Rhodesia was an ultra-racist regime back during the Cold War which fought a desperate war to avoid giving black people rights. Note - they were a country in Africa ruled by a tiny white minority of Anglo-Dutch settlers. Because their well-funded army performed relatively well against Zimbabwean militias and a newly formed national Zimbabwean army and had some domestic industrial capacity, far-right goons slaver all over anything Rhodesian and peddle “TEN MILLION ZIMBABWEANS < ONE RHODESIAN OPERATOR” style stuff.

Me, given Ian’s tendency to stay away from politics in general, his interest in a very wide variety of guns, and having given considerable pushback to Rhodesian fans and ‘white genocide’ loons in the past, as well as speaking against corporate and systemic racism issues in passing, I’m inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.