Why you think you’re winning, but we’re not

[jeep45238]

Why you think you’re winning, but we’re loosing the long con




The video is one minute long – it’s a good primer, so take a moment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CofL8Tj-v0A" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;





Short version:
There’re 3 kinds of people in this world when it comes to things of contention, regardless the level. There’s those that agree with you already, and those that never will for various reasons; these are not the people to spend any efforts on. The third type of people, the ones listening to both sides (gathering information, and making the best educated decision they can) are the ones that any and all efforts should be focused upon. Be kind, find common ground, and know that you can still like someone that you disagree with.





Long version:
Backstory – I’ve been on- and-off active in firearm policies in some facet since the mid 2000’s. I’ve taught rifle marksmanship, worked with some friends and a couple strangers to introduce legislation in 11 states, wrote editorials, did stuff on TV and radio from local to national levels. This was prior to military service, a general dislike for politics, and seeing how the stress levels in this country are insane; it’s impossible to simply disagree without having that disagreement going through every aspect between you and the other person(s) the disagreement have. Attending college in my mid 30’s with kids coming right out of high school was…..enlightening on the disparities of a lot of things that a few years can show. It’s a bit of a ramble coming up, but the basic idea can be distilled down to this – be kind, find common ground, and that’s how you’ll find a way forward with others. I hate politics as well.

That’s the part that needs to be talked about -discrepancies with others, how we address them, and start to succeed. If you think we’re successful regarding firearms right now, we’re in a ‘nice spot’ – if you’re in the community. My mom retired a few years ago, and she took trap as a high school class. Action pistol shooting used to be televised. Now bringing a shooting sport in discussion to strangers brings visions of knuckle dragging homophobic racists to the younger folks – the ones that are coming into elections without any information or knowledge outside of what they know and love, regardless if it’s true or not. The truth part – that isn’t limited to folks besides yourself either.



Pitter patter, let’s get at her. A core trend I noticed as an analyst on geopolitical and intranational politics is the desire of most western nations is the desire to be correct. It doesn’t matter if you’re actually correct, it’s winning an argument, and/or completely disassociating from the other party(ies). I’ve likened it to a simple phrase of ‘extremism breeds extremism’. Regarding political parties, it’s best to retain power and the parties can’t possibly be confused with their rivals – therefore over time they grow farther and farther apart, unable to share anything with the rivals upon principle. A recent interview I listened to talked about philosophical theories that are coinvent in war – othering being the most common.

Othering is the real deal of ‘extremism breeds extremism’. By making the folks you don’t agree with ‘others’, therefore less than you, and is a core basis for plowing forward with whatever you want to do to them (see: towelhead, Charlie, snowflake, boomer, whatever you want that fits the concept). From a personal and political standpoint – you’re a jerk, the other party won’t listen to you, and any third party certainly is turned off from your point of view and more or less joins the party you disagree with on the sheer basis that the third part doesn’t want to associate with a jerk. You’re now outnumbered on this argument 2 to one, instead of one to one when it comes to the ballot box.

Essentially the gun culture has created its own subculture separate from the rest of society. Subcultures don’t change cultures by removing themselves from culture – they integrate into it, and work to integrate the culture/other subcultures into their subculture.

Swallowing your pride and actually listening to the opposing party is actually a good thing. Eventually, whether or not they’ll know it, they’ll mention something that is factual, and you have a conversation on the facts of that one thing. Not on how you view them to be wrong on everything else or bringing personal insults into the mix. How the thing they just mentioned is right and expanding upon it.

Prime example of this – sociology class, I had just gotten out of active duty and had joined the guard, married at the time. A point was pushed by the professor that I disagreed with on factual basis with the information about military action that was presented by the professor, who was dumbfounded that they were challenged. They conceded that I was correct, and they were wrong – however the whole class wouldn’t do that. The conversation degraded into ‘why should we trust you’ etc. type of commentary, after explaining my military status and job while wearing my squadron shirt. Want an example of othering? There ya go – I disregarded anything any of my classmates said for the rest of the semester, and vice versa. That third type of person? That was the professor – and after a chance meeting on campus a year later the professor informed me the class curriculum had changed due to my feedback during class with facts that they had brought up.

Be kind – win the third type of person. You aren’t a sheepdog (that’s LEO or .mil), you aren’t doing anybody favors open carrying a long gun at a coffee shop, statements of you’re right because you’re right, thoughts of civil war over gunfights, and in short acting like a toddler isn’t helping anybody. Be kind – reach out – listen. Believe it or not, the person you might disagree with has viewpoints that are correct; if they had no basis, then there would simply be a majority opinion and we wouldn’t be fighting to try and restore rights at any basis.









Food for thought,
jeep45238