Gun Owners of America head Larry Pratt today tweeted a column from Erik Rush about the Trayvon Martin murder, which is about as insane as you’d expect any Erik Rush column to be. He claims that Martin was murdered because liberals turned him into a “thug-in-training” who “accosted” George Zimmerman.

Martin is “more a victim of his lifestyle than a victim of George Zimmerman,” Rush writes, calling him “someone increasingly invested in the unregenerate hedonism, conceit, belligerence, and rebellion of the thug culture.”

“Trayvon also came from a broken home, as does the overwhelming majority of black youth, thanks to liberal policies,” he continues, “This self-destructive lifestyle, which is vociferously defended by liberals, is proffered as a valid and almost sacrosanct reflection of ‘black culture.’”

He further linked affirmative action, welfare programs, the “propaganda of the left” and shows like “MTV’s Jersey Shore television program” to Martin’s murder: “This is the world of chaos and mediocrity to which Trayvon Martin aspired, and I maintain that it went just as far toward killing him as George Zimmerman’s pistol.”

Trayvon Martin, on the other hand, appears to have been far less genial, and more a victim of his lifestyle than a victim of George Zimmerman. The press narrative spun the picture of a little black waif skipping home with his Sprite and bag of Skittles, only to be ambushed and blown away by a nightstalking, cackling bigot. Though time will tell how it pans out in court, reality tells a different story, one of a thug-in-training for whom being accosted by an authority figure might have presented a welcome and self-affirming confrontation.

I didn’t grow up poor, but I’m at a loss in determining how a middle-class high school student affords gold teeth and multiple tattoos; neither are cheap these days. Then, the record of Martin’s development (evidenced via social media, in his posts and those with whom he associated) reveals someone increasingly invested in the unregenerate hedonism, conceit, belligerence, and rebellion of the thug culture. Disciplinary problems – one of which necessitated his being in that unfamiliar part of town – had begun to negatively impact his life; these in particular have been downplayed by the press. Trayvon also came from a broken home, as does the overwhelming majority of black youth, thanks to liberal policies. Finally, it is fairly evident that he was a regular pot smoker, and might have been a low level dealer.

This self-destructive lifestyle, which is vociferously defended by liberals, is proffered as a valid and almost sacrosanct reflection of “black culture.” Indeed, those pointing out its myriad damaging aspects are invariably branded as racists. Thug culture is a contrivance however, a fad lifestyle crafted from the basest, fringe characteristics of black Americans and marketed to young blacks. It is similar to creating an entire lifestyle around MTV’s Jersey Shore television program, and aggressively marketing the shallow, dim-witted worldview and lifestyle of its participants to American youth of Italian descent, thereby lowering the common denominator for American youth of Italian descent (Some might argue that Viacom, which owns MTV, is in fact doing this, albeit on a smaller scale).

It wound up being quite the deal for liberal power players: Media conglomerates – most of which lean heavily to the left and have engaged in social engineering for decades – get to socioeconomically ruin blacks and get fabulously wealthy in the process. The few blacks who profit from it, whether entrepreneurs or entertainers, aren’t about to complain, let alone admit that they are poisoning the minds of an entire generation.

This is the world of chaos and mediocrity to which Trayvon Martin aspired, and I maintain that it went just as far toward killing him as George Zimmerman’s pistol.

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Advancing self-destructive lifestyles in the black community and flooding our streets with illegal aliens who take far more than they contribute to our society and our economy are but two of the myriad liberal policies which have served to insidiously and incrementally debase American society as a whole.

Trayvon Martin, and Jamiel Shaw: Two very different young black men of the same age, both killed more or less directly as a result of liberalism. Given their demographic history and core values, blacks ought to be at the vanguard of opposing such collectively suicidal policies. Instead, they obey black activists who have sold them out, and liberal leaders who admonish them to go lay by their dish and be grateful for the bountiful largesse of the left – entitlements, affirmative action, and other stealth tools of enslavement. Those blacks who are not sufficiently conditioned to buy into the propaganda of the left are targeted for marginalization, if not outright personal destruction, depending on how prominent they happen to be.