You might’ve heard that The National Liberty Federation co-opted an image from Bioshock Infinite on their Facebook page recently. The image portrays George Washington defending against the evil foreign hordes while being surrounded by examples of Americana.
It was meant to be satire against groups like the NLF and the Tea Party, taking what they believe and perverting it to the point of mocking derision. To put it bluntly, the creators made it quite easy to attack the enemies in their game.
The NLF didn’t see it that way and used the image without any irony involved. Or at least that’s what we were meant to believe! From their Facebook:
To all the publications and visitors to our site who wrote about our post of December 14th, regarding the “BioShock Infinite” Propaganda.
We have a zero tolerance policy on racism and have removed the post, as it has done its job. We are not the “Red Cross” and firmly believe that the Constitution and the future of America is at stake. The reality is our voice is rarely heard in the media let alone in DC. Thus we are and will remain unapologetically Constitutionalists.
We want to let you know you brought us the best site advertisement we’ve had all year… We were litterally flooded with new people not only laughing at us, which we expected, but also congratulating us on seeing things differently and having the guts to post it…
We invite all the media to visit us whenever you need a good story and hopefully all the hordes of people will follow you as well… It’s time they heard the other side of DC politics and if our plan works, we should be gaining many new readers now that they know we’re here.
One more thing MSNBC, we are the National Liberty Federation, not the National Liberation Foundation… Get it right next time!!!
In Liberty,
The Team at NLF
It’s been a weekend of backtracking and grandstanding, so this could just be an effort to save face. No one wants to be viewed as a racist isolationist, unless of course you’re a card carrying Klansman. That’s why I sort of feel like this statement is just an effort to rebuke criticism.
But on the flip side, groups like The Westboro Baptist Church use this sort of tactic all the time. Incite rage and public outcry in an effort to get publicity for your cause and beliefs. Either way, the NLF used the image on their official Facebook page and I’m adding to their cause by reporting on it. Pretty boring story unless such attention were to bring more troubling developments down the road or get their page removed from Facebook.
(Lead image via Destructoid/Irrational/ 2K Games)