After reviewing the YouTube videos on the rise of the American Militia along with a recruitment video, these videos are easily comparable to any extremist group propaganda. The only difference is they speak English throughout the whole video and use familiar music. Self claimed “Patriots” do not make militia members model citizen or love their country more than the next person, or bad people. Mother Jones reporter Shane Bauer trained with California State Militia (CSM) and he “learned about marksmanship, land navigation, patrolling, rappelling, radio communication, and code language...” (Rathod, 2016). Throughout their time together, CSM was not concealing their activities, they in-fact shared photographs of their training on social media …show more content…
They will take the views and beliefs to a new or even extreme level that was not the initial intention of the group. During a stand off with law enforcement in 2014, six militia members, out of a hundreds who participated in the Bundy’s Ranch rally to prevent cattle from being seized, went on trial in July 2017. Although no shots were fired, all six members aimed rifles at law enforcement officers, who were already outnumbered by the militia army (Gorman, 2017). “Gregory Burleson, 53, of Phoenix, was found guilty in April of eight felony counts, including charges of threatening and assaulting federal officers, obstruction of justice, interstate travel in aid of extortion and firearms offenses related to a crime of violence.” (Gorman, 2017) Mr. Burleson ended up getting sentenced for 68 years. “Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Dickinson said Burleson failed to show any remorse for his actions … and that he came to the town with a small arsenal of weapons, knives, and swords. “It’s not going to change everyone’s mind, but they’re going to think twice about doing that because they’re going to know there are consequences to those actions,” (Review-Journal, J. W., 2017). It also did not help Mr. Burleson telling an undercover FBI agent who posed as a filmmaker that he was, “hell bent on killing federal agents that had turned …show more content…
However, they also have similar traits as a street gang, and Mr. Sean O’Mara from change.org, started a petition with a stellar argument on this topic. The media can control the perception of militia members being considered patriots or categorized as extremists. “The media refers to armed right-wing extremists as "militias". These groups are ideologically driven armed gangs and not really militias at all. Therefore, the media needs to start using more accurate labels for these groups, such as gangs, criminals, terrorists, or simply right-wing extremists. The media would never use the label of "militia" to describe group of armed black men, or armed Muslim-Americans who had used their weapons to take over and occupy a federal building or installation. Media outlets who refer to predominantly white right-wing armed extremists as a militia and not as a gang or terrorists are guilty of a double standard that needs to be corrected.” (O'Mara,
The US Army’s official birthday is June 14, 1775, however its origins are much earlier than that. During British colonialism, citizens often had to take up arms to defend themselves, primarily against the Indians, since the British did not have a significant military presence in America. “Two concepts that still shape the American military can be traced to this period. The first is the idea of the citizen soldier, who picks up his gun in wartime and returns to civilian pursuits in peace. The second is the concept of universal obligation…” (Brown, page xiii).
The United States Army, in its current state, is a profession of arms. In order to be considered a profession, the organization must have an ethical code rooted in values, strong trust with its clients, and be comprised of experts within the trade. These experts are constantly developing the trade for the present and the future and hold the same shared view of their trade culture.
Words and images were silent weapons used by all governments involved during World War II. Wars are generally fought between soldiers, but the different ideologies often meet on the battlefield as well. The support of the people is crucial during these times since it general knowledge that strength relies on numbers. Propaganda targets people’s emotions and feelings and changes people’s perception about a particular idea, people or situation. Propaganda goes hand in hand with the art of persuasion and convincing; these tools can control and manipulate the collective minds of massive amount of its audience. During World War II, for instance, the elements of war were taken from the location of the military fights and brought to the households of millions of families. Advertising has the power to sell ideas, to give or take away hope, and to boosts people´s morale; the ideas that were presented to the public through propaganda are immortal, they linger in the nation’s memory. Images often displayed in posters and pamphlets during war time, were an essential factor to gain peoples support and trust, images attract people’s attention with more efficiency than word. It is an effective mean to attract attention; it I said that images speak louder than words and this case is not the exception. Media, during World War II, was the catalyst which increased the magnitude of the issue that was being confronted. This event left a mark in our history since its objective was to generate hatred between ethnics. It is in our nature, the human nature, to take our own culture as a point of reference to judge others, this is a phenomenon called ethnocentrism and it is fuelled bye prejudice and stereotyping. Throughout history whenever technologically...
United States is a country that has problems with gun control, and this issue has many debates between whether or not people should be allowed to carry a gun on them. This free county not only for speech and religion, but also allows people to have the right to bear arms. The Second Amendment of the United States was written by our Founding Fathers,“A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed” (Government). The main purpose of the Second Amendment when our Founding Fathers wrote this amendment was to help the American citizens to defend themselves from the government at that time, and other countries from invading their properties. However, the Second Amendment could be the opposite of what our Founding Fathers wanted it to be in the twenty-first century, because many criminals are taking advantage of the right to carry guns, which in example results with the purpose of showing off with their friends, revenge for their gang’s members, or try to be like their favorite hero in the movie they had watched. On July 20, 2012, a massive shooting occurred inside of a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. The tragedy happened during a midnight screening of the film The Dark Knight Rises which killed twelve people and injuring seventy others. In response, this alarmed our government to rethink about the current gun control law in America. In A Well Regulated Militia by Saul Cornell, the author informed to his audience the different views of gun ownership in early America, which part was the most important part of the debate, how did slavery affect the debate over militias in the South, the Continental army officer’s views, and the arguments be...
...n, even die for it, and holding up their compound under any circumstances. If you think you are safe, since the Waco siege is over you are dead wrong. There are thousands of religious cults around the United States who are involved in everything from molestation, embezzling, drug trafficking, and even murder. They too could start a small vigilante war over their religion. If you do not believe this, take a ride out towards Route 250, we almost had the same thing happen in our own backyard.
One of them is the Rocky mountain gun owners. They argue that the freedoms of US people have been eroded too far already. They succeeded in blocking tighter gun control laws.
Many people with the same hateful beliefs form groups to “take on” the specific people they hate. A typical gang is based on hating someone who isn’t like them.
With gun violence at an all-time high, and with stricter gun control laws looming, citizens of Texas are concerned for their safety. Mexican drug cartels are creeping further into American territory. In November 2009 it was found that drug cartels have started recruiting teens from border area high schools in Texas. (Trahan, 4). When this news was released, parent became concerned that their children would be next. With this concern residence in border towns, like El Paso, Texas, believe that they are safer with private gun ownership. (Baldauf, 7). This suggest that the government in Te...
...ely minority, the reality of the situation is that the fight against street gangs is a fight that is played out predominantly in inner-city, minority communities(177).
There were groups such as the Black Panthers, and the US Organization, which were known to have been rivals due to false rumors that had been spread by the government and the media. Black Panthers were known to have offered a more reliable source of protection during this time than the police did for African Americans. Sloan interviews current and former gang members from a variety of gangs spread throughout Los Angeles. He gives us a different perspective on where gangs came from and why they formed. Although they were originally formed to protect African Americans, they have strayed far from where they started.
History is never free from critics and opposition. The 2nd Amendment, which is no stranger to public criticism, grants individuals inalienable rights. The National Rifle Association, an organization that has been around for 139 years workin...
Since the days before the American Revolution, there has always been a mythical citizen armament mentality within the United States, in the idea that everyday people would confront Native Americans along with the British army (Spitzer 10). This is further outlined in the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, which allows for the people to “keep and bear Arms” within “a well regulated Militia” (Spitzer 19). The amendment was originally meant to satisfy citizens who wanted to establish a state militia system separate from the federal standing army in the idea of having more individual power (Spitzer 29). Furthermore, in 2008, a conservative Supreme Court that had been mostly appointed by Republican Presidents ruled in this idea of individual power when it declared, for the first time, an individual right to own a gun. However, it is important to note that this 2008 Supreme Court decision, D.C. v. Heller, broke from precedent by moving away from the original meaning of the Amendment with the militia. The decision, by breaking from historical context, strongly fed the already existing myth that American citizens have always been heroes wielding guns, an ideological construct that is engrained within the society (Spitzer
Professional champions of civil rights and civil liberties have been unwilling to defend the underlying principle of the right to arms. Even the conservative defense has been timid and often inept, tied less, one suspects, to abiding principle and more to the dynamics of contemporary Republican politics. Thus a right older than the Republic, one that the drafters of two constitutional amendments the Second and the Fourteenth intended to protect, and a right whose critical importance has been painfully revealed by twentieth-century history, is left undefended by the lawyers, writers, and scholars we routinely expect to defend other constitutional rights. Instead, the Second Amendment’s intellectual as well as political defense has been left in the unlikely hands of the National Rifle Association (NRA). And although the NRA deserves considerably better than the demonized reputation it has acquired, it should not be the sole or even principal voice in defense of a major constitutional provision.
Today we live in a much different world than that of our founders. The rise of the United States into world dominance, the shift of population into the cities, and the increase of drug use and violence have produced great change in our society. Americans once feared the loss of the free state would come from foreign invasion or political corruption, but now the greatest threat is the violence we see on the evening news. The increase in violence and murder has sparked the greatest debate over gun ownership in our nation's history. The second amendment has been reinterpreted by those who feel the mere presents of guns have led to increased violence. I believe that the threat vi...
Propaganda is very important issue in our society. The word "propaganda" however, has a very negative connotation. This may happen because people tend to associate it with "the enormous campaigns that were waged by Hitler and Stalin,' (Delwiche 2002). Now propaganda has a different face.