Brandon Herrera, who is challenging GOP incumbent Tony Gonzales in Tuesday’s runoff, was called “jaw-droppingly stupid” by a Northern Ireland human rights campaigner.

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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  • thesmokingman@programming.dev
    31·
    6 months ago

    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.

    • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝@feddit.ukOPMEnglish
      3·
      6 months ago

      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.

      • thesmokingman@programming.dev
        3·
        6 months ago

        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.