An experience I had

[Bob The Mercenary]

I had planned to make this post immediately after I got back from our trip to see my brother in Wisconsin. But, I was sidetracked with work and general exhaustion and just lost interest in it. Then I had dinner with my parents tonight and realized the entire trip was in fact not a hallucination and I needed to vent.

For those of you who have only been here for a year or two (noobs), you wouldn't have had the pleasure of living through my raging conservative years where I routinely bashed pundits and celebrities who could be labeled as left of center. I constantly accused the mods and other members of ignorance, our media as being biased, and anyone who disagreed with me of being brainwashed. To be honest, I am lost as to how my screen name is still white.

Though, in my defense, it's funny how easy it is to dismiss critics of your own views when their online aliases are represented by...Black Mage...a floating skull...members of the cast of Aqua Teen Hunger Force...

So I doubted. Of course I doubted. I was right of course. The nice men on the radio told me I was. If I thought anything different, I was going to destroy the country!

Well, allow me to make one massive retraction, and I say this with complete sincerity.

You were right, NPF. You were always right. And I should have trusted you.


Allow me to recount the experience I had two weeks ago:

First off, my mom has puppy dog eyes that could guilt the KKK into donating to the NAACP. So I gave in to her demand that I go on a trip with her and my stepfather to the 2011 NRA Convention in Pittsburgh.

...

Okay fuck this, I was going to detail all of the events of the trip one by one in a well structured story, but now my stepdad is talking and when my stepdad talks I get angry.

Here's what happened at the convention:

-I walked into a convention center filled with rich, white, overweight men over 40. I could count the minorities on one hand. The same minorities I later saw featured on a news story detailing the diversity there.

-I told a man waiting in line behind me, laughing, "usually when I go to conventions everyone's in costume. Here it's all guns." He responded, "you have a problem with that?" I said, "no". He said, "good, it's American." I didn't bother asking what he meant.

-My stepdad has a habit of wearing a cowboy hat...EVERYWHERE. We went to a SPORTS BAR in PITTSBURGH and he wouldn't take the damn thing off. Though in retrospect I shouldn't have been so self conscious about it. I mean...Ash Ketchum...

-In the hotel room, my stepdad saw black people on television protesting the convention and said, I shit you not, "shouldn't they be doing drugs or listening to rap?" He also made several comments about leeching off the government.

-On the way out to the convention he continually pointed out Asian drivers, and emulated their voices...poorly.

-He continually used the phrase, "I'm not racist, but..."


My mom had also purchased tickets to an event called the NRA Freedom Experience, a series of speeches that took place in the Consol Energy Center where we saw:

-One black person in the crowd

-Michael Reagan talk about how we should love our enemies...then immediately called Liberals evil and essentially said we should kick all illegals out of the country. He also talked about how great his father was.

-One nice Pakistani born man sitting in front of me

-Mike Huckabee spread the typical drivel about our healthcare being destroyed and our freedom and liberty being in jeopardy.

-Jeff Foxworthy...which was the only positive in this entire thing.

-The President of the NRA give awards to eight people on stage, all rich white men, then give a speech on how in the 1700s it was mandatory for Americans to own guns.

I wish I could remember every single thing, because there were more. And if you want to thoroughly rip the speeches, they are all on youtube.

It might seem melodramatic, but I went through a genuine awakening on this trip. I looked on the entire convention with disgust. I looked around the Consol Center at the drones, the robots clapping their hands and nodding their heads to lies that are now obvious to me. I actually teared up at one point, that I used to be like that. And I promised myself I would never go back.