BrazosDog02 said:
BenderRodriguez said:
You seem very personally disturbed by this thread. Why is that?
Frankly, I'm not sure.
I have a possible answer for you, based partially on your post and partially on spending way too much time on the internet. It's something I've seen a lot on forums over the years when gun or self defense stuff comes up.
There is a sliding scale of preparedness behavior, and we all put ourselves in the middle in what we consider proper or normal level of "being prepared for bad things to happen". To our left (for layouts sake, not political) are people we consider fools because they don't do the same things or are as prepared as we consider ourselves to be. To the right are people we consider nuts because they do more than we do.
For an example:
Hippies who "don't believe in guns"---People who only hunt---Tacticool People you were mocking---
Hippies look at hunters the same way you're looking at some people in this thread. "They're nuts who just want to kill". Likewise, many hunters who only own wood stocked bolt actions view people who own ARs the same way hippies view hunters, and they look down on hippies who are incapable of providing for their own sustenance or protecting themselves. This isn't unique to home defense, I see it a lot with handgun stuff too. Someone may own a handgun and use it for home defense or keep it in their car, but they think anyone who carries one every day is nuts. The guys who carry every day may view a home defense/car carry handgun owner as a unprepared sheep, then turn around and also think a guy who thinks you should carry a spare magazine along with your handgun every day is nuts. Etc, etc, etc.
So if everybody is doing it to everyone else, what's the underlying issue? Having seen it over and over again, I think it's because we are all uncomfortable with the idea that we may be unprepared or incapable of dealing with a traumatic event. So everyone considers themselves properly prepared. That's comforting. Looking down on people you think are less prepared than you is also comforting. It's not comforting to consider that maybe you're not as prepared as you could or should be, so it's much, much easier to make fun of someone who does more than we do as a nut instead of considering the possibility they might be doing something we should consider doing as well to protect our family.
It's not unique to you, or this forum. It's a universal human way of dealing with fear of the unknown, and fear that we are unprepared. I do it, you do it, Joe Blow does it. I don't know you personally so I have no idea if this the only factor causing such a strong impulse to react negatively in this thread, but it fits with what I've seen from other people in other situations, so I think it may be playing a role.
Just something to consider. If we know what makes us react negatively and why, it's always helpful IMO.
