That somehow morphs into the entire board thinking this way? I'm as baffled by your post as I am by orchidhunters posts.
I didn't say the entire board thought this way.
I am suggesting this kind of thinking has become common. I don't know the term for it. Cognitive dissonance, perhaps?
Example.... import bans weren't the brainchild of the usual suspects, they were were floated by the American gun industry trying to keep down foreign competition (possible grain of truth to it, but jacked way out of proportion)
Example.... closing the gun show "loophole" was the idea of FFLs who are losing business to private sales, meanwhile let's ignore the fact that this has been one of the pet agendas of the antis for quite a while.
Example... when gun control groups get together at a UN-sponsored event to discuss plans to drastically reduce private gun ownership across the world, there's nothing to see there, and the UN isn't really interested in drastically reducing private gun ownership across the world. They accomplish nothing in particular, ignore what you see and read. But if you call for the UN's funding to be cut, you're a right wing extremist, because they do good work that the world needs.
Example... the run on ammo and anything gun-related you're seeing isn't because people are worried about a 500% tax on ammo, or related restrictions. The run on ammo etc is happening for no particular reason, because people are just silly, or their actions have no basis that anybody can think of.
Maybe you disagree with me, but my own observation is that there's a lot of this disconnected thinking on TFL lately. It is a little odd... I can pick up American Rifleman and see cohesive, cogent arguments, but to espouse those same positions on a gun board is somehow controversial.
If somebody can't identify what's happening and who is doing what in the way of gun control proposals, is that going to translate to keeping your rights? I somehow doubt it.
Count me baffled as well.
I think my post is pretty self-explanatory.
Either you agree that it's valid to blame a non-responsible party (FFL holders) or you disagree. I disagree.
It seems the "National Alliance" turned out to be a few guys writing letters from their basement. Compare to the American Hunters and Shooters Association. The Left does seed these groups, but they generally have no influence or effect, and their pronuciations carry no credibility.
I hope you're right about their lack of influence or effect. They must have some faith in the tactic, since they continue to use it.
We have agreed to some constraints on discourse, one of which includes agreeing never to suggest that there could be trolls or shills on Internet message boards. If I were going to set up one of those "seeded groups", I would take this as a great go-ahead to start trolling message boards and creating a bogus "consensus".
Now, you and I may think that's immature and a waste of time, but then again I would call it immature and a waste of time to write television screenplays that so transparently propagandize against private gun ownership. Regardless of the value judgements we attach to it (or the script writer), it seems to work on some level.
A good indicator would be if the messages on a board started sounding increasingly like the VPC list of talking points, then I would start to wonder. For now, as for TFL I'm going to say it's a few gun people subconsciously buying into the antis' arguments. Political correctness at work? I don't know.
As usual, just my 2 cents.