An animated segment in the movie claiming to be a "brief history" of the United States of America has been criticized as grossly inaccurate, misleading, and manipulative. For instance, it notes the NRA was founded at the same time the Ku Klux Klan was outlawed, and shows a scene of a KKK member throwing off his robe and joining the NRA followed by representatives of each collaborating to burn a cross. But in fact the NRA was incorporated in New York and its original membership was made up of Union veterans from the American Civil War, whereas the KKK was a southern organization with roots in Confederate loyalists. Further, the KKK supported gun control laws with an eye to disarming Blacks, while the NRA trained Blacks in the use of firearms, giving them the means to defend themselves from Klansmen. Resultingly, the KKK considered the NRA its mortal enemy. No serious historian believes the groups are connected in any way. Also, the segment incorrectly depicts witches being burned in America, but this method of execution was never used (hanging was most common). Moreover, the central theme of the segment - that Americans, in contrast to Europeans, have a "culture of fear" and, for instance, the witch-burnings were due to "fear" of each other - is not consistent with the fact that the witch scare phenomenon afflicted Europe to a much greater extent than it did the United States (Cf. Spanish Inquisition).
What straw man?
