENTS OF OUR NEW UNIVERSITY HAVE JOINED THE AGITATION AGAINST IMMORAL LITERATURE

WHERE, where but here have pride and Truth,
That long to give themselves for wage,
To shake their wicked sides at youth
Restraining reckless middle-age?
 
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Tom Servo

Staff
Was that the one in which guilt or innocence were decided by social media and people hired public-relations consultants instead of lawyers? I fear that's where we're going as a society.
 
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Aspirant

New member
Social media amplifies not information, but emotion.

Mass shootings may cause relatively few casualties in the scheme of things, but I think the fight for recognition of gun rights as a net positive for US society has largely been lost. Said companies actually consider it a good thing to revoke NRA partnerships -- call it virtue signalling if you want, but the fact that it's even a virtue is the troubling part.

These boycotts are just a symptom of a far deeper problem -- that of the perception of sporting rifles and those who claim the right to own them. We could go blue in the face pointing out that UK or Australian-style bans won't work, but when emotions are high that's what everyone -- us, them, corporations, the government -- decides with. Evidence just comes in later to justify whatever the decision is.

There aren't any easy solutions, but a good approach comes at the end of John Ringo's sociology-textbook-disguised-as-novel The Last Centurion, where the US Army is accused of all sorts of atrocities by the media, but fight back by making their own reality show, giving the overall context and why they made the calls they did.

How something like that would work and be watched and considered by those on the fence... well, that's what you pay agencies to create. The more 'sticky' talking points that can be made up and repeated (the same thing the other side is doing) the better.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
 
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libiglou

New member
Their marching on Washington, we need to march on Washington. We need to bring our kids and wives and show we have numbers. The gun owning non NRA members have to start waking up to what is going on. Whether you own an ar or a bolt action they are coming to regulate and confiscate.
 
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cdoc42

New member
As long as there is ONE auto rental company left, and ONE hotel, that accepts NRA discount memberships, they both get the attention of 5 million NRA members. Who wins and who loses?
 
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KyJim

New member
Was that the one in which guilt or innocence were decided by social media and people hired public-relations consultants instead of lawyers? I fear that's where we're going as a society
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That's the one.
 
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