How the Right Wing Makes Money by Interjecting Fear and Paranoia in Their Followers
A few months back, I remember reading a few stories about how “think tanks” were paying radio talk show host millions of dollars to advertise for them. Think tanks like “FreedomWorks” and “The Heritage Foundation” pay popular radio host like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck big bucks to simply say a few lines about how great these non-profits work and to push and promote their conservative ideology on politicians and communities’ movers and shakers.
These so-called “think tanks” and influential political ballers’ bottom line agenda is to separate the consumer from their money in order for their power to continue to grow.
These powerful men and women who control the conservative airwaves push and prod their listeners to go to their websites and donate to them with their hard-earned cash. These non-profit “think tanks” are ran and controlled by the rich. But what do these think tanks do besides pay themselves big money from donations they receive from their poor and middle class followers while paying their rich radio hosts the same money to advertise? It can’t just be a new racket for the rich to get richer. Or is it?
It is also not surprising these radio hosts juice up fear and paranoia about how are country is ran and incite conspiracy theories about big government taking away their freedom, repealing the second amendment (gun rights), the downfall of America, and eventually a one-world government will one day rule over us in some Orwellian state. So they tell us to donate now America before it happens. In middle of all of that paranoia talk and fear-mongering, their listeners run and do just that.
Now let’s talk about the National Rifle Association (NRA). After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, gun sales have taken off. Membership into the NRA has gone up. Gun manufacturers and sellers have made boatloads of money. NRA Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre CEO then heads to Washington and gives a speech about how much he cares about America’s children, and his idea of stopping this violence is to bring armed security into our schools. Seriously?
He couldn’t come up with a better solution than MORE GUNS FOR EVERYBODY? Of course, if you think about it, it’s in his financial and career interest to suggest guns and more guns would make us a safer nation. LaPierre would add more members to the NRA and more of his buddies called gun-makers and gun sellers are able to upgrade their profits. LaPierre has other motives behind all of this. It’s called the Second Amendment.
Through articles he’s written for the Guns & Ammo magazine, LaPierre suggest to readers that President Barak Obama and Atty. General Eric Holder are secretly trying to amend the Second Amendment, and are secretly trying to strip away gun owners’ rights. This sounds like someone who is running a fear-mongering campaign for profit argument.
The NRA’s banter got louder when President Obama recently announced the most ambitious gun-control legislation any president has done in generations when he signed 23 executive orders to help try to curb gun violence. During his short speech, the President said people will immediately go against his proposals simply to gin up fear for revenue and ratings. He’s right. NRA claimed right after President’s Obama’s speech the organization has added some 250,000 members in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook killing spree.
But this is nothing new. Since President Obama has been in office, all the right wing has done is instill fear, hate and engage in political theater for their self-serving pleasures of wealth and power. But their time is running out. People are beginning to see right through these pundits, their think tanks and some of those representing the Republican Party. The GOP has turned into a cult-like thinking of conspiracy theorists and haters of real American progress.
Unfortunately, if businesses keep capitalizing off this foolish way of thinking, the Republican Party and their ideology will sink to the bottom with no money or influence in today’s changing American culture and society. But if all you care about is money and power, then you wouldn’t mind sinking to the depths of no return with their ship.
