Just when you thought you might hate the mainstream media as much as you possibly can for the work they do smearing the truth as fiction and fiction as fact, NBC News comes along and says, “Hold my Bud Light.”
Someone named Kimmy Yam, with less than five years banging the keyboards at the Peacock Network, took a “report” issued by a suspect nonprofit and dashed off a story without even taking even a moment to assess the highly dubious claims a “civil rights group” called Chinese for Affirmative Action.
That’s right: Yam doesn’t bother to do any checking of the “facts” presented by this outfit, its founders, or those who fund its mission. At least she makes no mention of any of that in her report. Is this “Chinese for Affirmative Action” a Chinese Communist Party front group? No one who reads the NBC News report will have any idea.
The CAA report, and Yam’s story, classify some simple truths about firearms in America as…wait for it…misinformation. Guns are necessary for self-defense? According to CAA that’s clearly false (never mind that they’re used more than 1.6 million times a year for precisely that reason). And contrary to best intentions of America’s Founders, banning guns is not, in fact, a step toward authoritarian rule.
Thanks to the apparent lack of due diligence and research by Ms. Yan (her LinkedIn bio here), NBC continues to illustrate why Americans no longer trust mainstream media outlets. Publishing outright falsehoods as a fact-checking exercise and ridiculing actual facts as fiction goes far beyond generating fake news for clicks. This “story” serves as nothing but an Orwellian attempt to gaslight Americans.
See if you can spot the truths NBC claims are “misinformation” . . .
Gun violence misinformation has found a new home on Chinese language social media, report says
Growing misinformation about gun violence is permeating Chinese-language social media, a new report shows.
The report, released Tuesday by the civil rights nonprofit group Chinese for Affirmative Action, pointed to five dominant narratives emerging — largely on WeChat — including the idea that banning guns is a step toward authoritarianism, while gun ownership represents “democracy.”
Another popular belief the report surfaced is that U.S. law enforcement isn’t obligated to protect people, so gun ownership is a necessary element of self-defense, particularly in an era of anti-Asian hate.
We hate to burst Ms. Yam’s bubble, but the Supreme Court ruled almost two decades ago that law enforcement is not, in fact, obligated to protect individuals. You might think that would be taught at Georgetown, but, well, no you wouldn’t.
Or perhaps Yam simply elect to ignore that fact in order to promote a narrative. Maybe we should Occam’s Razor this and assume that Yam is paid by the story and didn’t do anything more than re-write an executive summary and call it “ready to publish” out of laziness.
“We are worried the same tragedies will happen again and again,” said Jinxia Niu, the program manager of CAA’s Chinese digital engagement initiative, speaking about gun violence.
It’s not “gun violence.” It’s gang violence and recidivist violence. But don’t take our word for it, even Merrick Garland says so.
Researchers identified over 100 widely circulated posts, amassing roughly 2 million views, featuring pro-gun misinformation across several social media platforms. Just under half of the misinformation and disinformation circulated on WeChat, a platform with a feed that includes public posts. An estimated three-quarters of the Chinese American community uses the app, the report said.
The report looked into the spread of gun violence disinformation over 23 months from January 2022 to December 2023.
Other key narratives found mirror American right-wing conspiracies, such as the idea that gunmen in mass shootings are often Black, people of color or transgendered, and are affiliated with Democrats; that Democrats’ gun control policies have led to increased crime and shootings; and that “good guys with guns” have the ability to prevent crime.
“Conspiracies?” Those are no doubt treated as conspiracies by the Chinese Communist Party.
More and more Americans have had it with the corporate media and their outright, transparent propaganda. Russian collusion in 2016? Election fraud in 2020? Never! January 6th was an armed insurrection? COVID vaccinations are safe, work splendidly and never have negative health consequences for those who partake? Don’t forget to remember how Bidenomics is glorious and inflation is a figment of our imagination.
The CAA seems to be deathly afraid that poor, deluded Chinese Americans might come to believe that firearms can be used for individual self-defense and as a bulwark against tyranny. Why would that scare anyone?
In some cases, previous experiences with censorship and restrictions of free speech make Chinese Americans vulnerable to such narratives. The belief that gun ownership is an “indicator for freedom,” for example, often stems from criticisms of China’s government, Niu said. Additionally, pro-gun messaging in Western media often warns of the infringement of the Second Amendment and potential dangers of government control, the report says.
The report also identified a disinformation narrative that places blame on a shooter’s background when the person is a Democrat, Black, transgender or from a marginalized group.
Here’s a link to the report Yam used in the report and an excerpt:
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, gun ownership has increased among Asian Americans, a group that has had historically low levels of gun ownership and high support for gun control measures. At the same time, disinformation about gun violence circulates mostly unchecked on Chineselanguage social media. Through our Chinese Digital Engagement program including PiYaoBa, our Chinese-language fact-checking site, Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) has documented 104 major pieces of pro-gun disinformation circulating on Chinese-language social media platforms. In total, these 104 pieces of gun disinformation have amassed over 2 million views. We have also identified over 100 right-wing Chinese-language accounts actively spreading disinformation and political propaganda about gun violence and other topics on WeChat, Twitter, Telegram, and YouTube.
This report covers a 23-month period, from January 2022 to December 2023, enumerating what the main disinformation narratives are in Chinese-language social media and where they spread.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Key disinformation narratives about guns on Chinese-language social media:
• Narrative 1: Banning guns is a step towards authoritarianism while gun ownership represents “democracy.”
• Narrative 2: Police in the U.S. are not obligated to protect people, thus owning guns is necessary for self-defense, especially in these times of rising anti-Asian hate.
• Narrative 3: The shooters in mass shootings are Black, people of color, or transgender, and are affiliated with Democrats.
• Narrative 4: The gun control policies of Democrats has led to increased crime and shootings.
• Narrative 5: Good guys with guns will stop bad guys from committing crimes.
Good guys with guns will stop bad guys from committing crimes? Not exactly true. Good guys (and gals) with guns are the only things that stop bad guys from committing violent crimes.
Also, Armed Asians don’t get bashed.
And relying on sketchy non-profits that might be funded by the Chinese Communist Party doesn’t make for good journalism.
6 Responses
So in other words an agent of the CCP no doubt being watched by other agents of the CCP doesn’t want any Chinese people getting any ideas that might upset the CCP.
America is disinformation at this point and its founding documents only conspiracy theories pushed by anti-democracy extremists. Really, we’ve always been a colony. A globalist colony.
“Chinese for Affirmative Action” is about as revolting as “Christians for Gay Marriage.”
NBC is full up with bull feces.
We have a fair number of anticommunist descendents of the former Chinese government living in NY (likely why we got the PRC secret police station) and they have more and better guns than I do. Was interesting comparing notes on how their country was taken over vs Eastern Europe.
*Breaking*
California’s 9th circuit just ruled a non-violent felon cannot lose 2A rights for life.
(Likely, they will still play games like not for life, but in 50 years, knowing them)…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqcbx1Kc6UU
Couldn’t get Dan’s email to accept this story so here it is.
Ninth Circuit finds that convicted felons also have Second Amendment rights | Courthouse News Service
https://www.courthousenews.com/ninth-circuit-finds-that-convicted-felons-also-have-second-amendment-rights/