The sissification of America

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(I started this as a reply on another thread, but thought it was good to break it off and not hijack.)

Alexcabbie wrote:

... Much of the hardcore Anti agenda is aimed at sissifying our young males to "break the cycle of violence". ....

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So true!

My sister is a leftist pacifist vegan. Her 15-year-old-son is starting to be a regular boy, athletic, getting in fights, not obeying her all the time, and it's driving her nuts.

It's sad the way young men (and women) are treated today. I think that insulating everyone from any conflict, and nannying them by state mandate, will create more people who will go up on the clocktower and shoot everyone when their internal damn finally breaks. (Or they'll go into politics and ruin and kill people in other ways.)

They also now teach in schools the B.S. that "anyone can be anything if they follow their dreams." This is a lie. You can't be anything by simply "beveling in yourself" and "following your heart." At least not without work, drive and skill. Simply put: schools no longer teach that you have to work.

Life is not AYSO soccer.

I'm a sensitive guy. I can cry. I prefer peace in my life to war. I avoid unneeded conflict when I can.

But I can deal with the world on its own terms. I can balance a checkbook (they don't teach that in school any more, nor do they teach The US Constitution). I support myself and don't want the government to do it for me. And I will walk up to a neighbor twice my size (without a gun on my hip) and tell him, in a calm, confident BUT NOT COCKY way, "I need you to turn down your stereo after 10 PM." And it works.

Products of today's public schools usually can't do any of that. And they'd call the cops or write a snitty letter to the HOA or local paper about the loud neighbor.

I was a varsity wrestler in high school. I got my nose bloodied in a few fist fights in the halls, and didn't run to the principal. Years later, I have had a knife held to my throat in Manhattan and didn't require years of therapy to overcome it.

I was born in 1964. I'm 45 years old. I was in the last generation that was taught any kind of tough and "do it yourself" in school. About the time I graduated was about the time they started covering the world in bubble wrap (figuratively and literally), and the world has gone down the toilet since.

I'm sad with the thought of where the world is headed. I feel for anyone who is 20 now, and will be alive much longer than I will.

Kudos to any young men (and women) on here who learn how the world works on their own and turn out alright. It's damn tough.

Owning, carrying, studying and using guns can help. Not just with self-defense and confidence, but with understanding the true nature of liberty.

But you have to own them with respect, and own them with a conscience, for them to help you. You have to understand and accept responsibility. And once you understand this, you have to take time to pass this info and skill on to others.

Unless you're part of the small but dangerous percentage of the world who are truly sociopathic (broken moral compass), you have liberty in your heart. You were born with it. It was always in you, you just need to "take it to the gym" every day and make it stronger.

Part of this "gym" comes from education (like the links in the next post), part of it is open carry, and part of it is continuously improving it in yourself in every way, and passing on what you know.

I'm not perfect, far from it. But I feel that for the first time in my life, I'm on a right path. And guns have helped.

One place I'll agree with the leftists is that "It's not the destination, it's the journey." But I say it like this:

Life is a moving target.


MWD

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regarding: "Owning guns can help. But you have to own them with respect, and own them with a conscience, for them to help you."

Some people on here could probably school me in a lot of this. But if you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about, here are some good places to start:

--Books by Boston T. Party (all of them, but particularly "Surviving Y2k", "Molon Labe" and "Boston's Gun Bible").

--Membership in the NRA, GOA and JPFO (and reading all their literature and checking out their films and podcasts).

--Reading graphic novels (yes, comics), by L. Neil Smith and Scott Bieser. I'd start here:
http://www.bigheadpress.com/roswell
and here:
http://www.bigheadpress.com/tpbtgn

Reading posts (and FAQs) on Free State Wyoming site:
http://forum.freestateproject.org/

and Free State Project (New Hampshire) site:
http://www.fundamentalsoffreedom.com/fswforum/

and TMM forums:
http://www.thementalmilitia.com/forums/

Zero-Aggression Policy 2.0
http://zap2point0.org/

(It's a thing I wrote, expanding on the work of others, which I think well explains ethics, especially relating to self-defense.)

Read "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" and "Farnham's Freehold" by Robert Heinlein.

Attend Appleseed riflemanship classes:
http://appleseedinfo.org/

All of this is a great crash-course in Liberty, true morality, and taking care of yourself rather than letting the State do it for you.

Love, cats and guns,
Michael W. Dean

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MichaelWDean wrote:

I was born in 1964. I'm 45 years old. I was in the last generation that was taught any kind of tough and "do it yourself" in school. About the time I graduated was about the time they started covering the world in bubble wrap (figuratively and literally), and the world has gone down the toilet since.

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If you stand up for yourself and not let yourself get pushed around, particularly against the government, you'll find yourself tasered, beaten and imprisoned.

If you stand up for yourself while you're under attack for standing up for yourself, they'll just flat-out kill you.

If we're not going to take the country back, we might as well learn how to be meek and mild so it doesn't fear us and hurt us.

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All sad, but true. What's the solution? Is there a solution?

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AWDstylez wrote:

All sad, but true. What's the solution? Is there a solution?

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That's what we're here to figure out together.

Have you studied the US Constitution? It's not perfect, and it doesn't grant rights (it enforces natural-born rights, or is supposed to). I'd recommend studying it if you haven't.

My wife did a free audio reading of it. Put it on your iPod and listen to it over and over. Especially the Bill of Rights (which is on there as a separate audio file if you want):
http://debrajeandean.com/

Then read "Hologram of Liberty"
http://www.amazon.com/Hologram-Liberty-Constitutions-Shocking-Government/dp/1888766034/
to learn how it's been perverted.

But really, the solution is different for everyone. Some like activism, some get involved in politics, some teach rifle skills, and some just buy 400 acres and insulate themselves from everything. All are valid, and there's more possibilities too. We have to "find our own path" as the hippies say. Consuming all the links I mentioned was a good place for me to start.

Basically a lot of it comes down to living by Natural Law:
1. Do not initiate aggression (I add "do not ACCEPT aggression" too. It was always there, but I think "Do not initiate, or accept, aggression, says it nicely.)
and
2. Keep your word.

These are age old, but most people have forgotten them. (Or never learned them. They used to teach them in school as "the Golden Rule", but don't any more, because they require personal accountability.)

If you live by them, you'll be doing better than most of the world.

One action I'm taking is leaving doomed leftist California and moving to Wyoming. Me and the wife put down a rental deposit in Casper yesterday, are leaving California, for good, after living here more than half our lives.

It was not easy to do, and we had a million reasons why "next year will be better, we can do it more comfortably then", but we didn't want to wait.

The time between getting the idea and doing it was six months.

I'd only recommend such a move for people who live by those two rules, and are willing to completely pull their weight. Wyoming is a very self-starting place.

Other states are far better than most others, too. Montana for one.

MWD

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smoking357 wrote:

If we're not going to take the country back, we might as well learn how to be meek and mild so it doesn't fear us and hurt us.

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I don't agree.

All fish wiggle when caught, but the ones with teeth are hell for the fisherman.

(paraphrased from Boston T. Party. Can't find the exact quote now, but it's in "Boston's Gun Bible.")

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smoking357 wrote:

If you stand up for yourself and not let yourself get pushed around, particularly against the government, you'll find yourself tasered, beaten and imprisoned.

If you stand up for yourself while you're under attack for standing up for yourself, they'll just flat-out kill you.

If we're not going to take the country back, we might as well learn how to be meek and mild so it doesn't fear us and hurt us.

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"Liberty or Death! Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"
--Patrick Henry

(That one isn't taught in school anymore, either.)

"It's better to die upon your feet than to live upon your knees."
--Emiliano Zapata

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MichaelWDean wrote:

AWDstylez wrote:

All sad, but true. What's the solution? Is there a solution?

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That's what we're here to figure out together.

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From my own place in the midst of this pussified (no use mincing words) generation, I can see that young people are rebelling against it of their own accord. The vast majority can see through the crap. If that's the case, noreal, outside effort is required. If anyone isperpetuating it, it's the parents, not the government. The parents that on the one hand say grow up and don't be such a whiner, and on the other hand say, "OMG! That video game is so violent it's going to turn you into a murderer!!!!"

That's merely my personal experience though. It could be that way everywhere, or it could just be the people I choose to surround myself with.

The biggest issue with young people is apathy and straight up ignorance. If it doesn't directly, immediately effect them, they don't care. Even if it does, they still don't care unless it interferes with American Idol or drinking. Even if it does, they still don't care if the fix involves an effort beyond their daily routine.



But, back to your topic, where do you draw the line? When does de-pussifying America turn into promotion of violence? Am I a pussy because I think the Saw series ofmovies are sick, perverted, and disgusting? Does stuff like that feed society's perversion or does restricting and looking down on stuff like that lead to society's pussification?

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Kim DuToit's essay along these lines is priceless:


http://www.theothersideofkim.com/index.php/essays/41/

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AWDstylez wrote:
From my own place in the midst of this pussified (no use mincing words) generation, I can see that young people are rebelling against it of their own accord. The vast majority can see through the crap.

MichaelWDean replies:

I disagree. Not to sound like Grandpa Simpson, but we're in more trouble today than ever. Most young people today are far more into bling than liberty. They can name all the judges on American Idol but not a single judge on the Supreme Court. They mostly all have a desire to yell "My voice counts!" but have very little to say, other than "I gots to get paid" and "DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM, M*THERF&CKER?!"

Many young people today think the world owes them a living and demand "special rights" for their unique "group" and think the government should provide it.

If this was not true, Obama would not have been elected in a million years.

It's been said, and I think it's true that "Democracy is a good idea, but historically has always failed in between 200 and 300 years, because eventually, people who don't want to work vote in people who will let them."

The few young people who understand that "not everything on TV is real" are often leftist. The few who are libertarian or anarchist (not anarchist socialist) usually end up on sites like this, and those I named above. We live by the rules of Thomas Jefferson, and get on government watch lists just for being into true liberty.

AWDstylez wrote: If that's the case, noreal, outside effort is required. If anyone isperpetuating it, it's the parents, not the government. The parents that on the one hand say grow up and don't be such a whiner, and on the other hand say, "OMG! That video game is so violent it's going to turn you into a murderer!!!!"

MichaelWDean replies:
I like some violent video games, and even some violent rap music and some really dark rock music, but it does not make me what I am.

That said, it's not the government's job to raise kids. It's not society's job. It does not take a village to raise a child. It take two loving, smart, liberty-oriented parents. And home schooling!

The sociopaths who shot up that school in Colorado would have done it even if Marilyn Manson and "Doom" didn't exist. They probably would have committed horrible evil mayhem even without access to guns. They probably would have used gasoline and a match. Those guys were broken machines, made worse by not having guidance of good parents or smart older friends with ethics.

AWDstylez wrote:
That's merely my personal experience though. It could be that way everywhere, or it could just be the people I choose to surround myself with.

MichaelWDean replies:
Yup. See above.

AWDstylez wrote:
But, back to your topic, where do you draw the line? When does de-pussifying America turn into promotion of violence?

MichaelWDean replies:
I do not promote initiating ANY violence. It goes against everything I believe and feel in the core of my being.

I promote self-defense, which is simply preventing further violence against yourself.

I would never even speak rudely to a person who did not do something to me first. But like they say, "when they come for your guns, it'll be your last chance to use them."

MWD

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AWDstylez wrote:
Am I a pussy because I think the Saw series ofmovies are sick, perverted, and disgusting?

MichaelWDean wrote:

No. Not a pussy for hating that kind of movie.

I hate movies like that too, and am certainly not a pussy.

I like a few sick and twisted movies, but my personal preference is movies with less blood and more psychodrama.

The scariest scene in any movie I've ever seen is simply two people sitting at a table talking. It's in the movie Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. The scene where Henry is at the kitchen table telling the girl about the emotions he went through while murdering his mother.

There is no gore in that scene. No scary music. No special effects. Nothing but two people talking. It's actually quite un-extraordinary.

The thing that's terrifying to me about it is that guy could be my next-door neighbor. There's nothing about him that says "monster" when you see him. He's anyone and everyone.

It's terrifying because there are people like him in this world.

People like him are the reason I carry a handgun.

MWD

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Overtaxed wrote:

Kim DuToit's essay along these lines is priceless:


http://www.theothersideofkim.com/index.php/essays/41/

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Nice! I like it.

To be clear: (not that the above essay says this, it's just something I thought of now):

I don't think you have to be a badass John Wayne or Clint Eastwood to be an effective human. And I don't think women need to be frilly and hiding behind the man to "protect them."

Modern times require modern methods, but there sure was something to those "old ways."

You can live in modern society, consume modern media (in moderation), cry at a sunset, be tender with a woman, still be yourself, but you have to have some self-starting, not sue people for being themselves or not recognizing your own special rights, and pull your own weight in the world, without wanting any "nanny" to do it for you or protect you from yourself.

I recorded a spoken word thing I wrote called "Letter to a Young Me":
http://www.nestlandia.com/2009/04/29/good-sex-good-life-good-job-podcast-episode-24/

(MP3 link below photos.)

The essay starts a few minutes in, after the fake ad for my real book. The essay is me at 44 talking to me at 22. I wouldn't do anything differently, but have some sweet tough love for the younger me.

MWD

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MichaelWDean wrote:

MichaelWDean replies:
I like some violent video games, and even some violent rap music and some really dark rock music, but it does not make me what I am.

That said, it's not the government's job to raise kids. It's not society's job. It does not take a village to raise a child. It take two loving, smart, liberty-oriented parents.

The sociopaths who shot up that school in Colorado would have done it even if Marilyn Manson and Grand Theft Auto didn't exist. They probably would have committed horrible evil mayhem even without guns. They probably would have used gasoline and a match. They were broken machines, made worse by not having guidance of good parents or smart older friends with ethics.

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Yea, don't get me wrong, I agree completely. That's not what I meant. People that claim that violent video games create violent people are part of the problem. I grew up playing the bloody Command and Conquer series, Mortal Komabt, the GTA series, listening to Eminem, etc and I'm so non-violent that I'll go out of my way to notstep on ants and release bugsI find in the house because I value all life.

However, that doesn't mean I'm necessarily okay with a society that goes out on a Friday night to watch people get tortured and mutilated in the worst ways imaginable. Military combat is reality, fighting is reality, gang violence is reality, Eminem raps about reality,toshelter kids from that stuff (even in video game or musicform) is toshelter them from the real world. However, stuff like Saw is not reality, it's gore for the sake of gore and is a barometer ofthe state society is in. Do you differentiate? I do.

I'll change the question, DO you draw a line? Is there anything that shouldn't be permitted or be done away with?

As for Saw, you didn't really get at the heart of my question. Is stuff like that okay in your mind? I'm not asking if you like it personally. It goes back to the above question. Do we, as a responsible society, have to draw a line or should it just be a freeforall?

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AWDstylez wrote:
However, that doesn't mean I'm necessarily okay with a society that goes out on a Friday night to watch people get tortured and mutilated in the worst ways imaginable.

MichaelWDean replied:
I try to avoid most of society. Me and the wife are a nation of two, with a very few close liberty-lovin' friends. And we do not go out on Friday nights! We try to stay out of the way of idiots.

Most people have no ethics, and therefore cannot self-police. I can only try to avoid them as much as possible, and be politely armed otherwise. All else I can do is offer my thoughts to the few who will listen, and most of them don't need my advice.

I vacillate between thinking there's hope, and I can help, and on the other hand thinking we're doomed. At this moment, I think there's hope. Ask me again in five minutes, or tomorrow, you might get a different answer.

AWDstylez wrote:
Eminem raps about reality,


MichaelWDean replied:
He's got it about 3/4 right. But he's still more into bling and bitches than liberty. And he mostly just yells "DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM, M*THERF&CKER?!" and "I GOTS TO GET PAID!." He just does it much more entertainingly and skillfully than most.

And 8 Mile seems like a stunning film, until you realize it's basically just an Elvis Presely movie with newer music.


AWDstylez wrote: However, stuff like Saw is...gore for the sake of gore and is a barometer ofthe state society is in.

MichaelWDean replied:
It's both. A very few people like those movies because they want to do those things. Most just like them because they get an endorphin high from considering the un-considerable.

For those people, watching The Saw is nothing more than the same instinct that makes kids ride a roller coaster. Once your life has everything the same, all basic needs are met, boredom sets in. And flirting with thoughts of death awakens something primal that feels good to some.


AWDstylez wrote:
I'll change the question, DO you draw a line? Is there anything that shouldn't be permitted or be done away with?

MichaelWDean replied:
Yes: murder, assault, rape, theft (which would include property crimes, since it's stealing value from your property) and fraud should be punished to the full extent of the current laws. Or even more strictly.

Everything else should be legal. Wish me luck.....


MichaelWDean replied:
If all people lived by those two rules above, (do not initiate aggression and keep your word), 100% of the time, I wouldn't care who had horror movies, heroin, meth, machine guns, porn, selfish rap music or violent video games.

But since only about 5% of the world lives by those rules, we may be doomed. But I still want less laws, not more, because laws that protect idiots from themselves and each other also cripple my freedom.

MWD

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AWDstylez wrote:
I'll go out of my way to notstep on ants and release bugsI find in the house because I value all life.

MichaelWDean replied:
I don't kill bugs for fun, but if they're bugging me, I let my cats at 'em. They love it, and it exercises their innate need to hunt.

But don't tell PETA! They sent Obama a nasty letter for swatting a fly during a speech:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23886.html

Wonder how King Nanny is going to deal with even nannier folks nannying him.

Here's a t-shirt I like, that I saw on a waitress at an open-carry steak dinner with friends in Cheyenne, Wyoming:

Obama getting the "save the flies" letter sounds funny, but it's also terrifying. This is the way the world is headed, people! Wait until it's not just a nasty letter, but the LAW.

I'll be in Wyoming, letting my kitties kill flies until they take my cats out of my cold dead hands. I AM TOTALLY SERIOUS ABOUT THIS. Where do you draw the line? It's up to each of us. I'm not there yet. But I'm also not decades away at the current rate of erosion of rights.

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Hey Michael, Liberty is something that most people cannot handle or do not like. They don't like it because it means that other people may do things they find repulsive. Dog fighting is a perfect example. People do not respect liberty and do not respect freedom or individual moral judgement. They push their morals on everyone else and scream bloody murder when anyone dare push their morals on them... the fights between the atheists and Christians are so pathetic to be ridiculous if both sides were not so dangerous to everyone's Liberty.

We have to face facts... if there is not enough people to understand that liberty means allowing behavior we find repugnant to exist (save for rape, child molestation, murder and fraud), then both sides will continue to force their own moral values on the rest of us through an ever complex web of regulations and ordinances and the Constitution be damned.

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Agreed, sir.

So, I'll pose to you the question others posed to me: what are you going to do about it?

MWD

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Do my best to fight the apathy around me and educate myself and my family on the founder's principals and of course, the Constitution.

The battle so far has been mostly one sided with the progressives continuously getting the upper hand, however, I believe that there is enough disgust for politics as usual out there that people are now looking for alternative ideas than those being pushed by both primary political parties.

It will not be easy as there is a lot of cynicism as well as apathy, but I think people are waking up and seeing that what those in Washington DC are doing is not the right thing to do.

I've also seen a renewed interest in bringing back Constitutional government as a growing movement... so if we can keep the argument above petty issues and address the broader Constitution based issues, we may have a chance.

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Sounds good.

It's more than 95% of the country are doing.

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Rock OR vote.
(Not rock the vote.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ir_7zniTGg

The people talking in this video in the "man on the street" interviews...this is what we're up against, people.