U.S. Politics

I will say one thing:
For better or for worse, I had basically buried the “fighter” part of myself entirely before the rise of MAGA, like hadn’t *really* trained in years. And now, I train daily and am about as lethal as I was at 16, minus the spontaneous split-kicks and such. On the one hand: hell yeah, re-badassed at 47 and totally even making money from doing some fight direction at local theatres. On the other: I wanted to be a peaceful guy when I got older, and I kinda set the fight stuff aside on purpose, as something I “used to do”. I have incredibly mixed feelings about it all, and now I’m even contemplating firearms training on top of hand-to-hand and various melee weapons. It was all in good fun when I was a kid: Ninja Turtles and Snake-Eyes and Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. Now . . . training feels grim.
 
I've thought about getting back out to the gun range myself. I used to be an okay shot - nothing amazing. But guns were never my thing. It was more ancillary to just generally being interested in weapons and combat and wanting to know how all that stuff worked. So I didn't take it real seriously. Now I feel like it might not be a bad idea.
But I also have two kids and a wife and I don't really want any fucking guns in my house.


I also don't take the martial arts training seriously anymore, but I'm also still pretty confident that I can handle myself when need be. MOST people likely to start a fist fight have zero training. So as long as I keep myself in decent shape, I'm not super worried.
 
I get it. I was raised around firearms but it was never a skill set I really wanted to harness. But since last year I've been teaching a friend who requested to learn how to shoot because she just doesn't trust anything anymore. Maybe America will invade us. Maybe the world will just turn into the hunger games. No harm in having the skill set.

I absolutely believe my nieces need to learn efficient and brutal martial arts and pick up weapons training.
 
Robert De Niro called Trump's homeland security officer Stephen Miller a "Nazi," prompting Miller to lash out at De Niro.

“De Niro is a sad, broken old man who is mostly enraged because he hasn’t made anything worth watching in at least 30 years. Probably the longest string of flops, failures, embarrassments. This man has been degrading himself on camera with one horrific film after another for my entire adult life and he is not taken seriously by anybody. Not by his family, friends, community. He is a shell of a man and everybody disregards everything he says," Miller ranted.

De Niro originally blasted Miller as a “Nazi” while talking about how Trump “will not want to leave” the White House, saying: “He set it up with, I guess he’s the Goebbels of the cabinet, Stephen Miller. He's a Nazi! Yes he is, and he’s Jewish. He should be ashamed of himself.”

Read more here: https://variety.com/2025/film/news/stephen-miller-robert-de-niro-nazi-comment-1236559626/

The thing is I'm not seeing a denial here.
 
Literally 'I may be a Nazi, but have you seen this guy's shitty movies?' Stephen Miller would be hilarious if he didn't have actual power he can wield. Because he's just such a giant loser. What a silly, pathetic little bitch. Fight me Stephen Miller. Seriously. Come just fist fight me like the big strong white man you think you are.
 
I've thought about getting back to martial arts and getting a gun, but I'm generally going the other way. Training is always good, but I think the deciding factor in all this has possibly already been witnessed, and it doesn't have as much to do with any individual being more lethal.

Like, those 7 million people the other day, if even a tenth of them were concentrated in DC and marched into the offices of power nothing would have stopped them. Not a blessed thing. They could have torn the architects of all this apart with their bare hands. You saw how gnarly shit got on Jan 6th and that was a fraction of the numbers. It may come to that, and if so people will die. Lots of them probably. But a force that big is like a tidal wave. Very hard to stop.

I've been a bit more focused on other stuff. Stop the bleed training. Hands-on CPR. Having the go-bag and such in case it's necessary. All training is worthwhile, but if shit gets hairy I think I've got better attributes to be the guy who documents and does first aid.
 
One of my favorite things about January 6th is how they were a frantic mob, until they got inside. Then the majority are walking around with respect to velvet ropes, looking like a massive tour group. Then they realize, oh, I can totally shit on this desk!
 
JakeEkiss said:
but if shit gets hairy I think I've got better attributes to be the guy who documents and does first aid.
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I respect that.

I'm gonna be totally real with you guys, without an ounce of machismo here: I am very comfortable with violence. Always have been. Not to say I want to do violence all the time or that I have a disrespect for life. Seeing an animal get hit by a car will ruin my week. The thought of violence and injustice done to the defenseless/undeserving infuriates and depresses me. But in terms of doing violence; doesn't bother me at all. I could break every bone in someone's body and sleep well that night.

That's part of what got me into martial arts; I like to hit people and I like to get hit. So if it came to that sort of thing... I'm suited to it, for whatever reason or whatever is wrong in my brain that made me that way. But I respect the hell out of people that recognize that isn't the best use they have in dangerous situations, even if it's something they -could- do if pressed.
 
Damien said:
I'm gonna be totally real with you guys, without an ounce of machismo here: I am very comfortable with violence. Always have been.
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For me it's sort of a different thought. I've been in a fight or two. I've hit folks, I've been hit. I took a couple martial arts simultaneously for a bit and wasn't too shabby at them. It's not particularly an aversion to violence. If a fool needs to get wrecked and there's not another viable option, let's wreck a fool. I'm down. Like I said, training is not a bad thing.

I think there's a phase change between being personally capable in a typical fight, even a gunfight, and being prepared for what a mobilized authoritarian state will bring to the action in a revolt scenario. In that equation, the thing that tips the scales isn't typically trained fighters. It's walls of humans too big to simply mow down or arrest. And you see it all across the world. When regimes fall, it's masses of people who simply hammer their way in and drag the fuckers into the streets or terrify them enough that they flee.

That crowd of people won't necessarily need more fighters. If that action starts it won't matter much if people are trained to punch or use a gun. They'll be facing military hardware. That crowd will need more EMTs, because many of them will be hurt or killed in the fray.
 
(I should say too, a lot of it is also about what makes anyone personally feel safer and more capable, and there's no wrong answer to that question)
 
JakeEkiss said:
For me it's sort of a different thought. I've been in a fight or two. I've hit folks, I've been hit. I took a couple martial arts simultaneously for a bit and wasn't too shabby at them. It's not particularly an aversion to violence. If a fool needs to get wrecked and there's not another viable option, let's wreck a fool. I'm down. Like I said, training is not a bad thing.

I think there's a phase change between being personally capable in a typical fight, even a gunfight, and being prepared for what a mobilized authoritarian state will bring to the action in a revolt scenario. In that equation, the thing that tips the scales isn't typically trained fighters. It's walls of humans too big to simply mow down or arrest. And you see it all across the world. When regimes fall, it's masses of people who simply hammer their way in and drag the fuckers into the streets or terrify them enough that they flee.

That crowd of people won't necessarily need more fighters. If that action starts it won't matter much if people are trained to punch or use a gun. They'll be facing military hardware. That crowd will need more EMTs, because many of them will be hurt or killed in the fray.
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That is kind of what I meant in the sense that -- the 'EMT role' doesn't suit me at all. It's not who I am. And I have tons of respect for people that CAN fight if they need to, but are choosing something different. Whether on principle or for completely logical and planned out reasons. I think the lowest on the totem pole of importance is 'the guy that hits people.' But I feel like that's the thing I'd be best at, push come to shove.
 
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