Village Praxis: Queer Eye for the Tactical Guy: Gear Notes for the Lumpen-Patriotariat by John Meyers

Publisher’s Note: In case you missed it, the Mango Emperor is no friend of private guns as no political wing of the Uniparty in the Offal Office has been friendly to private weapons ownership since the RedDR administration. Comrade Trump has done more to harm private weapons ownership than the entire occupation of the Awful Office by the Obamunists. We now discover that America’s largest weapons prohibition organization in the private sector, the NRA, is rife with corruption, outrageous fiscal mishandling and a rather cozy relationship with an organization that contribute to the Bolshevik wing of the Uniparty. And now the NYC Progressive says this at a presser:

“I’d like to think about it. I mean nobody’s talking about silencers very much. I did talk about the bump stock and we had it banned and we’re looking at that. I’m going to seriously look at it. I don’t love the idea of it,”

Like most everything else he does, there seems to be no intellectual nor moral underpinning to any of the garbage that dribbles audibly from his pie-hole. As if the 1934 NFA monstrosity doesn’t do enough damage in what it requires for a private human on the tax plantation in America to get a suppressor…

And then he nominates a mouth-breathing coproach from the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) to be the next commissar of the incompetent and fetid swamp directorate, the BATFE. This organization has always been hostile to all aspects of private weapons ownership.

Like almost all badged Orc leadership in the US, the eradication of private weapons ownership as advocated by their political masters is the final goal. There is a reason why coproaches tend to shoot on sight any human with a gun America no matter the circumstances. The International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Major Cities Chiefs Association, and the National Sheriff’s Association all support weapons control, but, again, the leadership tends to come from large cities which haven’t grasped the connection between strict gun control and higher rates of violent crime.

Here is John’s guest post here at the Green Dragon Tavern…

The second part of Andy’s Glock series will be published on Monday.

You now have 592 days of shopping until the next shambler-in-a-suit stumbles into the Offal Office and the Deep State slips their fist in their ass and meat puppets the march to communism. -BB

“Buy the best. Pay cash. Take delivery.”

– Max Blumert

“If you have a 10 dollar head, buy a 10 dollar helmet.”

– Bill Buppert.

My buddy Mosby over at Mountain Guerrilla has been writing quite a bit about gear lately and I’ve enjoyed it. It’s something different for a change. I have been following the articles not necessarily to learn about his opinions on gear per se, (largely because I pretty much already know what he is going to say) but more to witness the reactions from the Lumpen-Patriotariat on the blogosphere.

Bitter polemics often ensue amongst folks without real world experience. These folks are no different than WorldNet Daily and Daily KOS readers who are flinging rhetorical Starbucks lattes and Chick Fil-a sandwiches at each other over identity politics and culture/social justice war hysterics without any conception of actual freedom or with any critique of power.

There is a maxim that used to be tossed around the training industry. I first heard it from the late, great, Paul Gomez, but I believe Massad Ayoob is the originator of it. It’s the hierarchy of Mindset, Tactics, Skills, and Gear. In the Threeper milieu (but also in most of the general firearms culture as well) we see this flipped on its head. All people want to talk about is gear. They may talk about skills secondarily, but heaven forbid having to demonstrate those skills on demand. Whereas gear, can just be a show and tell.

While most was praise, I did catch flack from the Budget Build article found here: https://backofbeyondsite.wordpress.com/2018/05/03/junk-budget-builds-and-gear-reviews/

I’ll attempt not to revisit the same material as best as I can.

Let’s get started.

Mosby (here) has some good advice to folks who are not able to afford gear. His solution is that the average person probably doesn’t need a pile of it to learn the fundamentals anyway. Save your money for good kit when you can afford it and in the mean time, use a back pocket or a simple belt mounted mag pouch or two. My experience mimics his findings and I’ve offered the same solution to folks for years.

For several years I was involved with an instructor, known to many in the preparedness blogosphere that ran a program focused on a training pipeline that culminated with a Small Unit Tactics (SUT) course. Hence, there were usually somewhat extensive gear requirements for even a beginner level type familiarization course. The idea was that you needed to have eight magazines or so on your body to run the SUT course, so you might as well figure out the gear now. You cannot fault the logic in the least for the context of the course work. Leaving aside the fact that a small-unit fight on you way home from the office is not a very likely situation in 2019, there were also some negative training externalities.

For starters it was another barrier to entry in learning the fundamentals, both monetarily and kinesthetically. Many of the folks in that carbine program barely were able to scrape by enough cash to get a decent rifle, several magazines and half a case of ammo to the run course, let alone come up with another 500$ to buy decent kit to outfit one’s self. Therefore, I saw a lot of very old surplus MOLLE vests with ALICE pouches zip tied on to them or button top USGI mag pouches mounted side ways to fit onto various sub load leg panels. 100lb women wearing Condor plate carriers with steel plates that were so ill fitting that they couldn’t physically get the rifle up into their shoulder pocket and get a proper cheek weld. If asked, I started offering advice of scrapping all the crap entirely and running the course out of their back pocket.

Most folks need to have an androgical experience or a baptism of fire so to speak to figure out what actually works for them. I began to see those people who couldn’t perform with all that cheap gear on accelerate through the roof in their skill development. They were faster, more accurate, more efficient and actually getting work done. Total newbies were performing things faster and more efficiently than people who had been training with bad gear for years.

So we hear it a lot, cheap gear is better than no gear. I do not know if that is true for the average guy, absent legitimately needing to carry 12 mags or something on person. I actually tend to believe that you should probably learn to shoot first, before strapping on more kit and common gear than a CCT guy uses.

The military uses a planning process known as METT-TC to plan missions and operations. That is all well and good for folks to understand, but we can accomplish the same thing in everyday situations by simply using the Tom Given’s adage of “Where am I, what am I doing and who am I with?”

If you answer those three questions, you’ll generally be able to figure out what gear you need pretty easy.

This goes for all areas of your life. If you are thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2019, you are not going to be carrying a 125lb military style load out. But many with an Apocalypse-only mindset would have you believe you need to be prepared for everything and all times, without any mission context.

Outdoor Clothing for… Being Outdoors?

A simple boot recommendation by Mosby resulted in a Lumpen-Patriotariat commentary mocking those who shop at, dun dun dun, an outdoor store for gear to be worn outdoors.  Apparently wearing a pair of hiking boots or a Gore-Tex jacket means you are fed goon with a 6-figure salary working for the State Dept. I’ve heard it all.

One thing two different mentors (both of whom were SOF) stressed to me early on, was that as soon as they were able, they were dropping that mil-surplus stuff like a bad habit and adapting lightweight backpacking versions of gear, soonest. For instance, they were dropping issued boots for the best backpacking boots they could afford. Feet matter I guess.

An old adage I heard some old timers talk about years ago was if you are going to spend your hard earned money on something, pay the most attention to your boots and your mattress. If you are a workingman, if you aren’t in one, you are in the other.

Like Mosby, I’ve tried different brands of hiking and mountaineering boots. All name brands you are going find at the local hiking shop are going to probably be decent (assuming you get the correct fit), some are cut differently than others and you have to figure out what works best for your feet. Brand wars are stupid, I tend to stay as objective as possible. Asolo or Salewa tend to last much longer in my experience than say, Salomon. But Salomon’s tend to be a much more comfortable, nimble and perfect fitting boot.  Just don’t be like these idiots who got into a shooting over Ford vs. Chevy. https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/2019/05/01/ford-chevy-shooting-virginia/3637905002/

Mission drives tactics. Mission also drives gear. If I am going to be logging in the mountains for instance, a pair of hiking boots will not cut it day in and day out. You’ll need some type of thick-soled work boot like Wesco, Whites, Hoffman or Nicks. In fact, in the West Coast Timber Woods you’ll be hard pressed to find guys wearing lesser quality brands. If you are working a fire line they will have to be NFPA certified. But you won’t be wearing these boots sitting at an office.

I can hear the commentariat now. “OHH EMM GEEE this elitist is talking about a 400$ pair of work boots!”

Yeah. I’m talking about a 400$ pair of boots. Basic math dictates this: If that pair of boots lasts you 12+ years like my last pair, (and they are still in service but as a back up pair) that is 33$ a year. Guys are spending 200$+ a year on boots that fall apart of every year and aren’t even re-buildable. They last for about six months then start degrading exponentially till they fail in a year or 18 months. Most guys I know are getting a new pair economy type boots every Christmas. Who exactly can’t afford what now?  I can’t afford to continuously buy cheap stuff like you rich people.

One thing I have found beneficial in my own life is that if I need to buy a certain tool or piece of equipment, is to talk to someone who does it for a living on a professional level. If I want to know where to start looking when buying a new welder, I’ll talk to a buddy who runs a steel fabrication business and not random un-vetted trolls on the internet.

It always amazed me that the economic nationalist type of person loves Chinese kit so much. They hate the Chi-Com’s, want their goods taxed out of existence, but not before they stock up on more of their optics, lights, accessories, and piles of generally worthless garbage to make them feel safe if SHTF ever comes.

I live more or less an hour drive from one of the hippy epicenters of the Eastern US in the southern Appalachians.  Even the most broke-down, poor hikers you see on the trail are going to be wearing outdoor clothing. Why? Because they need lightweight, warm clothing or rain gear that actually works.

It’s apparently fashionable to mock outdoor gear being worn in a tactical context these days. I find this sort of hilarious and it demonstrates the people saying these things probably have a working knowledge of zero when it comes to doing work or training in inclement weather. Usually guys say “I can’t afford that North Face (or Patagucci or *insert whatever brand here*) shell! I use mil surplus!” have spent more on the milsurp Multicam version than the civilian backpacker version that’s probably more effective, lighter and more packable to boot.

Being poor is a state of mind, being broke is a state of finances. If you have vehicle payments, satellite TV, cell phones with unlimited data plans, extravagant home mortgages, go to bars, eat out, drink 20$ a six pack micro brews, play the lottery, buy 5$ coffees every day, take vacations, go on golfing trips, smoke cigarettes, drink three energy drinks a day, have designer jeans with the holes already torn in them or eat 10$ frozen pizza instead of chicken breast and rice, this is not about money.

The same guys who say they can’t afford a quality rifle/optic or a quality handgun are the same dudes who have 14 budget builds in the safe and five Taurus’s to hand out to their conscripts during the coming insurrection. I know people who have brand new trucks, equipment payments and are in debt up to their eyeballs over worthless consumer junk and claim they can’t afford to spend a couple hundred more dollars on an optic or a rifle to get a rock solid reliable one vs. a budget model. This is not about finances. This is about priorities.

One can easily, with the advent of REI used gear online and REI garage sales, find high-end quality gear that will perform to the best standard around for less than surplus. The garage sales aren’t what they used to be years ago when people would camp out for the 2x a year events, but deals can still be had. You could easily get set up with a complete 3 day backpacking load out, including a full set of 4 season clothes for 200$ with good quality gear at one of these sales. Online close outs are also places to check.

You could easily get a super nice set of store brand rain gear from a place like REI for less than you could get the latest, heavy, less effective Multicam ECWCS Gore-Tex suit.

If you have trained in the rain more than once, you’ll generally find out that you’ll forgo a few star bucks latte’s and save up for some rain gear that is effective.

“People that know anything don’t wear Arc’teryx!”

Obviously you’ve never been to an actual firearms training class by people that take it seriously. Here you’ll find guys who work overtime on the second shift down at the plant, with three kids, a mortgage, who are dry practicing five days a week, live firing every weekend, hitting the gym, rolling/sparring a few times a week and scraping every spare penny they have to save up for the next class or another pair of boots because their last pair they wear to classes and range practice have the seams busted out from extensive use. You’ll see their Safariland holsters are worn out, their mags are beat to hell, and their guns are scarred. They train. They have guns that run, and they know what they will take. The same goes from the clothing they wear. They may have 1 set of good rain gear that with a warranty that works and will take a beating, instead of buying a set of 50$ Wal-Mart gear every time it rains because it doesn’t last more than a couple outings.

Guys who are serious cannot afford the time to play around with junk. We are busy doing work. We cannot afford to buy twice, or three times or four times.

When we are on the line working on cars and trucks for flat rate pay, we cannot afford to use Harbor Freight tools that break in the middle of a job. We use Snap-on or Mac or other reputable brands. We cannot use an electric chainsaw as a professional arborist. We cannot afford to use a budget build Uncle Billy put together on the front porch with factory seconds parts when we just spent a year saving the 1000$+ to pay course fees, travel, ammo and lodging to go to the Mike Pannone class six states away and have a rifle break three hours in on the first day. Ain’t nobody got time or money for any of that.

I’ll leave the reader with one last anecdote before ceasing to beat this dead horse any further. A new acquaintance popped up one day and after seeing him looking like he just walked out of a hiker catalog photo shoot, when he was just running an errand a mile or two down the road, I made a comment that it seemed a bit over the top. Several days go by and the guy came up in a conversation. “He sure seems to be going a little over the top with all the mountaineering gear, don’t ya think?”

I was then told that the man had climbed 30 of the highest peaks in the world. He just got back from a trip out west to summit some peak in the Southern Rockies.  Go ahead, keep judging a book by its cover.

Exactly What Type of Training Do You Do Again?

I want to caveat this essay by stating that it is contextual. It’s pretty clear that most folks who advocate for junk equipment, clothing, gear, guns, tools, etc. do not use them to the extent that many of us do. And that is totally fine. But should we value your opinion? Does someone who only shoots 50 rounds on warm, sunny spring days, once or twice a year or only ‘operates’ at an indoor range, really need 300$ worth of rain gear or even a rock solid reliable gun? Does the average homeowner need a ported Husky 395xp used by a professional timber faller? These questions answer themselves. Yet most folks only seem to speak in a context that only reflects limited experience.

If I see a random guy advocating blatant gun derp and saying stuff like ‘muh pistol shoots 2” groups at 25 yards!” I’ll just say, “show me.” Just show me. Skin out the Roscoe and lets see the group at 25y or post a video if the discussion is taking place online. If you can’t do it, your opinion doesn’t matter.

To be clear, I’m not “flexing on the poor’s” to use a popular phrase in certain sectors of the gun industry right now. I think that is about as retarded as advocating for junk equipment. I’m only really interested in objective facts about these things. I’m that proverbial blue-collar dude that lives in the Back of Beyond, with a shotgun, a rifle and a four-wheel drive. You don’t live here and have lots of expendable income unless you are retired a Flori-diot. We grow gardens, raise meat and hunt for decent percentages of your diets. We drive old vehicles and repurpose everything.  We trade and barter. If we need lumber for a new out building, the first place we start looking for materials is tearing down an old one on the other side of the property.

“Anything will do, if you’ll do,” is a thing.  You do need to be able to handle whatever weapon you have at your disposal. I much prefer to stack the odds in my favor in most of my pursuits. Whether it’s training, working or living. This is largely to eliminate equipment variables in the equation.

Yes, its possible to get a 300$ budget build that will work. But, which do you think you have a better chance with? One of those or a something like a Bravo Company rifle that has the proven track record, testing, and name to back it all up? Budget guns break all the time. I’ve seen 6-8 go down over the course of just two classes. What I didn’t see was top shelf brands having any problems. You don’t ever hear of BCM’s or similar brands of reputable rifles having repeated failures like that. Ever.

Let’s be clear, cost does not always equal quality. Several years ago during the Lumber-sexual craze, there was a hipster company selling run of the mill average quality axes that cost about 40-50$, upgraded with their branding and marketing it to urban lumber-sexual types and getting over 300$. Over 300$ is the cost of an Autine or John Neeman hand-made axe. I would take any run of the mill 100-200$ Swedish-made axe over one of those things any day of the week and twice on Sunday. I’d probably take it over the Autine, as there is some artistic licensing that you are paying for in that type of axe.  (Not to take anything away from them) Heck, an eBay purchase of a 1940’s era American axe for 35$ with a new handle will probably serve you just as well.

The guys at Westside Barbell, easily one of the strongest gyms on the face of the earth, with numerous world record holders, generally do not squat with 300$ Olympic type squat shoes. They are running Chuck Taylors. The quality is where it needs to be to perform the task and the flat soles have a specific performance advantage for the type of lifting they do.

One doesn’t “need” a 4500$ Open Division race gun to have an effective and reliable pistol. A 500$ Glock, Smith and Wesson, CZ, Sig or other reputable gun will do, if you’ll do. On the flip side, lets just not pretend that 500$ Glock is the “same thing” as a 4500$ race gun. If you are in the super squad at USPSA nationals you will not place very well with a stock Glock vs. guys shooting open class race guns.

The same goes for optics. It’s long been a rule of the precision rifle world to spend at least as much as your rifle costs on a piece of glass to use the system to its full capability. Will a 300-600$ Low Power Variable Optic (LPVO) work for most folks applications? Sure. In fact, my buddy Mosby was quick to point me to an article recently that detailed a bunch of mid-range LPVO’s used operationally overseas. It contained a lot of Strike Eagles, PST’s, MTAC’s and whatever else I’m forgetting. The fact is optics like this work and will probably serve anyone on the range doing moderate to even hard use training pretty well.

One thing that was also pointed out in the article was that these were also purchased with soldier’s own money.  When prodded, most were quick to state they would have rather had a Razor line Vortex for instance, but money was a deciding issue.

Since I’m rather pedantic and words mean things, it chaps my ass when I hear people say “Mah Mosin with a scope is the same thing as that 6,000$ AICS rifle Mr. High Pockets has and that 4000$ scope.”

Shut up, Internet.

There are folks who will trade in a vehicle because it needs a 500$ repair, only to get a newer vehicle, with a 500$ per month payment, that will still break down like all things mechanical. And these same people will get a gun show red dot for 100$ that will not hold a zero, that will fail in the first class they take, and instead of spending 350-400$ for one that is bullet proof.

Looking at the LPVO’s for a second, we can see that something in the 200-400$ range is just not the same thing as a 2500-3500$ optic. Glass quality, durability, tracking, FFP or SFP, fogging of the lenses, reliability, common failure points, features and options, daylight bright red dots or illuminated reticles, reticle options and the list goes on and on in the differences in those types of optics. If I know that an instructor who sees 2,000 students per year is posting pictures of 20 of a certain brand/model of scopes with broken turrets that have come through his classes, I may want to file that in the memory bank that it’s a known issue.

Those characteristics of optics for instance may or may not matter to you. The fact remains the differences are actually big, but lack of knowledge or experience attempts to cover that up. If I spend 400$ to get into the LPVO world, I’ll gain worlds of benefits over irons or cheap red dot sights. Seeing better allows the shooter to process more information and positively identify the target. However, if I have the means and I enter the 800-1200$ range, I’ll have much more forgiving eye boxes that make unconventional shooting positions more manageable, more robustness, way less failures, twice as good of glass, more light into the optic which means I can use the optic in darker environments without white light, day light bright red dot options, and guaranteed tracking. This may matter. It may not. The market allows people to make decisions based on their needs but the two categories are not the “same.”

Which brings us full circle. If the average internet shit poster is only concerned about needing a junky pistol so they can go Henry Bowman on an official, they legitimately do not care about training, getting better, achieving excellence or being effective in all their pursuits. They live in Tactical Fantasy Band Camp. “Gun stuff” to them is an item to cross of on a list, not a daily hygiene.  Folks are focused on weather the collapse will be Full Fenian or Full Red Dawn, instead of taking just 5 seconds to assess the most likely current threats right now.

If you are a guy who is trying to up their game, be harder to kill, hitting the weight room, doing your dry fire, and taking half a dozen classes a year coupled with a good range session every week or two, you are a completely different type of demographic than the 8-chan trolls who find their way to whatever patriot movement blog.  You are going to need to be able to perform in all manners of weather and environments. If I’m dedicating my hard earned money and time to attending 4 courses a year, and I’m hitting it hard on the range every week and attending a larger community type range day once a month or two, rain, shine, sleet or snow, I need equipment that is going to work and keep up with my training pace or tools and equipment to keep up with my job. It’s no different than if I choose to heat my house with firewood. If I want to keep my family warm during a brutal mountain winter, I need to produce. I cannot afford saws to break down, or a go-devil that breaks a handle every day or a wood splitter that breaks every other use.

For folks who make comments about “I just can’t do kydex for a holster, its all leather for me!” or “you’ll blind yourself with the 800 lumen Streamlight!” or that “kydex will break below 32 degrees!” it’s completely apparent they have never done anything in their lives remotely related to serious training with firearms.

I’m curious as to what folks actually do with the gear they advocate in the first place other than stacking it deep in the basement? It’s pretty common in the Threeper world to hear guys still holding up the ALICE load bearing system as great equipment for instance. Or flapped pistol holsters.

Exactly what type of training is it that you do? Have you ever even attempted to fire one round from the 50 with your rifle, reload it from bolt lock, and fire one more round, while getting both hits, from your LBE using Defoor’s five second standard for covered/flapped magazine pouches? Can you draw your pistol to an upper A-zone hit @ 10 yards from that flapped universal holster in 1.5 seconds or less, let alone re-holster the gun without shooting yourself?

It’s a recurring theme I hear a lot… ”I cant afford X, Y, or Z, so what do I do?”

This is exactly why there is an adage in the training community to initially spend more money, after you get a reliable gun, on training and ammo. The cost of one class will generally save you from years of wasted expenditures. You’ll see what the instructor is using, what other students who are tuned up are using and more than likely by simply asking, you could run whatever you want to try it out for yourself and see if it works for you. Further, if you see a consensus on a certain type of gear, method of carry, or piece of kit, in detective work, we generally call that a clue.

The Internet blathers on about how X, Y, or Z piece of kit “works just fine” when they have never used it in harsh conditions or in a fast paced environment in the first place.  Instructors who are training hundreds or thousands of students each year see patterns, repeated equipment failures, failure points in kit, that the internet troll would never experience in a life time. But no, we’ll listen to folks who put up gear reviews on YouTube where they have fired a few hundred rounds through something and call it duty grade.

If you see a guy who teaches 1000 students each year in low light techniques saying that the only lights that survive the class and perform up to the best standard possible are brands X or Y, you should probably pay attention.

So what should that guy who can’t afford a quality piece of kit do?

If this were in regards to buying a plate carrier, chest rig or battle belt, I’d say save the cash and get proficient at running slick with a mag in your back pocket or a belt-mounted pouch. Not only is that most likely how’d you’d roll if you had to defend yourself with a carbine or pistol today, its probably the most advantageous set up to master fundamental skills.

Granted, if you are going to use gear, you need to put it on. During all this time you are shooting that stock piled ammo, and becoming proficient at the fundamentals, you can also be cutting expenses, rearranging priorities, quitting smoking or drinking, and putting cash back for kit that work and that will last.

The Budget Build article brought a lot of attention to this subject. In fact some of the things mentioned in the article, resulted in change. Some of the gear reviewers that said “riflemen never drop rifles!” in response to a query about impact testing of an optic are now impact testing optics. Things change and this time for the good. It’s good to see things change from a jerkoff session backing up a preference to at least some semblance of actual evaluation.

To conclude this rant, I’d like to relay an anecdote of a neighbor we had growing up. He ran a small electrical company. He bought nearly all the capital equipment for the company, the box trucks, bucket truck, etc. back in the 1960’s. He also had a fully equipped wood shop. He slowly invested in his self over the years and built up an enviable homestead and business. At first glance it didn’t look like much. He paid cash, bought the best and took delivery. He was the guy you went to if you needed to borrow a specialty tool. His vehicles were 25+ years old when I was little and he kept them religiously maintained. He bought everything he needed once. He didn’t buy a Chinese tool every other week to replace the one that broke. He bought once, and cried once. And he was the most frugal guy I ever met. There is no telling how much cash he had in the bank. When he died, his kids sold his property for several million, when he paid 3500$ for it in the 1950’s. It is my strong recommendation for serious folks in these pursuits to be like him.

While most folks try to think they can change the world through politics, they fail to realize they must change themselves first. If folks can’t even get their self to the range or gym to become even remotely close to how their Internet persona portrays them, how can we take them seriously?

Training is a path, not a destination. It’s a set of practices in ones Ama-gi arsenal in being harder to kill. Having equipment on hand to complete your mission is essential, but what’s more important is doing the actual work.

Instead of devoting large amounts of time to electoral politics, have you considered dry firing instead? Instead of yet another meeting to set up more meetings with the local Threeper camp down at the buffet line, how about you hit the squat rack? At least you’ll actually accomplish something.

Refuse the complete waste of time on the Red State-Blue State debate and realize they both want their boots on your neck. It’s not a question if either faction is against dictators or not. They just want to be the party to dictate. It’s all a debate between different preference amongst the factions of the ruling class and you are falling for it.

I believe that ZeroGov’s OG Collapsitarian, Skip, has a pretty good handle on the fact that this thing is going to collapse in the long run. Recognize reality. But lets not delude ourselves that it will solve the liberty equation with a satisfactory final solution for all. Despite the bleeting of the MAGAt’s, there will be no grand restoration of American values from a career crony capitalist, New York City liberal. All American conservatism has done in its existence is simply preserve the last liberal victory. No bloody revolution will bring you freedom.

Be Stirner’s insurrectionist and lionize outlaws of old in daily deed. Political masters and party apparatchiks in the capital of the Empire are merely rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. It’s time to abandon ship and save your self. I maintain proactive apathy toward the system. Managing your own business and being self-reliant is indeed the quiet insurrection of Appalachian legend Quill Rose. (More on the quiet insurrection here) But you have to start with yourself. As Mosby put it in his book, Forging the Hero, you need to stop talking about Revolution and be your own revolution. (Mindset discussion here: Mindset: Action vs Inaction)

I see nationalism in the sense of centralization at the national level as collectivist drivel, based on the Founding mythos of a united and whole people that never existed in the first place. Nationalism as we understand today is largely a product of the Leftists in the French Revolution with its consolidation and unification of the provinces under a common identity, as on offering to the gods of Modernity and Statism. Yet, if Americanism does mean anything, retain the allergy to authority present in past generations. Be contemptuous of power anywhere you find it.

And while on the path, assess the proper tools, equipment and accouterments needed to perform your tasks. Choose wisely.

I strive for excellence to the best of my ability in most of what I do. Trying to have the best tools and equipment available to me to accomplish this is just part of the process. Others mileage may vary, but don’t slow us down. I’d rather be dead than average.

“… Most underachievers are seeking an experience, not the pursuit of excellence. These individuals don’t want to truly challenge themselves to get better; they just want to be a part of something.

– Aaron Barruga, Guerrilla Approach

“Difficult Tasks are a privilege to the strongest; to play with burdens that crush others, a recreation.”

– Nietzsche

 

About the author: John Meyers traces his Appalachian ancestry back nine generations to the 1750’s. He lives with his family on the high ridges of the Smoky Mountains.