Recon

Friday, March 9, 2012

Celebrate Diversity

Caught this piece over at American Mercenary and it got me thinking, particularly this portion.

"Other cultures that "celebrate freedom" are really nothing more than groups that celebrate homogeneity, from motorcycle clubs to drum circles, it is the same BS from everyone in the group. Not so with gunnies. We have gays, goths, The Queen of Snark, an Engineer who hosts Boomershoot for fun, Active/Reserve/Retired Military, Moms, college kids, Ph.D's, Mensa members, machinists, artists, political activists, preppers, threepers, pacifists (yup, Ghandi was one of us), we are truly "diverse" and connected only by our mutual desire for the freedom to be left alone to do what we want to do."
"Messianic Stoners" was missing from the list, but I'll take it in the spirit it was intended.

It is a sociological truism that closed groups tend towards homogeneity over a long enough timeline-look at how punk rock splintered into a thousand tiny identity factions from sXe vegan hardcore to east coast splattercore. Self identification as part of a larger whole can be empowering but it is also the most subtle of traps because you are surrounded by people that are just like you right down to choice of music and dress.

So am I a gunnie? There are plenty of gunnies that would say no. I'm short on guns-I only have one pistol, one rifle and one shotgun, with a smattering of tactical nylon. I flout the law on a daily basis-not just 3 felonies a day bullshit, but laws that people actually get killed for. I have a low opinion of "traditional" (i.e. government sanctioned) marriage and have a lot of deviant sex with multiple partners that would make conservative pundits tuck their testicles back up in their bodies and swear off the Vile Internetz. A lot of these things are not popular on the gunblogging circuit. Yet I have never gotten anything but respect from my fellow gunbloggers.

An armed society is a polite society, perhaps? But that isn't the case really; gun owners get all butthurt about the minutae of their hobby in every gun forum, as any argument over the best charging handle on an AR will demonstrate. We aren't really obliged to "back up his words with his life" on the internetz; no matter how much the market is dying for an iphone app to castrate people through the internet, you remain safe no matter what nonsense or venom you spew online. No one ignores my unpleasant characteristics because they are afraid I'm going to fill them full of 7.62x39s. They do so because these are people who genuinely want to be left the fuck alone and are willing to extend me the same courtesy.

Now for the big question-how far have we fallen as a civillization that this behavior is a novel concept?

6 comments:

  1. Hey, as long as everyone is consenting, I have no problem with you having deviant sex with multiple partners. In fact, I'm quite jealous and would like to know your secret.

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    1. Hunting the unicorn in the wild is the most refined of challenges, but I dare not give up my secrets or the guild will be on my ass :)

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  2. Primus: A percentage of gunnies still think gun ownership is an exclusive club for rightwing socialists. They are wrong but still try to cling to that illusion by harassing anyone who deviates from the poor translations of their Ancient Holy Writ. I didn't fit in with them when I got my first gun in 1972 and I still don't fit.

    Secundus: Don't get caught up in the "gear queer" mindset. It is nice to have a rifle for every occasion and a safe full of handguns but that is about wanting, not needing. When the rubber meets the highway to hell, what you know will be more important than what you have.

    There is no tertius today...

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    1. I have no idea why your posts are always the ones that get caught in my spam filter, man. Unless you are posting from a chinese proxy or some shit. You can message me on ZS if my lazy stoner ass forgets to check the spam filter very often.

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  3. I did the deviant sex with multiple partners thing for a good portion of my life. I gave up on it even before I became a Christian--just too much drama and BS, and I found someone I wanted to spend the rest of my life with monogamously.

    But that's me. I'm not you, and I'm in no position to judge how you live--that, in the end, is between you and the Almighty. As long as you're making a stand for liberty, you're on the right side, and I've got your back. ;)

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