• HideTV Turns 1 Next Week!

    To celebrate the anniversary, we’ve got a full week of planned of exclusive giveaways, special live streams, limited-edition merch, and more surprises along the way. Keep an eye out!

    View thread

One reason I think we're seeing more folks, and the associated "diversity".

MarinePMI

Ban Cat Handler
Staff member
Moderator
Commercial Supporter
Full Member
Minuteman
  • Jun 3, 2010
    8,433
    13,609
    San Diego, Ca
    I've followed Hank Shaw's work for quite some time. The link below is an article of someone who also discovered his work, but was a died in the wool liberal progressive. As the article alludes to, for whatever reason (call it a fad, frustration with the grocery store, or just human need to reconnect with the wilds around them), the pendulum is beginning to swing. I see a parallel to our little corner of the internet as well.

    https://altaonline.com/a-time-to-kill/
     
    • Like
    Reactions: Dirty D
    Damn am I hungry for duck now. Starting a new job, probably won't get out this season, hopefully next though and the abundant trout fishing will hold me over until then.

    As for the rest, I welcome each and every new member to the shooting sports, even if they voted for Hillary. I've taught poorly vetted Afghans to use RPGs, why wouldn't I teach an American regardless of their voting history, to shoot a Glock or AR? It's amazing what clicks in people's heads with a little bit of knowledge, and you can't teach someone who you never talk to.
     
    Damn am I hungry for duck now. Starting a new job, probably won't get out this season, hopefully next though and the abundant trout fishing will hold me over until then.

    As for the rest, I welcome each and every new member to the shooting sports, even if they voted for Hillary. I've taught poorly vetted Afghans to use RPGs, why wouldn't I teach an American regardless of their voting history, to shoot a Glock or AR? It's amazing what clicks in people's heads with a little bit of knowledge, and you can't teach someone who you never talk to.

    LOL! Yeah, it's a major PITA to hunt ducks here in Socal. I was never good at calling them in, but man, watching those that could...always left me in awe.

    Yep, I was thinking the same thing. A little knowledge goes a long way for folks to start figuring things out themselves. The best knowledge is the kind we have to work hard to discover, and stays with us forever. No amount of propaganda, cliches, or talking points is ever as powerful as that "aha" moment when things click in people's own minds. Showing others the real world, the circle of life, and how it all fits together really does begin to shift people's assumptions of what they have been told by the media and society around them.

    Perhaps the answer to all the strife and conflict we see today, is found in the simple act of just showing (and opening) people's eyes to the world around them. I'm reminded of a passage written by M. R. James...

    “Despite our ever-changing, ever-indignant world with its growing ignorance of and indifference to the ways of the wild, I remain a predator, pitying those who revel in artificiality and synthetic success while regarding me and my kind as relics of a time and place no longer valued or understood. I stalk a real world of dark wood and tall grass stirred by a restless wind blowing across sunlit water and beneath star-strewn sky. And on those occasions when I choose to kill, to claim some small part of nature’s bounty for my own, I do so by choice, quickly with the learned efficiency of a skilled hunter. Further, in my heart and mind, I know the truth and make no apologies for my actions or my place in time."
     
    Damn am I hungry for duck now. Starting a new job, probably won't get out this season, hopefully next though and the abundant trout fishing will hold me over until then.

    As for the rest, I welcome each and every new member to the shooting sports, even if they voted for Hillary. I've taught poorly vetted Afghans to use RPGs, why wouldn't I teach an American regardless of their voting history, to shoot a Glock or AR? It's amazing what clicks in people's heads with a little bit of knowledge, and you can't teach someone who you never talk to.

    this might be a compelling reason why not.
     
    this might be a compelling reason why not.
    It was a Marine veteran who shot dead Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield at a range. I'm not going to stop teaching them either, and "Preaching to the choir" is a saying for a reason.

    I have a bleeding heart liberal step-daughter who cried when Hillary lost, she can't wait for me to take her to the range and I can't wait to teach her shooting and many other things about life. She has two young kids, she will influence them too, and they will influence others. It's a snowball effect, but it will never start if you don't get it rolling.

    Just think, if every NRA member swayed one dem voter each before the '16 election, that would have completely shut down the popular/electoral vote debate by a long shot. That video is proof we need to sway voters to ensure a man like that doesn't win office as a sheriff at the ballot box. If they really want to go the extra route, well, I shrug and say "Okay" to him and his kind as well.
     
    Best way to change someone's mind, in fact it's really the only way, is to provide a setting conducive to them changing their own minds. For example, tell a story or narrative from a perspective they can agree with and understand, then insert into your narrative the important points you want to get across, again in a way they understand. You can't hard sell it, but you may be able to soft sell it. Even better and more powerful is through touch and action. Get them to go shooting with you, first with something small they can agree with shouldn't be banned. Then when they enjoy it, and they will, slowly move up to the M4 --they'll enjoy that too and then you've got a convert.

    Telling them they are wrong because they are literally taking Hitler's words and making them action just doesn't do it for some reason. Just has to do with humans and them not wanting to be told they are wrong. Even in academia, even in physics and rarely, but sometimes, math, you'll find professors and experts that will hold up a wrong idea all the way to their death beds. And they can do it alone, against the whole community.

    When they have like minded cohorts, it's even harder, so that's what we're up against. No argument will work, only craft and action.

    For instance, I wrote Obama asking him to run when I started college. Based on a speech I saw him give at Dem. convention. This was long before there was any word he'd run, it hadn't been mentioned. I probably still have the email somewhere if it was in or after 2005. That's a strong starting point when trying to get a convert, something they can agree with and identify with. Obama ended up fucking me at every turn, sometimes succeeding, sometimes not, but always persistent. I was forced to vote for Trump, and they like hearing that more than if I chose to do so. A trip to the range and short lesson on what's, why's, who's and how's and they got it. Maybe show 'em your storage if it's strong or high speed, like a jewelry vault. If that doesn't win 'em, nothing will, move on.

    See what I'm getting at?

    If online, you obviously can't take 'em to range, and you have to be craftier at the narrative and once they "get it" implore them to seek out a good range to try rentals before making their own purchase. Assume that's the goal at that point, always one step ahead.
     
    • Like
    Reactions: Tx_Aggie
    Best way to change someone's mind, in fact it's really the only way, is to provide a setting conducive to them changing their own minds. .......

    Excellent post and 100% agreed. People generally have to arrive at change on their own, as a result of their own experience. Often the most we can do is help them along in that process by providing some of that experience. It's frustrating and may seem illogical, but arguing with someone and bluntly pointing out their errors often just makes them dig in and work even harder to resist change.