|
It’s upsetting to see the level of hypocrisy and invective regarding the black airman who was shot by the police for answering the door with a gun in his hand. So many people I formerly respected went from zero to “fuck the police” over a single video without any debate or analysis of it. Those who have attempted to inject nuance into the rhetoric have been digitally lynched.
I’m really disappointed by a lot of people I otherwise agree with. This incident among others has illustrated a few things. Yes, people have always hated the concept of police because no one likes being told what do to by someone with the ability to back it up by force. There’s always been a segment of the freedom/veteran/gun/prepper/whatever community that has had a “fuck the police” attitude but in this case more than any others it sounds purely like a bunch of ghetto blacks upset because their criminal son got shot. The conflation of “any killing that looks questionable to me is murder” also bothers me. Manslaughter, sure. A civil tort, sure. Wanting to have a discussion about tactics, stress inoculation, etc. that’s one thing, instead it has become personal. Well, frankly fuck you for being stupid. And that’s it. The ignorance, the allowing oneself to be drug around the nose by emotion, and the refusal to look any further than those bare emotions is what bothers me. Events like these are why I believe propaganda is so powerful. The a large number of people, may be even a majority of people, are fundamentally unable to separate emotion from fact. Nor can they separate their personal feelings and fears from what are ultimately events totally unconnected with them. I do believe that the state of the world is a fractious one and the pomposity we’re seeing here is a symptom of how people are feeling. Ultimately, I think they think “That could be me!” for one reason or another. Statistically speaking, it’s unlikely, but this is the crowd that has been demonized by the government for the past four years. We all are stressed about money, the security of the nation, our politicians that ignore use, the blatant one-sided criminal persecution, and the perversion of the justice system. So why shouldn’t a right-leaning citizen be suspicious of the government? In the end, the aggrieved citizen lashes out the nearest target. For most, the only negative contact they’ll have with law enforcement is local police. Thus, it’s the street cop that gets the animus that is probably better directed at the President, Congress, the FBI, etc. Psychologists will tell you that anger and lashing out often correlates with a sense of powerlessness. The feeling of powerlessness obviously derives from being marginalized and demonized by the political-economic situation today. People are upset and afraid, so they make snap emotional judgements and refuse to look at more nuanced approaches. So to conclude, I think this incident has become an online way to vent frustration and powerlessness. That is understandable, but to see a crowd that has reasoned out so many other things, has overall correct opinions, only take a purely emotional path and broadly paint an entire system is sad to see. So what is the lesson here? Never, ever comment or get involved in police stuff on Twitter. Just ain’t worth the aggravation. And that’s where I’ll leave this piece, with a tone of decency. Yes, that Cresson H. Kearny, from Nuclear War Survival Skills. From his Jungle Snafus ... and Remedies.  Within two days after Pearl Harbor, the headlights of all U.S. Army vehicles in the Canal Zone and Panama were painted opaque black except for a horizontal translucent red stripe painted across each lens. The leading protester against red blackout lights was a reserve officer, an experienced railroad man. He knew that red lights are used to warn of danger because a red light can be seen farther away than an equal-candlepower light of any other color. or white. The first Jungle Platoon had found that small flashlights with blue cellophane film over their lenses provided enough light even on the blackest nights to enable men to cut nails. And especially in jungle a blue light, similar to the bluish lights given off by rotting wood and some tropical insects, attracts much less attention than a red light. To help eliminate red headlights, I presented pertinent facts to the three officers charged with resolving the blackout headlights controversy. They had not realized that the daytime sky looks blue because the blue wavelength component of sunlight is scattered the most by molecules and particles in the air and that red light, having the longest wavelength in the visible spectrum, is scattered least and can be seen farthest away. Within a few days the red stripes had been scraped off the headlights of Army vehicles in Panama and replaced with translucent, thin, light blue paint. Lightweight blackout flashlights with blue lenses were issued to many of our jungle troops during World War II, beginning several months after Pearl Harbor. They had a small bulb and a single D cell, good for many hours. In The Marauders, Charlton Ogburn Jr's classic on the climax of the Burma campaigns, on page 172 I was pleased to read, "We were careful to display the blue gleam of a blackout flashlight...." Yet by the time Americans had begun fighting in Vietnam, many military flashlights were provided with red lenses, and none with blue. The enemy can see a red light much farther away than a blue one of equal candlepower. Today blue blackout flashlights are long forgotten. Now some of our jungle troops can use a book-sized receiver to look up at a Global Positioning Satellite and immediately team within a few meters where they are on a map. A red light seldom will be needed to read maps while preventing temporary loss of good night vision. Except for a few leaders. American jungle soldiers will need only blue-light flashlights. With blue lights they can move at night without as much risk of getting shot as when using flashlights emit-ting a more easily seen red or white light. Furthermore, at night a jungle soldier with a small blue-light flashlight shielded by his poncho usually can safely doctor his cuts and scratches and remove ticks and thorns. Many American jungle fighting men were thus enabled to help themselves keep healthy during World War II. Unfortunately, our Services' concentration on getting ready to fight the Russians in Europe or the Middle East led to the elimination of blue-light flashlights and most other combat-proven jungle equipment.
|
Author Don ShiftDon Shift is a veteran of the Ventura County Sheriff's Office and avid fan of post-apocalyptic literature and film who has pushed a black and white for a mile or two. He is a student of disasters, history, and current events. Archives
March 2026
Categories
All
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
The best scanner for people who want trunking capabilities but don't have a masters in radio programming. https://amzn.to/3OUtPAE
MSR Guardian-the best water purifier that can filter out most viruses.
https://amzn.to/3pkKepc
Streamlight Siege: a surprisingly good, rugged lantern. https://amzn.to/3XmrMsK
Analog radiation dosimeter. https://amzn.to/3r5kTzS
https://amzn.to/3qXL5MW
https://amzn.to/3CL8m7E
|
RSS Feed