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The “gunfluencer” turned Texas Republican congressional candidate Brandon Herrera posted to YouTube a video in which he wears a balaclava, fires an Armalite rifle, uses Irish stereotypes while joking about the IRA, and says he “fucking hate[s] the British.”
“I’m not doing it because I like or support the IRA,” says Herrera, now 28 and a candidate for the Republican nomination in Texas’ 23rd U.S. House district, in the video posted on March 17, 2023—St Patrick’s Day—and titled “The AR-180: The IRA’s Lucky Charm.”
“They were pretty heavily socialist. Of course they really hurt a lot of innocent people sometimes. I’m not doing this video because I like the IRA or I support them. I’m doing this video because I fucking hate the British.
“Guys, I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Mostly.”
…
Speaking to The Daily Beast, Aidan McQuade, from Northern Ireland and a former director of Anti-Slavery International, the world’s oldest human rights group, condemned Herrera for displaying “jaw-dropping stupidity” in his IRA-themed video.
“It is quite an achievement to make a video of which the anti-Irish stereotyping is the least offensive part,” McQuade said.
Other remarks by Herrera in the video include a promise to get “belligerently drunk” to celebrate St Patrick’s Day and, “The IRA [were] very famously unhappy for a certain group of folks going after their Lucky Charms,” a reference to famous ads for a U.S. breakfast cereal featuring a leprechaun character.
Over footage of a gun jamming, meanwhile, Herrera says: “This is why Ireland isn’t free.”
McQuade said: “From a historical perspective it is jaw-droppingly stupid to suggest that the course of the Troubles could have been changed with a more dependable Armalite.
“From a human perspective, Herrera’s attitude to violence seems that of an adolescent video-gamer blissfully ignorant of the trauma that war inflicts on a society, and the unending grief of victims’ devastated families.”
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He may have misunderstood the R in IRA. He’s welcome to pop over to Northern Ireland where someone will set him straight.
Bro really went off the deep end, huh
Either that or he already lives in the deep end. He is a “gunfluencer” after all.
Yeah, but it’s not like Forgotten Weapons is off the deep end. Ian’s actually a decent guy in my eyes.
EDIT: Also Hickok45. Another cool guy.
I’m British, that all feels… if not the deep end then on the slope to it.
His only point, per him, is his hatred of the British. I tried for a few minutes to think of a group that fought the British that he could cosplay as but I came up blank. Either they were fighting for religious freedom (not his so that’s out), they were fighting to avoid colonialism (he’s all about that), or they wanted to remove autocrats (totally against his party).
The Romans? Technically fighting Britons but it’s close enough.
The Romans didn’t exclude folks from society based on the color of their skin. I think that’s a really good call because a lot of the other things line up but the whole “black people need separate but equal shit” from the US right attitude doesn’t mesh.
Good point. How about thr Vikings? They fought the Picts and caused the collapse of their kingdom as well as raiding along the coast. They may have been equal-opportunity slavers but they evidence for black Vikings is skimpy.
edit: Also the right love their Norse imagery
Yeah but there are genderfluid Norse gods and Viking women were both allowed to own property and request divorces. That last one is a big deal for the US right ever since Matt Walsh got dumped. I did have to hunt for a reason on this one so I think it’s definitely closer.
Right then, challenge accepted. How about William of Orange? A relatively bloodless coup in England but it was less genteel in Ireland which was, at the time, British. Extra points in it’s favour: it’d piss the IRA off.
I think this one gets the paper crown. While he was supported by the British, our cosplayer doesn’t say he wouldn’t take shadow dollars from foreign investors which is in fact a current tenet of several major US political figures. You can hate someone while taking their money.
Protestant, white, abandoned his wife, involved in frivolous conflict. Good cosplay for this nut.
