This is kind of just a rant/confessional post. Im not sure if anyone is interested or if I’ll be absolutely flamed (which I deserve- my journey left has been embarrassingly recent). For the last 3 years I was first a summer intern and then a full time employee at NRA ILA working under the lobbyists, mostly bc my dad is involved and got me in. Once I realized my dad wasn’t right about everything and stopped trying to make him happy I had a big political shift to the left. Working here and running in the DC young republican circles while secretly protesting also really radicalized me. I still believe in gun rights but obviously the NRA is a deeply corrupt right wing organization that licks cops boots and should in no way be considered a non profit. I don’t really know why I’m typing this, except that I’ve felt like such a spineless fraud working here and it feels good to finally be able to say fuck Wayne LaPierre, albeit anonymously, without fear of recourse. I have absolutely no plan for the future now and my family is pissed at me but I don’t care. Still working on understanding my experiences on the inside but if anyone’s interested I’m happy to answer questions.
I agree! The cognitive dissonance ppl at the NRA had when it came to armed leftists/minorities was a huge shock for me
Thanks! I’m fleeing this awful place asap but I’ll def check it out after I move
DC young republican circles
you better tell some good stories of the psychos and large sons you met
Haha I’m sure I can think of better ones but one guy I know had an “Anti-Labor Day Party” with a pretty disgusting anti union etc. fb event description
do regular Republicans even care about labor like that or is that for people who drank the NGO kool aid?
I don’t think regular republicans think in terms of labor at all. But the DC neocon kids are a different breed of evil. I also know a guy who is the health care policy writer for a think tank who would drop the n word hard R and displayed a plaque proving confederate heritage in his office
Have many of them been anti-Trump (or were before he won)? He surely has no regard for their ideology
Oh haha u meant the neocons. They used to be against him kinda but now they’re pretty much on board like all other conservatives bc he’s the only game in town
the neocons must feel so owned because the rubes took over via Trump lmao, so much for their benevolent elites governing from the shadows!
I can’t tell u about early in the primary pre NRA endorsement but most were on board fairly early I bet. Trump rlly strongly reached out to the NRA. I think it’s hard for most ppl to work to get a candidate elected and not end up supporting them. The bumpstock thing is kinda seen as an unfortunate episode that LaPierre quickly fixed.
I still believe in gun rights...
you're not exactly alone here. it's not a short nor necessarily safe journey from where you are and where you will end up if you continue this path, but i feel like my mental health has actually improved from when i started.
POLITICAL POWER
GROWS OUT OF
THE BARREL OF A GUN:
枪杆子里面出政权OUR PRINCIPLE IS THAT
THE PARTY COMMANDS THE GUN AND
THE GUN MUST NEVER BE ALLOWED
TO COMMAND THE PARTY
Lib anti-gun arguments have gotten so pathetic. My lib cousin was like "no guns, no violence. simple as that". Like dude, read a fucking book. Google the word "power". jfc!
have you tried asking him about disarming the police? seems like that would be necessary for his sitch to get close to working.
Yeah strangely enough I feel like one of the main things that got me to this point was starting therapy haha
my journey started with therapy, but it feels like leftism in general helped me put all that therapy together.
I think a big part of becoming a leftist and was working on the need for constant validation from my dad/old rich men that remind me of my dad haha. Leftism has definitely made me make sense of things and feel better though as well...like I’ve realized I’m probably not depressed bc of an incurable chemical imbalance in my brain I’m just experiencing alienation from living in a late stage capitalist society
Hell yes, NRA AMA.
Did you learn how to shoot?
How fashy are the internals?
Do they actually love/hate trump?
What’s the view on Russia?
What’s the grossest thing you had to do?
What surprised you the most?
- I already knew how to shoot and hunt as I had been out with my dad quite a lot and owned guns. We have a range at HQ here though so I improved for sure.
- Not exactly sure how to answer this one...some of the people who work here are definitely borderline fascist and there’s a deep hatred for Democrats/the left who they think are the same thing. There’s definitely a split between ppl who love/hate cops- but the NRA policy is very pro cop because it’s super right wing and the argument is that we need cops on our side so they don’t oppose us at the local level. As an employee I would say that internally there is no room for dissent. We have ordered social media black out periods after shootings, are not allowed to criticize LaPierre in any way especially during the “coup attempt”, and I would have 100% been fired if they knew I was going to the protests.
- Haven’t heard a lot about Russia except in hushed tones regarding the Maria Butina thing
- Personally the grossest thing for me personally was having to ghost write op eds that I knew were blatant propaganda. I’ve also been in the private rooms of a lot of events that were grossly decadent and smoke filled.
- How shitty employees are treated and how little % of the budget actually goes towards ILA aka political expenses
Forgot to answer one- yes they love trump but he is v bad for fundraising as is every republican president
Its amazing to have someone here who was also working at the NRA. You have gone across the whole spectrum it seems! Welcome and congratulations on your transition.
Now, for my question. The propaganda op-eds interest me. How frequently does the NRA get these out there? Where do they show up? And can you teach us to spot them? Or even better, how to prove they're astroturf?
Idk how often they’re doing them now but the “author” will be a real person who volunteered and likely not old white straight man. NRA uses a lot of key phrases over and over which are I described in another comment. If you read the alerts on the NRAILA website you’ll easily see what I mean and be able to identify NRA employee written stuff including some politicians press releases and official quotes
Institute for Legislative Action. It is the lobbying/political arm of the NRA.
Wait there’s a non-political arm of the NRA? What does the money go on?
Were those headlines about the NRA going bust true?
Was there any concern around Philando Castile?
Do the Black Panthers ever come up?
What’s the internal view of school shootings?
Wait there’s a non-political arm of the NRA? What does the money go on? -Most $ goes to fundraising and recruitment which are separate, there’s also member services and a lot of shooting/hunting programs run by the NRA
Were those headlines about the NRA going bust true? -Yes in that there were financial troubles due to the various lawsuits. If you haven’t read up on all the drama surrounding the NRAs lawsuits I’d encourage it, it’s too much for me to accurately recount but I will say I personally believe the accusations against NRA to be true.
Was there any concern around Philando Castile? -When I asked why we weren’t involved I got told I could lose my job. NRA is ironically very pro cop and doesn’t want to comment on police shootings.
Do the Black Panthers ever come up? -Not really. The level of analysis of history is not very deep. There’s absolutely no concept of pro gun leftists existing or any distinction between the Democratic Party and “radical antifa”, they are seen as the same thing. Minorities/women are used as tokens to argue against democrats
What’s the internal view of school shootings? -teachers should be armed and that democrats weaponize/manipulate children. Among employees when one happens it’s generally just a sentiment that “our jobs are gonna suck for a little while”
How shitty employees are treated and how little % of the budget actually goes towards ILA aka political expenses
A looooooooooooooot of non-profits are like that. It's probably the dirtiest little not so secret that NGOs have.
What matters is you are here now. Did you have the power to fuck anything up on your way out?
Probably not anything significant tbh. I’m basically a glorified assistant and although I disagree with him, anything I did here could put my Dad in hot water which I don’t want. I think the most helpful thing I could do is just try to tell anyone who’s interested about the tactics they use to win elections/ how it runs internally
Off the top of my head here’s some topics:
- Focus on state and local over federal lobbying
- Propaganda styles? (Just have a lot of random info about the strategies for writing/graphics that are most effective on the base)
- Concentration of power by LaPierre
- Youth outreach (mostly a failure)
- How the NRA “grading” process of candidates works
- Sooo much internal politics and strife in the past year
I'd like to read about all of those, but definitely interested in 2 and 5 the most.
- Off the top of my head: Always red and black (strength or something I don’t remember); repeat key phrases constantly (good guy with gun,protect you and your loved ones, turn otherwise law abiding citizens into criminals, sportsmen/outdoorsmen etc); never say gun control advocate always use anti-gun/anti-2A extremist or something, for hit pieces find a video of the person speaking and go through frame by frame to find the worst pic and then fuck with the lvls to make them look evil, use stock photos of women with guns
- Most fundraising is appeals to existing members to give more not recruiting new members. Idk the data but I’m guessing we pull more money that way? Membership age avg is very old so most PR is targeted towards boomers aka Fox News style and that only rlly appeals to a small demographic of Charlie Kirk type kids. They obviously cant be edgy enough to get the 4chan Trump psycho kids and don’t really even understand what that demographic is. Also conservatives are generally just bad at looking cool even though they rlly want to.
- Here’s the process- compile all candidate’s contact info; send them a questionnaire aka “CQ” asking their stance on different issues (background checks, mag limits etc); Record responses+voting record+scour social media for anything gun related; lobbyists Grade (A-F, ?, or AQ) based on info, Endorse only good candidates with a shot at winning, get all approved by exec, release grades on nrapvf.org before election and email members in district (sometimes will do postcards etc too in important races); Decide who (if anyone) should get a direct campaign contribution check, after the election record success rate of endorsed candidates/money spent (this is also used to evaluate lobbyists performance and helps determine bonuses)
Thank you! That’s very heartening to hear when everyone I know in real life is telling me I’m being young and idealistic haha
If it makes you feel better about your political turn - people trying to make the world a better place have gotten to hear the whole "youre idealistic, utopian, naive" spiel for thousands of years, and they made the world better anyway.
It def does! now that I’ve completed step 1-(stop actively making the world worse) I’m gonna start working on step 2- make the world better:) (Step 3 is find hot communist boyfriend with thicc mustache, but we’re not there yet lol)
That is very true. Although I will say there is also a v wealthy elite group of gun enthusiast/hunters I’m familiar with that have their own “high society” organizations (knighthoods etc). I think that if the left wants to be serious about arming the working class we need to find a way to address the economic barriers to gun ownership because it’s not cheap.
Definitely going to do this, if only because I think recording contemporary 1st person sources is important. Any suggestions if/where to post? It’s kinda hard for me to tell what info is going to be interesting/relevant to other people though tbh and how much background knowledge the average person has on the mechanisms of the lobbying industry.
Given that you had experience in the gun area, maybe you could try !guns@hexbear.net, but I think maybe !marxism@hexbear.net could help you too, plus we'd love to help you analyze these contradictions and see what we can all learn from them!
my journey left has been embarrassingly recent
We all used to be some flavor of lib or reactionary without knowing it, the important thing is you're here now and we're happy for you:)
Thanks! It’s nice to be on the side with actually funny and genuine people who don’t make my skin crawl:)
Rejoice in your freedom! Without doxxing yourself, what was the most fucked up part about your job for you?
Here’s a few: how much money went straight to the executives pockets despite us being a non profit when employees like myself are pretty overworked and underpaid (lot in the news lately, it’s p much all true and an open secret), the thin blue line flag they put up outside HQ, when I asked my boss why we weren’t speaking out on the Philando Castile case I was told my job was in jeopardy, being encouraged to misrepresent data or use obviously biased sources, and the general reaction to mass shootings in the office being “well, Monday is gonna suck” rather than any concern for human life
Thanks for your concern and I will be careful! I’ve also made sure that everything I’ve stated describes at least like 3 other ppl here I can think of off the top of my head. Im easing into it but also after biting my tongue for so long I’ve accepted that there is a certain amount of risk I am willing assume in order to be honest with the world again.
Do you believe it is likely the NRA will be destroyed by its recent financial troubles and lawsuits? Do you think it will be quickly propped up/bought out by some other wealthy chud or will it leave a power vacuum?
Not financially- the more we are attacked the more $ we make and this election will be good for donations. If Biden wins even more so. Our director emailed us that we made a ton this month . We’re also no longer paying millions to Ackerman McQueen. Caveat being that losing non profit status would seriously jeopardize the org.
Politically- maybe? I believe the NY AG’s accusations against LaPierre are totally true. However, there’s been talk about transferring registration to a different more conservative state which would remove all the AGs power. NY has a safe harbor law for NPs though which is why we’re registered there I believe. LaPierre may retire soon and he is the source of a lot of the legal issues so that would change things but he def will not be ousted internally IMO, after the Ollie north thing and firing Chris Cox it rlly solidified his power.
