BOSTON RED SOX RIGHT FIELDER J.D. MARTINEZ’S SECOND AMENDMENT STANCE IS PATRIOTIC, NOT CONTROVERSIAL: Why should an athlete be subjected to a nonsensical controversy ginned up by reporters?

Someone recently dug up an old pro-Second Amendment Instagram post by Boston Red Sox star J.D. Martinez, in which the potential Triple Crown winner posted a picture of Adolf Hitler featuring the quote, “To conquer a nation, First disarm it’s (sic) citizens.” Martinez captioned the post, “This is why I will always stay strapped! #thetruth.”

Needless to say, the discovery triggered a torrent of stories about the “controversial” nature of Martinez’s 5-year-old post—because, apparently, disagreeing with a Hitlerian sentiment is now a provocative position. As it turns out, Hitler never said the words in Martinez’s pro-gun meme, although the dictator indisputably embraced a policy of disarming, in both rhetoric and action.

As Jon Gabriel wrote at Ricochet last year, “Overusing ‘controversial’ is one of my journalistic pet peeves. Whenever a conservative personality, bill, or issue is mentioned by the mainstream press, controversial is the go-to adjective. Meanwhile, a Democratic pol or proposal is described as ‘historic,’ ‘bold,’ or ‘sweeping.’ It’s a subtle difference, but the adjective used is a handy way to position a subject as negative or positive. Curious, I popped over to Google News and learned that the word ‘controversial’ results in ‘about 23,700,000 results’…So the next time you see a news story reporting on a ‘controversial school choice bill,’ translate it to the ‘sweeping, historic, and bold school choice bill’ to reduce your blood pressure.”