Who’s paranoid now?

Someone is putting up posters on Capital Hill near Seattle. This is an area that has a demographic that is considerably more gay than other areas. Here is a sample:

1369074009-gay_gun2

The QR code takes you to www.a-human-right.com.

From the Stranger:

It’s hard to know who’s responsible for putting the posters up all over Capitol Hill. “Nale Dixon,” who’s credited for drawing the cartoon of the gay couple, returns no search results online. The pro-gun website is run by a dude named Oleg Volk, “An American,” but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s responsible for papering the hill with them. Without someone to credit, it’s impossible to glean the posterer’s intentions.

Perhaps being courted by a traditionally right-wing, conservative movement is refreshing and progressive, but it could also just be really effective concern trolling. What better way to make people feel unsafe in gay-friendly Capitol Hill than by slyly referencing homophobia and hate crimes in pro-gun propaganda plastered on every street corner?

Wow! It’s “impossible to glean the posters intentions” without someone to credit? Are we two worlds each speaking a language the other cannot understand?

They see someone pointing out the utility of being able to defend yourself using a firearm as being “concern trolling”. Would they think the same of advertisements for self-defense classes teaching Kun-Fu instead of Gun-Fu?

The comments are pretty “good” too:

7 These posters are tone deaf to the point of being offensive. I don’t appreciate my rights and concerns being exploited to make a ham-fisted point about gun laws.

15 It’s not that strange when you remember that the “traditionally conservative movement” in question is not in fact an organic movement but an industry lobby group with a lot of deeply emotionally invested fans/customers. These aren’t campaign posters; they’re advertising.

23 Oh, for crying out loud. The joke is on you. This is akin to the anti-gun ads masquerading as pro-gun ads by encouraging women to arm themselves to protect their reproductive rights. The intent here is to point out to pro-gunners that they are arming everyone, not just those who agree with them.

Are these guys in need of psychiatric help for their paranoia or is there that big of a cultural divide? In any case that they see simple messages such as these as some sort of capitalistic/right-wing/homophobic plot it means I’m not sure we actually have a common basis for communication.

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11 thoughts on “Who’s paranoid now?

  1. I think it may well be that the cultural divide really is that big. Kind’a scary when you think about it.

  2. I think I can explain it with one simple concept. Some people are so deeply invested in their identity as victims that everything they see is interpreted through that victim identity.

    It can’t possibly be someone making a simple point about rights in general and the right of everyone to self defense in particular– It must be an attack, and so the rationalizations are brought forth as a means of identifying the attack and the attackers.

    In short it is prejudice. Prejudgment. One’s identity as victim demands it. If you persist in making your case you are attempting to rob them of their identity, which is of course yet another attack.

    Same goes for the race industry. Your principles would destroy it, and so it must be protected from you and your principles or it will die, like the Wicked Witch of the West having water thrown on her. Simple enough? We’ve nearly all exhibited behavior something like this.

    • Dunno if you are right or not, but it makes more sense than anything else I can come up with, beyond a generic “cultural divide.”
      Self-identify as a victim, and therefore anything you don’t agree with must be an attack, and the attacker must do it because they hate you. Logical, in a sick kind of way.

      • Also, as a victim you are absolved of most any responsibility. It’s extremely attractive. It’s a form of salvation isn’t it? All your sins are washed away, not because you’ve repented but because someone else is to blame. Now you’re free to act without limits, and to hell with anyone who gets in the way of your freedom.

        To make the point that your self defense is your responsibility sort of throws a wrench in the whole thing then.

    • “We’ve nearly all exhibited behavior something like this.”

      What you mean “we”, kemo sabe?

    • OK, that actually makes sense, while the usual pat answer “cultural divide” (don’t get me wrong, I’ve been using it too) doesn’t feel like it gets to the heart of the matter,

  3. Wow, these whiners *really* REALLY can’t google Oleg Volk? Can’t find his web site? Can’t see that it’s chock-full of photographs of nontraditional shooters being depicted defending their rights (not to mention their lives) with the most effective tools of self-defense yet made? Wow…

    Oh, and to whoever is posting these flyers: well played, sir or madam!

  4. Google Dale Nixon instead of “Nale Dixon”. You get into the whole hardcore metal music scene, which is known for controversial politics when time can be taken for it. I read the poster as if it were fronting the band Black Flag, Dale Nixon’s band. Gays with guns is exactly the sort of image that accompanied this band on it’s early tours, which had a reputation for fan vs police violence.

    Add all these factors up, and the poster simply reeks of the Seattle anarchist underground scene.

  5. So over on the Other Left Coast in NYC, a Homophobic Nut Job shot to death a Guy because he was Gay.

    I think people out there better realize that Trigger Fingers are Gender-Neutral. And Religious-Neutral, Politically-Neutral, Racially-Neutral…..

  6. Pingback: Gay bashing in Seattle | The View From North Central Idaho

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