A few months ago, the investigative news magazine Mother Jones turned its sights on T.Rex Arms and published an exposé on this Tennessee holster company. Was it a searing hit piece, or a thoughtful affirmation of our core values? Well, thanks to the high level of political division today, it can be both!
A few months ago, the investigative news magazine Mother Jones turned its sights on T.Rex Arms and published an exposé on this Tennessee holster company. Was it a searing hit piece, or a thoughtful affirmation of our core values? Well, thanks to the high level of political division today, it can be both!
So the leftist magazine Mother Jones ran a expose possibly even an attempted hit piece on T-Rex arms and, to be honest, we kind of love it. Welcome back to another episode of T-Rex Talk. Today we're going to be analyzing the article that was written by Lila Hassan and published by Mother Jones, and there will be a link to the article in the show notes so you can follow along as we go. But some of you may be curious about what kind of magazine Mother Jones is or maybe who Mother Jones was. Historically. Mother Jones was the pseudonym of Mary Harris, who was a union organizer in the late 1800s and continued to be around for a number of radical social causes. She was kind of a professional activist and a member of the Socialist Party up through the early 1900s and the magazine Mother Jones was founded in 1976 and named after her because it is attempting to be a pretty radical magazine running a lot of political exposés and, yeah, kind of hit pieces on large corporations and, occasionally, individuals. There's actually some pretty interesting journalism that is done by a lot of the folks writing for Mother Jones. Their probably most famous piece was taking on the Ford Pinto back when the Ford Pinto was apparently a fireball explosion death trap. And there have been some interesting folks contributing to the magazine, like Glenn Greenwald, who is kind of an interesting character, and Michael Moore, who made the Bowling for Columbine film, was briefly the editor of the magazine before he was fired for reasons that nobody knows about. So interesting magazine with some interesting folks involved, occasionally doing interesting journalism, but always with a specifically political direction. Again, it's named after a famous socialist activist, so you can imagine where their sympathies generally lie.
Isaac:So let's talk a little bit about the article that came out in this month's or last month's magazine discussing T-Rex arms. We've talked about the idea that there is so much division inside of America right now, politically and culturally, that there are no longer just a single group of people looking through a single Overton window. We now have groups of people looking through two very separate Overton windows. You can mention Kyle Rittenhouse to one group of people and they have the exact opposite expectation than the other group of people being told about Kyle Rittenhouse. One see him as a hero, the others see him as a racist murderer. There doesn't have to be any context given and in fact in some ways no context can be given that will change the very polarizing nature of this one person being perceived totally differently by these two different groups. And in some ways I'd say that this mother jones article is sort of a perfect example of that, because this article is, uh is a worried, scary, negative article about T-Rex arms.
Isaac:But when I read it to you, I think that you will actually appreciate the article and I think that a bunch of us at T-Rex take a lot of the things in the article as compliments. I also want to say that the art actually the art is the weakest part. Like it's not terrible. It's definitely meme-worthy because it has a whole bunch of interesting things where I can see where they got this idea, but they don't really connect. Like, Lucas is wearing a bright orange hat because that's a thing that hunters wear, so it's connected to gun culture, but Lucas has never worn a bright orange hat. The camouflage is like that fake blue urban camouflage that looks kind of like a Hawaiian shirt that a Boogaloo boy might wear and he has a whole bunch of orthodox christian and skull iconography hanging from him which is just not, you know, not the t-rex arms style at all. And then he has the right number of fingers, but the gun definitely looks like it was drawn by either ai or a human cartoonist who doesn't really know what uh what guns look like. So it is. It is a pretty cool image from a meme perspective, but not super accurate. Fortunately, the article itself is much better researched and much, much, much more accurate, and we'll get into that now.
Isaac:At the start of a slickly produced 19-minute YouTube video titled how T-Rex Arms Got Started, Lukasz Botkin, the company's 30-year-old founder, runs through an obstacle course. A guitar-heavy soundtrack plays as Botkin, decked out in tactical gear and filtered through overwrought video effects, settle down, picks off targets with a variety of handguns and rifles. We briefly see the course from his eyes, first-person shooter style. When the drums bang to a halt, the video cuts to an interview where Bodkin explains his company's mission. We try to produce thought-provoking content and educational content that inspires people to understand their obligations to God and country and their responsibilities, he says over more shooting footage. Then we equip them with the necessary equipment so they can fulfill those obligations and those responsibilities with maximum effectiveness. I think that's a pretty solid description of the intro of that video, which I guess I'll also link to down in the show notes for those of you that haven't seen it.
Isaac:Family-run Christian Firearms Accessory Company think holsters, body armors and the like is at the forefront of what extremist researchers call GunTube, an ecosphere of gun influencers, whose videos peddle a wide range of conservative content. The company has more than 1.5 million YouTube subscribers. Its origin story video has been viewed more than 900,000 times Now. Maybe I don't need to link to it in the show notes. Sounds like you've already seen it. Its origin story video has been viewed more than 900,000 times Now. Maybe I don't need to link to it in the show notes. Sounds like you've already seen it.
Isaac:Botkin, who can cut a nerdy presence when digging into gun minutiae, has nearly half a million Instagram followers and enough right-wing cachet to have been an ambassador for Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA and have earned an appearance on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show the month before he left the network Again. This is all pretty solid stuff. The only nitpick that I would have at this point is extremism researchers shouldn't really call this little ecosphere gun tube, because it just it lives on YouTube. You can call them gun tubers, you can call it the gun community, you can call it a bunch of other stuff, and then the extremism researchers that she links to. It's, of course, an article from Everytown Support Fund. So yeah, not unbiased researchers, I would say. But speaking of researchers, the article goes on.
Isaac:They are jacks of all trades, says Megan Conroy, who monitors extremist influencers for the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab. What separates T-Rex Arms from the rest of the gun community, she says, is its masterful ability to create content that appeals to so many different people. Most popular videos offer product reviews and shooting tips. They are accompanied by a wide range of political content, including interviews with conservative officials and activists. In weekly T-Rex talks, Lucas and his brother sit in a dimly lit studio to discuss America in decay and how like-minded, God-oriented people can save it. Yeah, it is a pretty dimly lit studio, that is true, but I want to point something out that is really fascinating to me.
Isaac:I think it is really interesting that Megan Conroy, who monitors extremist influencers for the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, has highlighted the fact that T-Rex is made up of jacks of all trade. I think that is extremely important, but it isn't really one of the first things that I would have mentioned. But as I thought about this, I think that that is a really, really key thing, One of the most fascinating things about T-Rex arms. One of the differentiators, one of our greatest strengths, probably is the fact that we have some specialists. Now for sure, but at the beginning of T-Rex arms, most of the growth of T-Rex arms, there has been an incredibly strong jack-of-all-trade flavor, not just across the brothers, but a whole bunch of different people at T-Rex Heart and soul of T-Rex are jack of all trades people, People who are willing to wear a lot of hats, People who are willing to learn new skills, People who are willing to jump into the deep end of new complicated projects or stuff that they have never done before and T-Rex has never done before. I do think that that is a huge, huge part of the DNA of T-Rex Now that if you'd asked me about it, I probably would have said yeah, but it wouldn't have been one of the first things that I bring up. And I want to say kudos both to Megan Conroy for recognizing this and also for the author of the article for leading with that, because, yeah, I think that is a solid observation. I think that is well pointed out and tremendously insightful. But let us get back to that dimly lit studio.
Isaac:The next sentence of the article says they often reference the end times and urge their viewers to seize control before things get worse. Okay, I do have to raise a point of order here. We don't actually talk about the end times. This is an example of how oftentimes, non-Christian reporters will broad brush a whole bunch of different Christian groups and denominations together, not really understand the differences. Generally speaking, everybody at T-Rex is post-millennial. That means we don't actually believe in the end times the way that premillennial dispensationalists do. So you might consider this to be a minor little bit of eschatological nitpicking, and maybe so, but it is technically wrong. I don't think we ever talked about the end in any of the T-Rex talk episodes until this one, and urging viewers to seize control before things get worse is also, I would say, pretty significant mischaracterization.
Isaac:You have a responsibility to take care of other people. I think that's pretty different than seizing control. You have a responsibility to speak the truth. You have a responsibility to stand up and uphold the constitution. These are different than seizing control. And yeah, just yeah. It's maybe less of a minor nitpick. They are selling products, says Max Rizzuto, another Atlantic Council researcher, and the product is ideology too. Hmm, yeah, checks out, For example, in the days following the 2020 election, Lucas and his older brother, Isaac, a designer at the company, who frequently appears on T-Rex Talks.
Isaac:I did. I did frequently appear and now I am frequently heard on the T-Rex Talks. They discussed journalism. We're at a place right now where a lot of people don't trust the mainstream media, Isaac said, to which Lucas quickly responded reasonably. So the brothers argued that reporters should be held accountable for their coverage of topics like COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter protests.
Isaac:I'm starting to wonder when a news network will be actually prosecuted for things they say that result in the death of people, which I think has happened in the past four years. Lucas said it results in people getting killed or businesses getting burned, looted, theft, and they're not being held responsible for it. So this is kind of an interesting point for me, because I don't believe that Mother Jones has ever considered itself to be part of the mainstream media. They are a radical magazine. They've called themselves that several times. They've called out mainstream media many times in the past several years. So this is kind of an interesting criticism, especially now because there actually have been a number of media outlets and government institutions that have been required, somewhat held to account but definitely corrected on some of their media coverage of COVID-19. The FDA was recently ordered to take down all of its anti-invermectin stuff. A court found that it was misleading, that it was incorrect, that it was false. So there are some of these things that are happening. There have been times when journalists were wrong. There have also been times when Mother Jones journalists have taken other journalists to task. So this is an interesting paragraph.
Isaac:I don't disagree with their depictions of what we were saying in that particular episode. As I can remember it, Lucas went on to predict that economic collapse was very likely in his lifetime. I'd like to point out that the US dollar has lost about 24% of its value since we recorded that episode and this article was published by Mother Jones, just to point that out. Quote from Lucas the way we live can be radically different 30 years from now. Again, the way we live now is radically different than 30 years ago, which I can remember and I don't know. This doesn't seem worthy of this article.
Isaac:This article has some serious, good, solid research in it and it is very short. It's about 1,400 words. A lot of research has been done. A huge amount of time has been put into this article and Mother Jones actually, I think chopped it down quite a bit. So it's a little odd to me that this very basic stuff is in here when I think there's more stuff that they could cover In another stream.
Isaac:Lucas warned of the apocalyptic prospect of a nationwide gun ban. I think that's probably true too. I'm sure that he wasn't saying that the gun ban itself would be apocalyptic, but the results of gun bans that we can see through history generally have specific outcomes and the results are pretty negative. The article continues they were pushing every single one of the narratives that we have seen emerge out of the right-wing space, says John Lewis, a research fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University which reviewed T-Rex Arms' videos at Mother Jones' request. By pairing Second Amendment fear-mongering with broader culture war issues, he said the Botkins have identified a common enemy for their large, mostly male audience. It's laying out there that tyranny is coming and needs to be resisted with arms. Again, this is pretty basic stuff. I would say that John Lewis at George Washington University is doing like pretty kindergarten level analysis of stuff compared to Megan Conroy at the Atlantic Council. I also think that, saying that we're pushing every single one of the narratives that the program on extremism has seen emerge out of the right-wing space. That can't possibly be true. But saying that tyranny is coming and it needs to be resisted with arms, I think that that is fair, but I don't think we're saying that in a super specific way. History teaches that tyranny always comes, power, always corrupts and it always needs to be resisted and the resistance requires force and force requires arms. Like this is, this is like political theory 101. But their core messages, Lewis adds, are similar to what 70-year-old family patriarch Jeffrey Botkin has also promoted on YouTube, but to a much smaller audience.
Isaac:The elder Botkin is a preacher and author who adheres to a hardline version of Christianity and is an advocate of the fundamentalist quiverful movement which encourages women to live with their parents until marriage, after which they are meant to give birth as much as possible so Christians can rule over society. That is a very long and inflammatory sentence. Quick side note for many, many, many years I have heard people talking about this shadowy and mysterious, highly organized, quiverful organization that theoretically exists to make people have more kids, and I can tell you and I can confirm. The article goes on to say that Jeffrey and his wife Victoria have seven children and I can tell you that no shadowy organization is necessary to make people have lots of kids. It is, in fact, the norm throughout all of history in many cultures, biblical based cultures and other faiths. It's just researchers and journalists inside of New York and California and other places where the birth rate is super low that think that this is weird and creepy and artificial.
Isaac:But back to the article. He and his wife, Victoria, have seven children, including two stay-at-home daughters, whose own website features discussions of proper womanhood and Christianity. They are not actually at home, though, so there's a quote. Put simply, we are two very unworthy daughters of a merciful, heavenly father, they explain On Instagram. Lucas is called his father, who serves on the company's board, the man responsible for much of the backbone and principles behind T-Rex Arms, which is very true. Now it just so happens that Dad is not actually on the board of T-Rex Arms, but he has been in the past and he is certainly responsible for much of the backbone and principles behind T-Rex Arms. So kudos for Lucas for pointing that out, Kudos for the researcher, Laila Hassan, for finding that, Because I think that is a very important part of the T-Rex Arms story, the T-Rex Arms mission, the T-Rex Arms culture, and again, I think that this is important to highlight the speculation about some shadowy, quiverful movement is, you know, it's just sort of internet's hyperbole.
Isaac:But pointing out that our parents have had a major influence on our values and that you can see their influence in the things that we want to do with the company, I think that I think that is actually um well done. It would have been pretty easy for this reporter to just follow a whole bunch of other weird shadowy conspiracy theories about cults from the internet and make that the main center point of the article. But uh, in an age when multi-generational vision or multi-generational culture is pretty rare, I do think that this is worth pointing out and I do think this is an aspect of T-Rex Arms, the company, that is worth bringing up. The article continues Jeffrey was once senior consultant to the Western Conservatory of the Arts and Sciences, an organization offering advice on family building and religious living. Lucas, Isaac and other family members have held positions with this organization. Yes, that was also a family business, so very true.
Isaac:He was also the author of several self-published books, including Father to Son Manly Conversations that Can Change Culture, which features a young Lucas on the cover. That was actually a DVD series, but in it features a young Lucas on the cover. That was actually a DVD series, but in it, Jeffrey argues that Jesus commands men to be armed to resist tyranny, and that gun control laws lead to dictatorships and genocide, and that men have militant natures and a natural desire to fight that fathers should nurture. Again, this is super basic stuff that for hundreds of years, for thousands of years, have been understood, and actually I think Mother Jones has probably written articles about toxic masculinity that recognize some of these things as well, with the exception of the fathers should nurture them. That statement they would disagree with. But yeah, I'm also not 100% sure that that was Lucas on the cover. That might have been Noah, but if I can't remember, I certainly shouldn't fault Laila Hassan for not knowing the difference. That would be embarrassing.
Isaac:In 2020, at the height of the pandemic lockdowns and their cultural upheaval, Jeffrey launched Stand Up and Lead a series of videos and podcasts responding to topics like critical race theory, the COVID vaccine and election fraud, but his view counts cannot compare to those racked up by the videos put out by his son's company. And while Lucas says he doesn't agree with all of Jeffrey's positions, T-Rex Arms' content is infused with an ideology that jibes with his father's relief. I think this is another really good observation. I mean, I certainly don't agree with all of my dad's opinions. I don't agree with all of Lucas's opinions. This is how opinions work.
Isaac:But that strong ideology that they say infuses T-Rex content is what I would call traditional Christianity, little-o Orthodox Christianity. It is not particularly unique across history. It is not particularly unique across history. It is not particularly unique among Christians. It only seems odd and strange and otherworldly to people who are, you know, outside of that world. That is, I think, the thing that really ties a lot of these things together and a lot of people together inside of T-Rex and a lot of people together outside of T-Rex. Think a huge number of the die-hard T-Rex fans and maybe you who are listening to this podcast right now.
Isaac:It is this core ideology that infuses T-Rex that you really jibe with as well. Is jibe the right word? Vibe is the modern internet way of saying that Weapons are part of my religion, not in a ceremonial way. Isaac says in a video where he claims that the founding fathers drew on scriptural tradition when framing the second amendment. Okay, this is.
Isaac:I'm not going to recant or apologize for this statement, but I am slightly embarrassed by it because, if I remember correctly, when I said weapons are part of my religion, it was in the middle of, uh, mandalorian season one, when it was still a decent show and it was still kind of a cool thing to say. And now, uh, we're several more seasons into that show and a bunch of other star wars shows and I kind of wish, uh kind of wish, it hadn't become what it is now. But nevertheless, this is a true statement, especially going on when I said, apparently, and probably did using tools to fulfill the responsibilities that I believe that I have because of my religion is very important. Weapons are sometimes the tools required. I absolutely believe that this is true. I absolutely believe that the founding fathers believe that this is true. I absolutely believe that they had a scriptural tradition for allowing people to defend themselves and have the tools to defend themselves, and I think that there could be some more content on that. But it is interesting that there are cultures that have weapons as part of their religion, but in a ceremonial way. There are various Southeast Asian religions that have specific ceremonial weapons. There's a bunch actually that I can think of, even in pagan and you know, I'd say some modern witchcraft as well, where there are certain knives that have ceremonial purposes but not practical, outside of ritualistic stuff, and I would say that weapons are part of the Christian culture in the way that practical, useful tools are part of the Christian culture.
Isaac:These sorts of messages fit into a larger Christian nationalist framework, says University of Oklahoma sociologist Samuel Perry, Along with the support for authoritarian violence, is undeniably a view that we have been persecuted, done wrong, that we are hated, that the left is in control of our society and that we have to take it back. Perry says it is difficult to talk about guns and the celebration of gun culture without talking about the patriarchy, the fascination with high fertility families and the fascination with violence and the broader populist movement. It's all in there, Okay. So this is interesting. He starts off, Samuel Perry, by saying, along with the support for authoritarian violence. So is this an authoritarian message that he believes that is being touted, or is it a populist movement? Because obviously people who are in favor of firearm freedoms believe that they are resisting authoritarian governments which are, you know, taking the guns away. So populism and authoritarianism are things that I don't think are well defined or understood by the University of Oklahoma.
Isaac:Apparently I thought maybe this quote from Samuel Perry might be a sort of a generic article talking about gun culture, but I couldn't find it anywhere else in any Google searches. So I think that he is probably talking specifically about T-Rex arms. And again I would like to say kudos to Laila Hassan for some really solid journalistic work. This is a lot of people that she has gone to talk to, a lot of people who have looked into videos and commented on them. You know some with, I would say, a little more more insight than others, but this is potentially a really serious article with some serious legwork behind it and I have to say kudos. But then I also have to say why is this article only 1,400 words long? There could have been quite a bit more here. This is a lot of work for such a short article and this comment it's difficult to talk about guns and the celebration of gun culture without also talking about patriarchy, high fertility, families, etc. I actually think that it is easy to talk about all of these things separately and I can think of an awful lot of people who do talk about all of these things separately. In fact, it's harder for me to come up with people who are talking about these sorts of issues all of a piece, but it's harder for me to come up with people who are talking about these sorts of issues all of a piece. But it's apparently part of the broader populist movement and apparently it all comes back to a fascination with violence. If this were a longer article perhaps we'd understand more about what this gentleman is trying to say. But let's go on.
Isaac:Despite the Botkin's avowed distaste for the state, Lucas has boasted on various platforms, mostly in now-deleted posts, that T-Rex Arms offers drills and training to law enforcement and the military. That is hmm, now-deleted posts is interesting to me. I'm sure that there are some now-deleted posts here and there, but I really don't think that that's something that we have changed attack on, particularly While the Bodkins did not respond to requests for comment. Mother Jones found no evidence to back these claims. Spending records confirm local governments do purchase T-Rex arms equipment like batteries for SWAT gear and uniforms. That is interesting because we do not sell uniforms. That is interesting because we do not sell uniforms.
Isaac:But this is an interesting point. How is it that T-Rex arms could be, according to Samuel Perry, supporting authoritarian violence, and why would we train law enforcement officers from police departments if we had a distaste for the state? Well, it definitely shows somewhat of a lack of an understanding about different jurisdictions. You can say that an authority is operating outside of their jurisdiction over here, but other authorities are operating inside of their jurisdiction and they should have tools and weapons. For example, local law enforcement has a very important job to enforce the law, and then you can have other law enforcement agencies operating outside of their jurisdiction and those people can be condemned for their actions without local law enforcement still having some responsibilities and, if they're doing them well, still needing support in those things.
Isaac:But this article is not long enough to dig deeply into that. The next paragraph is somewhat related, though. It says T-Rex Arms also encourages its fans and customers to play an active role in state politics. In a video titled how to Pass Pro-2A Legislation, the T-Rex Arms team outlines the lobbying strategy it deployed to successfully press Governor Bill Lee to repeal the state's ammunition tax in 2019 and pushed viewers to engage in the same kind of work. Yeah, I mean you can kind of see here the idea is that local people get involved with local government. That is not tyranny, nor is it authoritarianism. If you have responsibilities to help your local representatives see what their oaths to the Constitution mean and to take part in local politics by voting and talking to the people who represent you, that is yeah, it's very scary in this article, apparently, but I guarantee you that Mother Jones is going to talk about defending democracy and getting young people out to vote later this year. I guarantee it.
Isaac:During his March 2023 interview with Carlson, Lucas claimed that he uses T-Rex to educate people on why communism is a bad idea and why capitalism can be a good thing. He added that is really where the conversation needs to be. A lot of people focus on the gun part, which is frustrating to me, when it really should be a focus on cultural in general and principle in general. The gun is just a piece people bring up as a talking point. When Lucas later suggested his company might eventually sell ammunition, Carlson praised him as smart and said the T-Rex Arms was a multi-million dollar company. Your parents, Carlson added, did an amazing job at transmitting their values.
Isaac:That is where the article ends, which I think is a fantastic end to an article which I wish were longer, Because I do think that this has captured some of the real core of what T-Rex is. Now. There's a lot of hand-wringing and a lot of concern and a lot of trying to tie T-Rex to. Now. There's a lot of hand-wringing and a lot of concern and a lot of trying to tie T-Rex to other authoritarian and populist movements, and you know every single one of the narratives that are emerging out of the right-wing space. I think that is a little bit unfair, but overall, I have to say once again well done, Laila Hassan, on this particular article.
Isaac:Good research and some excellent, insightful points, mixed with exactly the sort of thing that I would expect from Mother Jones' perspective. Also, to be fair, I'd like to point out that they did in fact reach out for comment and we did in fact decline to comment, and I think that the article is perfectly fine, without us attempting to clarify any of this stuff, and as we've discussed this article in-house, one of the things that has come up in the conversation is that there are a lot of, I would say, political allies local Republicans, national Republicans. There are other companies in the gun industry who do not understand what makes T-Rex tick or what makes T-Rex different from other gun companies or what is sort of the core goal of T-Rex, despite being friends and allies. And Laila Hassan has actually done, I think, a better job of drilling down to some of the core values and saying these are things that their dad taught them being a jack of all trades, being able to wear many hats, being willing to connect the dots from responsibilities over here to responsibilities over there. I think that this is all really solid observations. Again, the presupposition is that T-Rex Arms is bad for doing these things and the things that we're bringing up are in fact wrong, and that it's scary that it's happening this way. But it is still a pretty good analysis, even outside of those conclusions. So once again, I would say this is an illustration of where we are politically and culturally as a country.
Isaac:This article on its own will be read by left leaning people as a horrific condemnation of T-Rex arms, an incredibly scary little multi-million dollar holster company that believes in horrific Christian values. And then other people will read this article or perhaps listen to this podcast and just say hello, based department, and then whatever the rest of the meme is, I can't remember. There's only one other point that I want to make. I want to go back to that University of Oklahoma sociologist Samuel Perry. I again, I do think that his analysis is the weakest part of the article. It is the least insightful, it is the most generic. I think he's just thrown out buzzwords that he knows that the Mother Jones audience, the Mother Jones readers, will be concerned about and throwing them all into one paragraph and saying that it's hard to talk about them separately. But he talks about this support for authoritarian violence which, again, we at T-Rex absolutely oppose. We are not on the side of the state having monopoly on violence or authoritarian governments existing at all.
Isaac:And then he says there is this view that we have been persecuted, done wrong, that we are hated. The left is in control of our society and we have to take it back. Let me focus on that. We have been persecuted, done wrong and are hated bit. Because I think that is another thing that is wildly misunderstood by these two different sides, these two polarized, opposite cultural sides, looking through two different Overton windows. I think that it is true to say that people on the right are hated, but I think that people on the right, and particularly Christians, are going to look at that very differently. On the left, to be hated is a huge crime. It is something that must be remedied. It is something that must be punished. It is something that has to be remedied. It is something that must be punished. It is something that has to be completely changed. It is a reason for massive cultural upheaval and action.
Isaac:The right will often see being hated differently and for a very specifically different reason. Jesus says very clearly in scripture that it is not a shame to be hated by his enemies. Matthew 5, verse 10, says blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. Matthew 25 says the same thing. Luke 6 says the same thing. John 15 says if the world hates, you know that it hated me before it hated you. John 17 says the same thing. There is a Christian idea that there is no shame in being hated or persecuted for righteousness.
Isaac:Now, this could be a good gauge of what level of conservatism a person espouses.
Isaac:If a person is on the right and they believe that being criticized and being hated is a thing that must be punished, then perhaps they have gotten too far away from this foundation and they're reading too much from the left's playbook.
Isaac:But if you truly have a Christian foundation for your conservatism, if you actually have something to conserve, then being hated for being right is in no means a condemnation of righteousness and it shouldn't cause us to change tack and it shouldn't cause us to change direction. So that's part of the reason that reading this article from mother jones, which is ideologically opposed to t-rex arms, is nevertheless something that I find encouraging. And again I have to say kudos for some solid legwork, some solid leather shoe journalism being done by Laila Hassan, surprisingly good analysis by the Atlantic Center. And keep listening to this podcast, because there's going to be articles like this, written about other gun companies and written about you. So just you know, get used to it and figure out where your priorities lie If the hatred of the world is something that is going to cause you to change direction. No-transcript.