America is raising a bunch of sheep

POSTED BY: PirateCat
UPDATED: Sunday, April 5, 2026 17:35
VIEWED: 8076
PAGE 4 of 8

PirateCat

First impressions are only that, but here is the first impression you made:

Its good to vent. Venting is good. ... Eastern Airlines pilot shot dead a hijacker with his gun. ... ya have to fight back. When I lived in Charlotte the closest bank to my house was robbed the dude was shot ... Never had any problems in that area since. ...

You seem to prefer guns, death, violence as the only 'meaningful' response. Extrapolating, I would guess you were all for going into Afghanistan and Iraq. How did that work for you ? Can you see there might be other, more fruitfull answers?

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Well, cars have good uses - we get from here to there with them. Handguns? Not so much.

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Again, I disagree.

When you're 12 feet away from some coked-up homeboy with a knife who wants your wallet and your woman, being able to MAKE him go away, one way or another, is a "good use", and far more effective than thinking the law is some kind of iron wall that will prevent him from doing harm to you.

Reality is not an ideal place, and nowhere on earth is a utopia where you would be completely safe from harm.

Until that day comes, I myself plan to have the effective means to defend myself against it's ugly realities when avoidance is not possible or effective.

You're welcome to call the cops and try to reason with a strung out aggresor jonesing badly for a fix however you like, and if it works for you, more power to you - I simply prefer to have a more substantial argument at immediate hand, and resent any attempt to deny me that.

I file this whole argument we're having in the same class as telling women to carry condoms in case of a rape on the idiotic assumption that they could convince a rapist to use one.

I find the idea that you could reason with a coked-up or jonesing homeboy every bit as idiotic - the ONLY thing a sociopathic gangbanger understands is force, and the only thing they fear, if they fear anything at all, is imminent bodily harm, and if you can't present that threat to them effectively, you *will* be their victim.

This is something I know a bit about, mind you, and worth reading on the topic is this speech by Andrew Vachss, who's credentials in this respect are above impeccable.

http://www.vachss.com/av_dispatches/lifestyle.html

And while running into dangerous folk is perhaps a rarity in your own life, I drive a cab in a major urban center every day, often dealing with or even transporting some very unstable, possibly dangerous folk, and with a majority of them can get enough communication and understanding going that they leave well enough alone - but when you run up against one of these monsters in our midst, your ONLY recourse is force and the threat of imminent bodily harm - yes that is unfortunate, yes that is a damned sad state of affairs.

But it's also the truth, and denying it will only get you hurt or killed.

-Frem

It cannot be said enough, those who do not learn from history, are doomed to endlessly repeat it

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"You're welcome to call the cops and try to reason with a strung out aggresor jonesing badly for a fix however you like" This is something I've actually done. And it worked out well - we both walked away unharmed. And me with all my money still in my wallet. (Some of these stories courtesy of my time with the county hospital and surrounding area.)

Frem, do you know any Canadian cabbies? I'm just curious if their jobs are as dangerous as US cabbies. Though I suspect not.

But to continue on that thought experiment, as SignyM calls it - WHAT IF there were a place that was extraordinarily safe ? Would that kind of life be for you ? Would you want to know why it was that way ? Might you want to make that happen in your life ?

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Originally posted by PirateCat:
Hippie boy, check your eyes when reading no one edited any post. I listen to the radio and more than one person called in saying the same thing. Same with the cops not rushing in. A nut with a gun has to be taken out either by the students or the police. Sirhan Sirhan got taken to the floor when rfk was murdered yet they didn't have any guns. I just don't get it. Our we sheep or men.

"Battle of Serenity, Mal. Besides Zoe here, how many-" "I'm talkin at you! How many men in your platoon came out of their alive".

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You're a liar. You changed your post after I replied. Which is why your second post says it's an opinion from talk radio when - according to you - you'd already said that. Your initial post didn't make any reference to talk radio at all. It just launched straight into bashing America's youth in general.

So tell me again how you expect American kids to stand up to a gunman when a tough guy like you can't even stand up for his opinion. Unless the tough guy wasn't you at all? Was it a talk radio caller who grew up "fighting blacks?" Is he the same guy who got the medal for courage?

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Fred - you know what scares me more than a crazy person armed to the teeth walking around a building and systematically shooting people? A bunch of terrified, untrained people shooting back. Because in that scenario my chances of surviving are even lower.

I live in a country where it's illegal to bear arms and so far I have survived just fine. The only people I know who have been anywhere near a firefight are some friends of mine in the Gardai - the Irish police force - and it's pretty rare even among them. But if Americans absolutely have to have guns then I would suggest everyone carrying one should have a certain amount of hours mandetory training so they at least know how to handle one and what to do if something like this ever happens. They should get at least as much training as you get when you learn to drive, and they should have to pass a test too. I don't know if that's how things are done in the US. I get the impression it isn't.

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Frem, do you know any Canadian cabbies? I'm just curious if their jobs are as dangerous as US cabbies. Though I suspect not.

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Two, and not for love or money will they come here, lol - although that has more to do with how psychotic our "homeland security" KGB wannabes have gotten than how rough detroit can be, but that's certainly part of it, sure.

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But to continue on that thought experiment, as SignyM calls it - WHAT IF there were a place that was extraordinarily safe ? Would that kind of life be for you ?

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Ironic, I grew up in the ghetto warzones of south baltimore, ok ?
Most of my childhood friends and associates are in the ground, and I have a lot of ghosts to carry about things that were mere survival then.

And now I live in this puny little burg somewhere between Detroit and Ann Arbor that's like mayberry RFD, believe me, it's not as easy an adjustment as you would think - in some ways I will probably never adjust, the phrase "damaged goods" comes to mind in best explaination of why - and to detail it would require intense technical discussion about how the developing brain is use-dependant and how permanent learned reflex memories can become.

I don't think the way most folk do, I know it, and adapt by actively working to make myself understood by folk who think "normally", most times I can get it across, sometimes I... just can't, they don't have the background or experience, I guess.

Also, there's the detatchment.. just imagine the difficulty of having most of your emotional responses so badly muted you can barely figure out what the heck they are ?

So, as much as is possible, sure, I've adjusted to living here, but some wounds never close, Rue.

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Would you want to know why it was that way ?

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I know why it is this way, or rather, I know damn well, all too well, WHY most places ain't, and it would take more time than I have to explain in detail, but you've *seen* me touch on it - our whole society, at least in america, is a sociopathic and evil thing, and we take innocent children and forcibly pound them into a mold suitable for it, mentally, emotionally, oft-times even physically, and then act all surprised when they come out the other end despising all of humanity ?

Believe me, I know all too well, and have spent a lot of my life trying to mitigate it, warn folks of the looming dangers, etc - this has jack shit to do with guns, it has to do with how our society here in the US destroys all that is good, noble and decent in a child to turn them into a proper adult corpo-drone.

Like I say, PN's crazy, but he's not *THAT* crazy when it comes to our screwball society.

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Might you want to make that happen in your life ?

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Not if it costs me the ability to self-defend, even in the absence of ALL danger, no.
In all truth I would prefer to never *have* to do such a thing, but as long as I live, I wish to have that option and will resent any attempt to forcibly take it because mentally I will then class the attempted taker in with the coked-up homeboy and view them accordingly, as a threat.

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Fred - you know what scares me more than a crazy person armed to the teeth walking around a building and systematically shooting people? A bunch of terrified, untrained people shooting back. Because in that scenario my chances of surviving are even lower.

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Well yeah, that's idiotic - don't take me for one of these 101st keyboard brigade types, MY first instinct is to get the hell out of dodge, anyone else is on their own, screw em.

But if I have no clear avenue of escape, imma find good cover, get my back against a wall and ensure as best I can that *I* walk out of there alive.. you.. well, that's what I call a YOYO situation.
(YOYO = You On Your Own, buddy, not my problem!)

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But if Americans absolutely have to have guns then I would suggest everyone carrying one should have a certain amount of hours mandetory training so they at least know how to handle one and what to do if something like this ever happens. They sh

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