NRA Goes After Thomas the Tank Engine

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Why fight for gun rights when you can fight the culture war instead? Punctuate your point about terroristic multiculturalism by provocatively putting Thomas & Friends in KKK hoods:
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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/12/us/n ... ngine.html

Even by the standards of today’s political culture, it was a startling image: the talking trains from the children’s television show “Thomas & Friends,” wearing Ku Klux Klan hoods.

That was what viewers of the National Rifle Association’s online video channel saw as Dana Loesch, a spokeswoman for the gun rights group, took the show to task for diversifying its cast.

“They’ve decided that the next stop is Virtue Town,” Ms. Loesch said Friday on “Relentless,” the NRATV program that she hosts.

She was responding to news that the children’s show was adding several female and international characters.

The segment echoed complaints by some that the additions amounted to politically correct pandering. But it confounded many others who wondered why a spokeswoman for an organization known for fierce advocacy of gun rights would weigh in on programming aimed at preschoolers.

This is the NRA’s totally reasonable, super clever, and not a little bit racist response to a Nigerian train character being introduced.

Because... that character existing means...Thomas was in the KKK before? Or something?

Ok, I give up. This is disturbing as hell. pic.twitter.com/E7Yb9GSOVk
— Mike (@MaskedBrute) September 12, 2018

In the segment, Ms. Loesch, an outspoken conservative commentator, questioned the decision to add the new characters, including Nia, a train from Kenya. How, she asked, could the children’s show introduce “ethnic diversity” when its anthropomorphized characters are mostly trains?

“I’m really, really struggling to understand how in the world there isn’t any diversity in any of this,” she said, before showing a photo of several characters in Ku Klux Klan hoods in front of burning tracks.

“Fair, I get it,” she deadpanned in response to the image. “Thomas the Tank Engine has been a blight on race relations for far too long.”

The segment drew the beloved children’s franchise, whose story was created more than 70 years ago, into the increasingly partisan debate over diversity and multiculturalism.

In response, Mattel, which owns the Thomas the Tank Engine brand, said it had “always been a priority” for the company to promote inclusivity and kindness.

“We are not associated with images that promote hate and denounce any images of our brands that are being used to convey a message not in line with the values of the company,” it said.

“Thomas & Friends” had announced on Friday that it was adding the new characters in partnership with the United Nations, part of an effort to introduce its preschool audience to new cultures and issues.
In the show’s coming 22nd season, which begins this month on Nick Jr., the main character, Thomas the Tank Engine, will leave his home on the fictional island of Sodor for the first time in series history. He will travel to China, India and Australia, where he will meet other trains. The show will also add several new female characters.

All aboard for the #GlobalGoals! Join the @UN and @ThomasFriends on a journey towards a better world for children.#AllAboardForGlobalGoals pic.twitter.com/sxENxN2O2g
— UNICEF (@UNICEF) September 9, 2018

The character Thomas the Tank Engine was invented more than 70 years ago by the Rev. W. Awdry, as a story for his son. Mr. Awdry turned the story into the first of many books in 1945, and in 1984, Thomas became the star of a new British animated show that was narrated by Ringo Starr. The show made its American debut in 1989 on PBS.
The N.R.A. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Looney Tunes time at the NRA. Opportunity for an LGC Fall Membership Drive. Get a tote bag and Thomas & Friends!
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Re: NRA Goes After Thomas the Tank Engine

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Does ANYONE still doubt that the NRA is a KKKlukker and neo-nazi organization? Thomas the Tank Engine????? Narrated by Ringo Starr and George Carlin? My boys watched it when they were little, and my youngest LOVED it! For his 2nd birthday, we got him a Thomas cake! The face was actually a DVD case with a short Thomas video in it! (Now he's 13 and this was a distant memory).


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"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: NRA Goes After Thomas the Tank Engine

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Definitely off the tracks.
NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch said on Thursday that she couldn’t think of a single reason Democrats would have to impeach President Donald Trump if they take back the House of Representatives.

During an appearance on Fox & Friends, Loesch was asked about polls that say 70 percent of Democrats would like to see Trump impeached for obstruction of justice, violating the Constitution’s emolument’s clause or other “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

“I think what that’s going to do, it will probably be like a get out the vote effort,” Loesch told host Pete Hegseth. “Because this is what Democrats do every election. They can’t really say, ‘Hey, we love tax reform. Ugh, no we don’t.'”

“They don’t like trade, they don’t like manufacturing, they don’t like any of the foreign policy,” she continued. “This kind of [impeachment] talk is a get out the vote effort for Democrats. They don’t have voter enthusiasm over anything substantive so they have to use identity politics or the have to talk about impeachment.”

Loesch went on to insist that Democrats do not have a single reason to impeach the president.

“We’ve been told stuff is coming for two years now,” Loesch explained. “If it was there, it would have been leaked out by now.”

“I mean, I’m not a partisan zealot, by all means,” she added. “Anybody who was familiar with me during the primary season knows that I definitely wasn’t.”

“Show me some kind of evidence!” the NRA spokesperson exclaimed. “I haven’t seen anything! … Show us something that’s going to substantiate these silly claims.”
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/09/im-not ... ach-trump/
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: NRA Goes After Thomas the Tank Engine

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Man, poor Thomas the Tank Engine can't get a break.

It wasn't even that long ago the far left was saying Thomas the Tank Engine is "racist," "sexist," and even "Fascist."

Now it's pandering too hard to diversity? Because he's traveling the world? That's not even forced, that's perfectly sensible.

If the cycle of stupid continues as it always does, this will flip once again to accusations that Thomas the Tank Engine engages in "cultural appropriation" and "reinforces harmful stereotypes" due to the accents and decorations on the trains from other countries. :roll:

Can't a show about trains just be a show about trains? Not everything has to be politicized.

It's not even necessarily true that the show is going for virtue signalling. If I was a writer for the show I would be pushing for this world adventure angle just to have so many opportunities for new characters, interactions, and scenarios. Staying in the same yard for so long would be so limiting that I'm amazed this is the first they've gone into new territories.
"These are hard times, NOT end times!"
- Jon Stewart, Rally to Restore Sanity

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes.

Re: NRA Goes After Thomas the Tank Engine

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No one (meaningful) on the left (or anywhere else) was saying anything about Thomas the Tank Engine. How the fuck did the NRA even stumble across this shit? No one with any sense at all is likely to have any strong opinions about Thomas, but none of that matters, because as far as the NRA's target audience is concerned, everyone on the "left" is up in ams about Thomas the fucking Tank Engine's lack of diversity. It's an absolute cause celebre with us.

So, we're all pretty left of center here, right? Tell me the truth. How many of you had any idea that Thomas the Tank Engine was supposed to be a major left wing issue?

I'm guessing the answer is roughly zero percent.
Whatever I said above, just pretend I included the obligatory “both sides,” especially if I said something mean about Trump (don’t want to hurt any feelings).

www.schayden.com

Re: NRA Goes After Thomas the Tank Engine

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Anyone with half a brain can see what nonsense this is, Thomas & Friends (Thomas the Tank Engine) is a British Children's TV show, the KKK is unique to the United States.
This is just more of the Hard-Right whipping up garbage and making cultural attacks, reminds me of when the Religions Right went after PBS and Sesame Street claiming they were poisoning kids minds claiming Bert & Ernie was a
depiction of a Gay male relationship.

So if it's worth doing, it's worth over-doing! Let's take it a step farther with this f***ed up logic of theirs.

Big Bird - Transgender, pedophile and alcoholic (sees an elephant no one else can see - Mr. Snuffleupagus).
Oscar the Grouch - Street person
Cookie Monster - Drug addict

What a load of cobblers, but fear is the great motivator and the likes of Ms. Loesch and Wayne LaPierre are quite adept at this.
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable.

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