Cleared Hot - Powered By BRCC - Full Auto Friday - Round 74

Episode Date: October 8, 2021

Rapid Fire Q and A to finish off the week: 1. The great social media blackout of 2021 and what can be learned personally and professionally 2. I'm 5 months into Jiu-Jitsu and I feel like I suck, what should I do 3. Do your intro comments on the most recent Evan Hafer podcast pass the "elevator test" 4. Any updated thoughts on 2A Enjoy

Today's episode of Fall Out of Friday is brought to you by longtime podcast sponsor On It. If you are interested in total human optimization, and I don't know why you wouldn't be interested in that, go to onit.com slash hot. And you will know you're in the right place because the podcast artwork, actually the old podcast artwork is right there front and center, across the top. Depending on how much time you have, you can go as deep as you want. Supplements, nutrition, fitness apparel, sale, and then content. Each of those, if you hover your mouse across them, is going to give you multiple options. So like I said, depending on how much time you have. That landing page itself, though, has some what I would call flagship products, starting with AlphaBrain, which is a neutropic for memory focus and processing speed.

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very shortly. Benchmaid.com. Let's do this. Full Auto Friday, 74. All right, people, let's do this. How we got to 74 episodes is slightly beyond me. If you're watching this episode, instead of just listening to it, you can tell my hair is getting out of control. I'm a little disheveled, if you will, but I'm going to clean my shit up while shave tonight, but I'm going to get a haircut tomorrow. So don't worry, I'm going to get right back inside of military regulations. Actually, not even close, but my hair's not going to look like shit. All right, I digress.

Let's move into the questions. There's three questions for today, but before I get into those, I think the events or the event of this week that I'm going to reference provides an excellent opportunity to look at a little bit of human behavior and to draw some very important personal lessons from it. What am I talking about? I'm talking about the great social media blackout of 2021. And if you are not on the internet or social media, you don't know what I'm talking about. But if you are, I believe it was two days ago, Facebook and Instagram, and I believe they said WhatsApp, even though I don't use WhatsApp, but I know what it is. I think they are all owned by the same organization. And they all decided to go offline. Now, when I say they decided to go offline, I'd love to know exactly what happened. Who knows if we ever will. There was a whistleblower from Facebook that I believe was going to be testifying in front of Congress or had started her testimony, and then it shut itself down. I I'm not an incredibly conspiratorial person. I'm not trying to connect the two.

The timing, you know, sometimes can be odd between things. I'm not trying to fashion my tinfoil hat, but I found it to be interesting. And then the social media platforms were down for the longest they've ever been in the history of those platforms. And I think it is safe to say that some people and some organizations lost their shit when they were down. For I think it was a total of seven hours. And there are some lessons to be learned there. personally and professionally. And I'll get to those. But before I do, I'm going to take another step deeper into the envelope and address a different issue than I can tie into it. And that issue

is something that has, for whatever reason, been asked to me recently, not a lot, but enough that it has kind of resonated. I'm like, huh, I'm getting that question a little bit. And it has to do with toughness. I was asked this question yesterday. On Mondays, I host a video call with a Patreon group, and we actually pushed it to a Tuesday because I was traveling. But the last question we talked about was a woman who asked, you know, what does it mean, what does it mean to be tough? How do you, do you consider yourself to be tough? She was asking me. And then how do you pursue toughness? And it's a fascinating question for one, because there's resiliency, there's grit, and there's toughness. And I still don't have a crystal explanation for each one of those to

separate them because I think they share a lot of qualities. But the overall question and the fact that I had gotten it so many times recently really has got me thinking. And I'll tie this back into the great social media blackout of our time shortly. So I still don't know. She asked me directly. Do I consider myself to be a tough person? I don't know if I do. And I say that because I know so many people who are tougher than me in so many different ways, maybe not in every way, but in enough ways to me that I'm like, God damn, I really would like to be able to emulate that behavior. I'd like to be able to do the things that they do. I'd like to be able to work through the things that they are able to work through. Now, having said that, I realize that, yes, I was able to make it

through a selection process when I was very young, 18 years old, where the statistical odds of me successfully graduating were not incredibly high. It is a program that does scream for physical and mental toughness. But I also don't think it's a perfect selection tool or process because there are weeds in every lawn to include the seal community. I don't care how much refinement or selection that you do. There are going to be people who can mask their deficiencies enough to make it through and then they will express later on. And then hopefully you have leadership that's willing to deal with that. However, it's not necessarily tied into the question here. My point is, yes, that was something that was tough and was difficult, but I was 18. And I don't

want to look back to things I did when I was 18 when I think of myself now, where I turn 44 in less than a week. I would like to think that I am not going to be defined by an accomplishment or selection course that I went through at that age. So I don't know if I'm tough, but what I do know is that I like challenging things. I like things that seem to have a never-ending learning process in a shallow learning curve that seems to go towards a never-ending trajectory. I think that's one of the things that I enjoyed when I was learning to fly. It was the vast level of knowledge that you need to have, especially when you get into the instrument world or the Part 135 charter world or even if you were to become a pilot for a traditional airline. The knowledge

base, it seems to be never ending. The currency, it's never ending and it's challenging. And you could always level up and go learn a different system or learn a different aircraft. It's just this never ending pursuit. Jiu-jitsu, exactly the same thing. I'm not going to talk too much about it because I know some people lose their mind when I do. And one of the questions today is about it. So what I will say in my limited experience now of being at this for three years and maybe three months is it's really hard. It's challenging every single day, physically and mentally. And I don't think it could ever be mastered. And I think that's what I like about it the most. So I enjoy doing hard things. I feel like as a person when I do those hard things. And even though I can't give you a definition for toughness

and grit and resiliency, I think all of them are improved, enhanced, and strengthened by pursuing those hard things. Now, I think it's very easy for people to play this measurement game. They will measure themselves against somebody else and say, well, I am not as good as them, so therefore I am not as tough as them. And what I will go back to, as I do often is the only measurement tool that matters is you versus yourself. And it's one of the things I love the most about that 24-hour clone principle that Kevin Estella brought up on the podcast. Pick any facet of who you were 24 hours ago and make sure that you're able to beat yourself in any one facet. Maybe it's physically. Maybe it's in a conversation. Maybe it's in an argument. Maybe it is, maybe it is, I don't even know

what it is because there are so many other options, but just make sure that you are slightly better every single day. It's that pursuit of growth. So how do you make yourself tougher to get back to one of the questions that was asked of me? The best way that you can do that is to sit down, and this is my opinion, right? This is necessarily like a recipe that I've learned anywhere, but my opinion is you can sit down and spend some time with yourself and you can identify the things that you are the most scared of or that you are the least likely to do without being forced. A good example would be public speaking. I don't know where the statistic comes from, but, you know, more people are more scared of public speaking than they are of death, which is bizarre to me.

But granted, I do have a good amount of public speaking experience, but I just find it bizarre that anybody would be more afraid of speaking in front of other human beings than dropping dead in the street or being eaten to death by a grizzly bear. But if somebody says to me, I am terrified of public speaking, but I also want to become more resilient or develop more grit or become tougher as a person, I'm sure everybody listening right now already knows the advice that I'm going to give them. You should go and attempt public speaking. And then whether it goes good or bad, what you should do is continue and do another one and another one and another one until you can identify something else that scares you or worries you or concerns you more than the fear of public speaking. So you are

identifying your deficiencies and then going directly at those deficiencies to improve them and strengthen them until something else takes the podium and then you start going at that and that and that. And where are you going to end up? You're going to end up in a lifelong person. pursuit of self-improvement. And I think as a human being, that's probably one of the best things that you can do. When I sit down and spend time with myself, and this manifests itself physically, we'll use briefly jiu-jitsu as an example. There are people who, when they show up to class, you're like, God, damn it, I don't want to roll with that guy. Because maybe they're a really tough role. Maybe you don't have success with that person. Maybe you lose to them every single time.

What advice do you think that I'm going to give and that I give myself? When I identify that person, what do I do? When given the opportunity, I go directly at that uncomfortableness and I try to work my way through it as opposed to going around it. There are micro tests like that everywhere. You don't have to wait for something to be a catastrophe to test yourself. And now I'm going to make a comparison to the pandemic that we are still working our way through. COVID could be, for most people, an excellent micro test. And I say the word micro, not because I'm trying to diminish COVID in any way.

I know it's very real. I know there's been catastrophic loss of life. But for most of us, that is not the case. For most of us, life will continue as relatively normal, but it gives you the opportunity to assess yourself mentally and mentally. and physically when it comes to working away through the challenges of the last, I think it's 20 months now. Another reason I use the term micro instead of macro is it's not going to be the asteroid hitting the Earth and wiping out the entire population. And again, yes, I'm not trying to diminish it any way.

I understand the catastrophic loss of life. But it is not going to be a species ending event. However, if one of those events or something, let's say, 10 times more dangerous than COVID and deadly than COVID did present itself and you waited to determine how resilient or how much grit you had or how tough you were in that environment or how prepared you were, if you waited until that and you have no safety net, you have no practice and you have no ability to improve yourself or you didn't take those opportunities to improve yourself, you might. be fucked. And that's why I say there are micro tests everywhere. And what you should do is take those tests, rate yourself, identify your deficiencies, and then fix them. So again, how do I, how does that apply to COVID? Well, I'm not even going to talk about the virus because that's kind of an aside. The one thing that I don't think anybody argues with is the more prepared you go into a situation like a pandemic, the better off your outcome is going to be.

especially from a physical perspective. Now, yes, of course, there's going to be like the Black Swan events where an incredibly healthy person has a reaction to the virus and they drop dead. I get it. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about for almost everybody else who doesn't have that experience. You know, what has come up over and over again during this time period is healthy immune systems, going into something like this, your exposure to this, if you are exposed, being healthy up

front. One of the main comorbidities is obesity. And this is where I wish that people would take a more critical eye of themselves as human beings. When presented with that information, that doesn't seem to be argued about at all, the healthier you are, the more likely you are to survive. And you do not assess your weakness. Let's say you're rolling around 20, 30, 40, 50, 100 pounds overweight and you have a sedentary lifestyle. You have a poor diet. it, no exercise routine. And 20 months into this pandemic, and that hasn't changed, well, you've failed the test, and then you have failed to remediate yourself and improve your situation. And when that 5 or 10x situation occurs in the future, I hate to tell you, but your odds of survival, they're incredibly

low. So what you could do, though, is give yourself that micro test. Okay, you're going to make it through COVID, but you know what? I could have done better. I could have been more prepared. You can identify those deficiencies and then you can go after them and improve them, hopefully improving the people around you as well, right? Because that positive mental attitude, that positive influence is going to pull people towards you like a gravitational force and you can have that ripple effect going around in the community that you live in. And maybe you can improve other people's preparedness as well. These micro tests, they're out there everywhere. Now, how in the hell does this apply to the great social media blackout of 2021? one. Well, let me just tell you, in my opinion, that was an incredible micro test as well on a

professional level and also a personal level. There were some companies during that seven, call it seven, I'm not sure exactly that that's what it was, but I'll call that seven hour blackout who were completely and utterly dead to the outside world because the platform that they relied on that they didn't own and they had no control over shut itself down. Now, of course, course it came back on in seven hours. It wasn't 70 hours. It wasn't seven days and it wasn't 70 days, right? So it was a micro test. At a professional level, if it had an incredibly negative impact or a potentially negative impact on your business, you've just failed to test and you have the opportunity to remediate. And I'm not trying to sit here and say that I'm

smart enough to give businesses the answers to how they can create something outside of their reliability on the social media platform of any kind, but I did see some good ideas. And I'll throw some out there that I've seen other people doing, and I don't know how effective they were for those organizations, but it's just food for thought. One of them, the Montana Knife Company. It was actually interesting because they, on Monday when this occurred, we had planned to do a giveaway of one of their skinning knives with the cleared hot logo on it. Two hours after I put it up, maybe.

an hour after I put it up is when the blackout occurred. And what Josh had already put into a place was a text alert system as well for when they drop new knives. So what they were able to do for those customers who had chosen to opt in into those text alert is they were still able to communicate with the people who selected that opportunity because they wanted to hear more. So those platforms, their main ones shut down, but they still had the ability to reach their consumers. There are email lists. I've heard of individuals and organizations going, leaning back towards collecting email lists so they can have direct interaction with people. And Sean Evangelista, the owner of 30 seconds out, was talking to me about his desire to want to have his own platform. So he went on and created an app for 30 seconds out. Again, I don't know if any of these are the perfect solution or maybe the perfect solution is all of the, those plus more plus social media, but it's at least food for thought for those professionals

who up until that moment that Instagram and Facebook went down didn't realize they were completely and totally reliant upon it. Because what if it goes down again? You know, and I have the same thoughts when it comes to the podcast. For me, Facebook, I don't do much on Facebook at all. Instagram, obviously I post pictures with the intent of irritating the population of Montana only because they like rant at me when I put up beautiful pictures. But for the podcast, it's hosted, you know, I put it up on a hosting service and it goes to a variety of platforms. And the main impact for me would be to get stripped off of probably Apple core media would be the number one impact. But if for whatever reason that my hosting service dropped me or just the internet was down for, I don't know, ever, the reality is for me, the podcast will be dead.

I'm not going to put it up onto an HF radio frequency and try to blast it out to whoever happens to have an HF radio. But I would be okay with that. If I had to stop doing the podcast because the internet had completely crumbled, I feel like we might be having bigger issues that are bigger than a podcast disappearing, but it is still something that I think about. There is now an email sign up on the clearedhotpodcast.com page. I don't really promote it because I don't know what the hell I'm going to do with it, but if people want to opt into it, if there ever is a need to put out information,

I'll be able to do so. I don't think I'll ever do the text alert, because it just doesn't seem to make sense to me. I don't know much about the value of doing an app for a podcast, but it's food for thought. And to close the loop on this professional side of the house, you had a micro test. You just had a test of a blackout on a system

and you had the ability to determine whether or not your company is going to thrive or just survive or crumble, if that happens again for an extended period of time. If you failed the test, that's why you do these things and assess the results when these micro tests happen. Do something about it. That's what I'm trying to say. Now, on the other side of that,

there was a personal micro test. This was, I would say, for some people, their opportunity to determine whether or not they were addicted to these platforms. I don't know how many people out there. For me, to be honest, when it went down, I was like, oh, this is great. It had zero impact on what I did in my daily life. I will check Instagram infrequently. For whatever reason right now, I'm really deep into like Frenchy reels

and car detailing reels. I think they're amazing. I could watch them for hours at a time. But the inability to do so for seven hours could care less. I filled it up with other activities. But I do know people who their world metaphorically kind of came apart. It was their daily interaction. It was their inability to constantly be updated with what's going on, to like, and to comment, and to reach out to people and direct messaging. I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with that, but I think you have to maintain a healthy relationship with these platforms. And if it gets to the point where it gets shut off for seven hours and you start to have feelings of withdrawal and anxiety, that's your micro test as to whether or not as a person, personally, whether or not you are addicted to these things, and it gives you the opportunity to reassess your relationship with these platforms. I've done this before, and I highly recommend it to others.

Do a cold turkey off of social media platforms. If you don't think you can do it for 30 days, do it for three. Start there. Start for a day if you can. Then three, then do it for a week and then push it out as far as you can. What I think most people would realize is that their quality of life would actually improve slightly, if not drastically. And that's how this toughness, this micro-test, it all wraps itself back to the great social media blackout of 2021.

We were all just given a micro-test. Look at the results. Did you pass or fail? As a person and as a company, what can you do to do better the next time it happens? Because it probably will happen again. And if you do the same thing and expect a different result, go into Google, look that up, and what you're going to find is the definition of insanity. So don't do that. Do better.

Question number one, here we go. I just reached my five-month anniversary of Jiu-Jitsu. It's no big deal. They rolled out the red carpet and fed me red velvet cake. You go to a great school. I think that's amazing. And by that, I mean I was at the end of the line at the start and then handed my ass, as well as my limbs forcibly inserted into my ass during the...

roles, a normal jiu-jitsu class for me, if you will. I know the only thing I should focus on is my own progress versus my past self. I feel I would be an easy, I feel I would have an easier time mounting my five-month-ago self and twisting that son of a bitch's shoulder while separating his elbow in an Americana. However, it's difficult not to observe the fact that I continually get tapped out over and over and over and over and over and over and over, repeat ad infinium This also includes, for the most part, other white boats that started around the same time as me, as well as some that started after I did. I have no history of any martial arts or athletics, unless you include marching band, which you shouldn't. He wrote that or she wrote that, not me.

I was a fat tub of lazy large circus a few years ago, down 180 pounds. I've only been into athletics and fitness the most recent few years, and I am 37 years old. I can't help but feel I'm either broken, in parentheses, definitely mentally and more than likely physically, or at the very least playing decades of catch-up to attempt to withstand the constant onslaught of uncomfortable positions. What advice would you give to someone that logically knows to only compare oneself to that same self of previous days? But has trouble not feeling discouraged and disappointed in himself frequently for his own performance in seemingly infinite in inadequacies. and you end with, I also have a lot of fun doing it, but that's a separate point. First off, I love the descriptive nature of your email.

That's why I selected it. And secondly, holy shit, man, you're down 180 pounds. That is a monumental achievement. And I'm going to give you two pieces of advice. And I think the second one actually is more important. The first piece of advice is to go find somebody who has been doing jiu-jitsu for longer than I have. And I would say hopefully somebody at your gym, maybe a coach or a higher belt where you could talk to and cover these same bullet points with them. Because I think they're going to give you the encouragement and an assessment of your progress that you're probably not seeing when you look into the mirror.

And I'd love for you to have that conversation with one of your coaches because it will develop a nice interpersonal relationship that can extend beyond the mats as well. And you might be surprised the difference that other people are seeing in you. And the second piece of advice that I'm going to give you, and this is probably going to be nearly impossible for you to do, but it's based off this last sentence that you put on the email and says, I also have a lot of fun doing it, but that's a separate point. And I don't actually think it is. My advice to you is this. Stop keeping score and go because you're having fun and what it's doing for you physically. down 180 pounds. I challenge anybody listening to this to go load up 180 plus or minus a few pounds on a barbell

and pick it up off the ground. Just do a deadlift with it and understand what it would take to lose that much body weight and how long it would take. This is a monumental achievement that I would want you to do nothing more than celebrate. And I know if you keep doing jujitsu, that number is going to continue to increase. Your mental health is going to continue to increase. Your physical capacity is going to continue to increase. And at the end of the day, who gives a shit how many times you get tapped out?

It really doesn't matter. You brought up some points. You weren't very athletic for the vast majority of your life. You feel like you're playing catch up. And that's because you are. And I'm sorry. There's no way around that. There are people who pick up physical activities faster than others because they were gifted with genetics that allows them to do so.

And then there are others who had gifted genetics and did nothing with them. And now they're playing catch up. So that you accurately described what I would say, the vehicle that you are in on the road that you are driving. If you keep keeping score, I would worry about your. ability to continue. If you go because it's fun and you know it's healthy and you know it's going to make your life better, the fucking score doesn't matter. That's the best piece of advice that I can give you.

And maybe long-term jih Tijuana can be like screaming at their radio. Andy, you're full of shit. That's the wrong advice. But that's what I would tell you. And I would tell you that because I think it will keep you going. And if you keep going, regardless of whether or not you keep score or not, I heard Adam Singer. I was just at the SPG camp in Reno, say this multiple times throughout the course of the weekend.

It's not who's best. It's who's left. And if you end up as the last person on the mat at the end of this journey, you're going to be a badass. But you may just not feel like one today. So don't worry about being the best. Worry about being left. Question two. And I don't know how long I've been out this.

This is maybe the last question for today. I have been listening to you since I caught confessions of an idiot way back when you were blogging. I, too, am an idiot, and sadly in the eyes of some, probably a fuck wit. You might think doubly so after this dumbass email. For clarity, these are why I select some of these emails. How can I not continue to read when somebody opens with this? I wondered in the open-minded sense of the term about these two questions. Number one, on the recent episode with Evan Hafer, you had some pretty harsh words at the get-go

for your listeners who might be unhappy with Evan BRCC, the Kyle Writtenhouse trial, etc. I've always admired your open-minded approach, empathy towards complexity, and willingness to dive into nuance. In reflection, did what you say in the intro pass the elevator test? Does this fit in with being the example? You said it, so I'm assuming yes. And if so, would be interested to hear why. So, let's start with the elevator test. And we'll actually, let me go all the way back in case you didn't listen to that episode.

essentially what I said was for those who are literally waiting for me or anybody else to put a post up about Evan or Black Rifle Coffee and they want to jump in and be like, oh, is that the Democratic supporter that makes coffee? Is that the dude who sells out his Second Amendment followers? I've seen both of those many times. Plus, he was the, what is he, the Manchurian candidate of the 2A community. Like, it's insane. And what I said was for those of you who are basically waiting to political, politicize this post or this podcast, you can go fuck yourselves. If you want to have a, listen to an awesome conversation with somebody who's done an amazing amount for this country and for clarity,

I'm talking about Evan, not myself, then enjoy the conversation. Would I say that in an elevator? Yes, I absolutely would. Does it fit in with being the example? No, not perfectly. It doesn't. If I was in mixed company or there were malleable ears and eyes around, I probably would choose. a different terminology or phraseology. But my point would still be the same. What I was doing, what I was tempting to do, was speak to the people who have no willingness to dive into nuance. And for clarity, we didn't talk about Kyle Rittenhouse at all.

It wasn't even necessarily about that. And I think people are so, let's talk about the Kyle Rittenhouse situation for a second. And nuance. There is an essence of Second Amendment rights in that conference. conversation, self-defense in that conversation, responsibility as parents in that conversation, the, oh God, what was going on in our society in that conversation, it's incredibly complex. And in my mind, at least, it's very possible to completely and utterly support the Second Amendment, your right to self-defense, and then also say in the same breath that that kid should not have been there.

and whether or not he was legally justified, and the court system can work that self out, I'm not even going to make an assessment on it, whether or not he was legally justified to take the lives that he did, those are all individual conversations. From a legal perspective, that should be handled. But guess what? The kid shouldn't have been there. He shouldn't have been in a situation where he was forced to make that decision. And also, we need to have a conversation about who bought him the gun. You know, where did he get it from? All of those things, which we didn't cover in the conversation with Evan. And I don't know how I went off on that tangent. But you want to talk about a nuanced conversation? That's one right there.

Because you can support three quarters of what happened there and disagree with one quarter or half or 75, 25, the other direction. That's how complex those situations are. Evan, just like any other human being, the walks, the face of the planet, is complex in many ways. I've never met a human being who is in line ideologically with what would be the best description of it. We'll go with the left or the right now, even though they're my least favorite terms. I don't know if I've ever met somebody in my mind who is 100% in line on every single topic with the right and 100% with every single topic on the left. Most people that I know spend 60 to 80% in the middle and they will bounce a little bit left or right either on economic issues or social issues. I don't understand why Evan as a human being isn't allowed that grace.

I look at people like that or other people who hold different opinions that I do on some issues and the same on others. I try to hold them with that same level of grace. Like, you know what? You might have a different opinion on this, but that doesn't mean you're a shitty person. It means that you and I disagree. The issue is, though, with the internet. And when I sit down and I have conversations with people like Evan, people won't actually listen to the conversation. What they try to do is hijack the post or hijack the conversation and start their own in the comments section.

and it completely takes away from the conversation that was had between those two individuals. Let me tell you right now. We didn't talk about anything politically, I don't think. We talked mostly about our country and the concerns that both of us have. So, yes, the language was a little bit rough. It absolutely passes the elevator test, though. I would say that 100%. And also, you've got to remember the level of sarcasm of me saying that was pretty thick as well, too.

And it's very possible to tell somebody to go fuck themselves and you both end up laughing. about it, right? It's a lot has to do with the delivery. So in an elevator, I'd probably say exactly the same thing. Maybe I changed my tone of voice a little bit, but I certainly would. Okay. Sorry. Number two. In a long ago podcast, you talked about the Second Amendment. You qualified your support for hunting, self-defense, but said that the Second Amendment wouldn't allow us to stand up to the government. Given the recent events within the U.S., COVID mandates, severe federal overreach, et cetera, and loss in Afghanistan to the Taliban, you still have the same feelings on the topic. First and foremost, I'd have to go back and listen to exactly what I said

because I don't think I said that it wouldn't allow us to stand up to the government. What I'm pretty sure I would say, because how I feel is, you know, people think at a blanket level, if they possess a firearm, that they would be able to overthrow a tyrannical government, they are, you know, a little bit misguided. When you're talking about that government having access to nuclear weapons, nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers, predators and reapers, and so on and so on and so on. Okay. I absolutely am a supporter of the Second Amendment for the same reasons that you mentioned. I love hunting, but I don't think that's what the Second Amendment is for.

I believe in the inherent right to self-defense. I do believe that the Second Amendment protects that right. It doesn't create that right. It protects that right. And to go back to the Bill of Rights, the First Ten Amendments, I wonder how many people think when they think of that, those first ten, whether or not they think those are designed to restrict what an individual can do or restrict what the government can do. Because in my mind, it is designed to restrict what the government is able to do. It is there to protect us and restrict the government. not the other way around. I digress.

Lost in Afghanistan to the Taliban. That and the Second Amendment are two very different things. That was a matter of an ins, I want to call it a surgeon group. I want to call it a terrorist group. I want to call it a mix of everything in between. That is a matter of a culture and an organization of individuals that has had more exposure to violence for longer than, in any population group in the United States of America that realized the best thing that they could do would be to wait us out instead of to slug us out. Because I'll tell you right now, what they did do was lose every fucking tactical engagement. They got their ass handed to them. They got their shit pushed in when they met us on the battlefield. So they started fighting like an insurgency. And more than anything, what they really did is they just waited.

So the Second Amendment, right? I mean, it protects that ability for you to maintain a firearm. But if you go toe to toe with government forces. And here's the thing. I don't actually think that even if the government at the highest levels were to turn on the American public, I don't think the military or law enforcement would actually turn on citizens because those people who are wearing those uniforms are also citizens. And yes, I know there's examples in the past from Europe where exactly that happened. But you know what? That's not us. And I don't think that that would happen. But if it did, let's go to a hypothetical situation where you have an AR, right? You got your AR and the force that you are going up against has an MRAP with a 50 Cal and a turret up top. You're fucked. Okay. Now does that diminish the need for the Second Amendment? No, it absolutely doesn't. But what you would do is take that piece of equipment you have.

protected by the Second Amendment, you probably would not engage with that particular tank or RG33 or whatever it may be. And you would probably fight more like a surgent, much more like the Taliban did. So not a great example. And I've heard people bring that one up a bunch, which is why I use it as an example here. Now, the COVID mandates and severe federal overreach. What I will say is this when those when it comes to government trying to control their citizenry if you look through history one of the first things that happens nearly every time if not every time that a government is going to try to control their citizens one of the first things they do is they take their guns and there's a reason for that it allows them to you know it's easier to control an unarmed populace

for very very obvious reasons um but obviously our second Amendment is not stopping COVID mandates. And it's really not stopping severe federal overreaches. And when I think that term, I think privacy invasion for clarity. You know, your AR and your Glock are not helping with the constant and consistent and growing privacy invasion on our citizens. Having said all of that, my thoughts and feelings on the Second Amendment are exactly the same. I think they are essential for us as a country. And people who are against the Second Amendment, awesome. You have every right to feel that way as well.

For me as a person, the Second Amendment, for one, I think it protects the first. And I actually think it protects many of, if not all, of the other amendments and the founding documents in and of themselves. And people are completely and utterly free to disagree with me on that topic. But if you are thinking in your head because you own guns and you were to go up against an organized government force that has the tools that the government has access to, I'm sorry, you're overmatched and it's going to go the way that you probably don't think it's going to go, which is not going to be in your favor. I just really don't think that that is ever going to happen in the United States of America. So no, my feelings have not changed on the topic. And with that, I feel like I've rambled enough. I had another question, but it was about motorcycles.

We'll get into it on the next one. Full Auto Friday 74. I'm done. Go enjoy your weekend. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you. Thanks for taking the time to tune in, whether you're listening on an audio-only platform or you're watching on YouTube. I appreciate that you take the time every week to tune in. People ask me a lot, what can they do to help me spread the word?

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Until next time. See you.