Burning Heretics: Pat Mac Edition

Tam notes in response to this segment with Pat Mac on Jordan Klepper’s Comedy Central special:

Tam notes:

I’ve participated in two internet lynch mobs of the sort. Both were for print journos (former Outdoor Life writer Jim Zumbo and former RECOIL editor Jerry Tsai) who spoke up in favor of AWBs at times when such things were realistically still on the table. And Jim Zumbo got a pardon, as far as I was concerned, after a public recanting and a carbine class with Pat Rogers.

I also thew a few logs on those fires. Plus, during the 2008 campaign, I built the pyre that Dan Cooper was burned on, even if it was others who tossed on the gasoline and lit the match.

My enthusiasm for burning heretics ain’t what it used to be, so forgive me if I don’t toss any wood onto Pat Mac’s fire. But nor am I going to grab a bucket either.

I don’t really care what Pat Mac said or didn’t say, or whether there was a whole conversation that was heavily edited. Pat Mac’s sin isn’t what he said. I know Comedy Central heavily edits everything. So does everyone else with half a clue.

Pat Mac’s sin is that he gave Comedy Central what they wanted: a laugh at the expense of gun rights activists who are trying to move the ball forward, and to try to marginalize the activists away from the larger body of gun owners and enthusiasts. I don’t care that Pat Mac said he supported NRA many times, and that it ended up on the cutting room floor. You’d have to be a fool to not understand that would happen.

I often think this is not foolishness, and is perhaps more aptly blamed on hubris; a kind of thinking that makes someone believe, “I can play their game and win. I will come out smelling like a rose. The people will love me when they see how well I represent!”

No you won’t. The person with the tape splicer (yeah, yeah, I know it’s all digital now) is the one holding all the cards in that equation.

So for Christ’s sake, for the dozenth or so time: don’t talk to the fucking media or Comedy Central. They are snakes with cameras and editing rooms. They will make you look bad. No you can’t beat them at this game. To quote one of my favorite movies: “The only winning move is not to play.”

30 thoughts on “Burning Heretics: Pat Mac Edition”

  1. The UBC “brand” is now hopelessly tainted as more gun control.

    Universal Background Checks were/are not so popular in Maine. Bloomberg’s UBC referendum was defeated 52%-48% by Maine voters in November 2016.

    That was the best result Bloomberg could muster despite out-spending us 6 to 1 and getting every major Maine media outlet to promote it. Without his millions, his defeat would have been much worse.

    Far cry from the claim that,”90% of the public supports UBC”. The UBC “brand” is now short-hand for more gun control in the mind of many voters.

    1. You guys did a lot of damage to the dragon, but I’m afraid it’s still alive and dangerous. I don’t want to roll those dice in any more states.

      1. Agree.

        We got lucky in Nevada where Bloomberg failed on a technicality (Nevada is a “Point of Contact” state), and in New Mexico where Bloomberg recently failed in the state legislature.

        The key is voter education, and Bloomberg continuing to over-reach with his totally unreasonable UBC proposals.

    2. The good guys in Washington State were even more outspent, something like 20 to 1, yet the anti-gunners only managed a 59% yes vote on I-594.

      See here

  2. This is 100% true. Even if you can manage to go through the entire interview in such a way that they cannot misrepresent anything even a little bit (which is not possible, as Couric demonstrated.) they can just leave your entire interview on the floor. It is literally impossible to beat them, so there is no reason to try.

    The only thing we can do is produce our own media challenging their narrative. If they want an interview, they do it on our terms, which means through our media, not theirs. That way misrepresentations can be challenged as improperly sourced, and the whole unedited version will be available for anyone who cares to check.

    Obviously their side stopped giving us interviews a long time ago, because they lost every adversarial confrontation they had.

    Don’t give them a thing. All they are doing is asking you to give them the rope they will use to hang you.

    1. If I were even to consider it, I would make it a condition that the interview must be posted in full on the internet.

      Of course, doubt they would agree to that.

      1. People have tried that, requiring their people film along with TDS crew. And you’re right, they won’t go along with it…

        1. “People have tried that, requiring their people film along with TDS crew.”

          Suppose you did that, and proved they effectively lied in their editing. What good would it do, because, who would hear about it?

          Certainly “the choir” would be outraged, but we’re always outraged anyway. Of the several-million-plus people who would have gotten the MSM’s rendering, probably a single-digit percentage would get the message that they had lied. And the majority of those wouldn’t care, or, be glad that they did.

          Better not to give them the ammunition in the first place.

    2. Right. And would you trust the judgment of someone who did go on Comedy Central. Would you trust his judgment when it comes to deadly force issues.

  3. I have no problem throwing logs on the fire. Maybe he shouldn’t have given the interview, but he said what he said. Was it edited wrong? That’s for him to prove to us. But sounds like he believes what he said on the show, and he should be burned for that.

    1. To deny people of the gun to not hold differing opinions is a sign of weakness not strength. What was done to Metcalf and Zumbo changed no ones minds. It just bullied good people out of the circle. Since when did we have too many people in the circle and when did we all have to think the same? I don’t support background checks at any level.If someone does thats in our circle does it really pay off to shun them? No. It hurts us all. And it makes people like me…gun rights supporter since the early sixties, become disgusted. You might cast Mac out but I will cast you out and then who is ahead? Mac will find a niche outside your circles and then what? This is a big mistake. We are strong enough to resist more regulations. Lets fight the real bad guys

      1. Just reflecting out loud here, but is there a difference between a Mac or Zumbo or Metcalf engaging in mild blasphemies, and a Charlton Heston doing it? I’m thinking of Heston’s “I told you, assault rifles are not appropriate for private ownership” or however he put it.

        Still just rambling out loud, I seem to remember that as NRA president, there were scads of apologies for Heston’s statements, most of them maintaining that he didn’t really mean what he clearly said, or, that he didn’t mean that kind of assault rifle, etc., etc. But, no such cover seems to be provided for lesser mortals.

        I think where I’m headed with that is, do we sometimes contribute to the problem by sending out mixed messages on how blasphemy will be treated, based on the rank and status of the blasphemer?

      2. The problem is they use the gun owners who support their side as useful idiots to push their laws. And even more so when they talk to the media and say so. That makes our work harder, and even makes it more likely we move. Nobody says we should shun gun owners who don’t believe the “right” thing. But if you go and spout off to the media and give support to laws that hurt us, then yes you should be shunned.

  4. I’ll apologize again for the vanity; an article I wrote about 15 years ago addressed this issue along with a few others. It’s one of the few public spoutings I’ve done over the years that I’ll still stand behind.

    Titled Educating the Enemy, I think one of the key phrases from it that addresses the present subject was,

    As a result, the club resolved several years ago that never again will media photographic or recording equipment of any kind be permitted on the grounds, since there is no control of how information thus acquired will be used. From experience it must be assumed neutral and innocuous information provided in good faith will be twisted into anti-gun propaganda.

    Some years ago CNN asked to come to my home to interview me as a “gun rights activist.” When they arrived, and I declined to pose with any of my guns or display them at all, they were clearly disappointed and settled for some footage of me loading ammo at my kitchen table. And though we had what I thought at the time was a pretty good interview, they used none of it, cutting it all down to maybe several silent seconds of my reloading activities. With hindsight I figure I must have handled the interview well, considering they found nothing in it to use against us.

    Today I of course would not associate with the media at all. Maybe my vanity has declined slightly.

    1. Talking to The Daily Show / Comedy Central is a far more grievous error than speaking with the media. Their schtick is well known. I just think some people think they’ll win.

  5. “I just think some people think they’ll win.”

    Exactly. And the truly dangerous thing is, most people can’t tell when they don’t.

  6. In my opinion, big money Media like Comedy Central doesn’t just side with the Gun Control Movement, they ARE the Gun Control Movement.

    I’m convinced that today the whole Gun Control Movement is a Potemkin village affair. There are no significant numbers of grass roots support for Gun Control. It’s all puffed up by the cultural power of certain special interests, like some very rich people and the News Media, Hollywood, and Academia.

  7. Pat Mac, in a rebuttal interview, confirmed that waiting periods were ok with him.

    That’s been proven to get good people killed.

    Burn this idiot.

  8. The only person in living memory to play their game and win is Mike Cernovich.

    1. “The only person in living memory to play their game and win is Mike Cernovich.”

      Cernovich reportedly said, “To beat a person, you lower his or her social status. Logic is pointless.”

      It would seem they have taken his advice. I wouldn’t declare Cernovich’s winnership yet.

      1. Then you clearly haven’t watched his 60 Minutes interview, because he completely plays them.

      2. Then you clearly didn’t watch his 60 Minutes interview, because he completely plays them.

        Furthermore, he’s fundamentally right about social status being more important than logic, especially when it comes to leftists in general and media personalities specifically. After all, the entire career of a media personality is built on nothing but social status.

        On top of that, television is a fundamentally emotional medium. If presenting logical arguments in television interviews worked, the entire gun control movement would have been dead and buried half a century ago.

        The bottom line is that the Marquee de Queensbury rules don’t apply if you actually want to win.

        1. Well, actually I hadn’t watched the 60 Minutes interview, first because I seldom-to-never watch 60 Minutes, but second because I wouldn’t watch it to hear Mike Cernovich. I did check it out on YouTube and when I found that unwatchable — SOS — looked up the transcript and found it unreadable. SOS all around.

          However, my real original point was, that anyone who declares victory and the end of history is almost always wrong. The Cernovich interview is not a subject on everyone’s lips, except maybe for Cernovich and his choir. Cernovich could be Jesus Christ Himself, but he will be confined to his own little unshakeable niche, by people who, as you note, will not play by Marquis de Queensbury rules, and any little victories he believes he and his scored this time will be guarded against, next time. E.g., he will forever be labeled “discredited” and linked with “pizzagate” even if he never actually said the words, and no one but his fan-boyz will care.

          And not to drag this out event farther but, he will be identified by who his fans are, and that he can’t control.

  9. Presume that Comedy Central folks are all habitual drug users and felons. You can’t responsibly lend them your firearm.

    By analogy, imagine if an elected democrat wanted to shoot your gun – no! The jury will find that you, as a reasonable person, either knew or should have known he was a career felon, and an unindicted coconspirator in multiple racketeering cases.

  10. The “death threat” sent to Pat was posted hours after his comments on instagram confirming his support for UBC and three day waiting periods.

    It was posted by @cashnchaos, a troll/meme instagram account operated by a member of the firearms industry who is friends with Pat.

    All evidence points to Pat requesting some convenient Anita Sarkeesian style death threats so he could claim they made him react. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to conceal the timeline.

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