Miles O'Brien

There are three things you don’t mess with

Mother nature

Mother in laws

And my mother fucking money

No pay, no work.

I mean, after a certain point, yes.

Two frogs sit in a pot of water, one turns to the other and says “were on a fire, we should leave before the water boils”

The second frog turns to the first and says “you’re being alarmist, things aren’t that bad.”

This sounds like the second frog.^‡

It might be the more practical choice to keep backing away and keeping yourself and the people you care about out of the spotlight as long as possible, it’s certainly the safer choice and one that probably leads to a longer life…

You are certainly more optimistic about the future of the country than I am. I train because honestly I find it a little fun, competing with my own best times on various drills and courses. I also in recent years have come to train even harder and begun introducing LGBT friends to firearms, because I believe the country is headed toward civil war.

I’m not inviting my LGBT work friends to my range because I want them to attack ICE. I invite them and encourage them to buy their own firearm and train for self defense because I have literally heard other coworkers say, out loud to be met with nods and agreements, “any day now they’ll let us loose and I can go killin all them fs and tr***s (slurs for LGBT people)” and no end of bullshit about how “mentally ill” and “unstable” they supposedly are.

Besides, if my choices are “concentration camp v0.95” and “best case scenario being on the run after a shootout with the gestappo” then I know which choice I’m making.

You definitely have way more faith in our (metaphorical) neighbors and the system than I do. That probably a good thing, I’m a depressed pessimist with tons of anxiety about the state of the world. If more people were like me we would be like 10 years into a Civil War already or worse.

^‡(frogs don’t actually sit in blowly heating water as certain movies like to say, they still will leave at some point when it gets uncomfortable)

My state surprised me during covid.

It’s not surprising me now…

“EU considers following modern Nazi policy”

I swear I read this exact comment about the UK after brexit…

Good call.

You can’t go out shooting while you’re drinking. You should be able to smoke whenever you want as long as you’re not inebriated when you’re shooting.

Fully agree, and have alienated myself from former friends over this.

You can drink all day and night. but don’t you dare touch a firearm while drinking. I don’t care if you’re just a little buzzed, man

As far as I’m concerned, smoke weed every day. But don’t you dare touch a firearm while high. I don’t care if you’re just a little toasty, man

Drugs and guns don’t mix. Alcohol is a drug. Don’t drink and shoot.

I have a few LGBT friends who come over for range time, away from the type of people who normally frequent the public ranges around here. We have a loose plan of action if they need somewhere to hide, and low profile tents and 3-day packs are on standby for a couple close friends. Funds are tight, otherwise I’d be making sure there’s a tent, sleeping bag, and 3 day survival pack for all of them, their partners, and their friends.

I have been told my entire life that I am “overreacting” because “that will never happen/you’ll never need that”, and in nearly every instance, it’s been simply a matter of time.

I can very easily present myself as someone very far down the “first they came for” list, but I’ll be cold and buried before I disguise myself and let the people further up fend for themselves.

While I’m not expecting death squads to be roaming the street this year, I’m also not going to wait for it to happen before I begin preparing.

If I can’t directly shelter people in need, I’m damn sure going to get them heading in the right direction, with the knowledge they need, and with more than just the clothes on their back.

Make friends with your neighbors and watch each others backs.

My neighbors fully support government sponsored death squads that get to go around indescriminate lynchings of LGBT and POC.

Lucky for me, the closest one is about 1/4mile away.

Well, normally I would agree with you but I don’t have neighbors close enough to see me with any sort of camera, and with biking in, flock cameras aren’t going to help anyone with anything.

Unless someone is hiding cameras on hiking and biking trails right around where I live, cameras aren’t going to help identify a generic black blob riding a generic black bicycle as anyone specific.

It’s funny you mention flock cameras though because I was talking to some friends yesterday and none of them had ever heard of flock, and when I pointed out the cameras, they seemed to finally realize they’re under constant surveillance, since over the last year they’ve been popping up all over the city.

I may or may not have “jokingly” suggested we start cutting them down and go full Office Space on them.

It’s crazy just how many cameras aren’t even actively hidden, they’re just in places you don’t normally look. Honestly shows like Person of Interest and movies like Enemy of the State back in the day made me realize just how much surveillance there is on the average citizen, and how little privacy we really have. And that’s fiction. I’m sure the reality is far worse.

Cell phones get left at home, masks and hats help protect identities, and we have radios strapped to our backpacks that have first aid supplies (as well as a few things for if things got spicy) in them.

If you’re going up against technologically up to date nazis, you don’t go using easily traceable things.

Hell, I even used a walking stick so the way I walk is different.

Biked to the meeting spot and locked everything up out of sight.

If anyone we didn’t tell knew we were there, I’d be slightly surprised.

Two small towns in Ohio also had a surprising turnout considering they’re both pretty damn red.

I mean, I’m not French, but If nearly every single media outlet in France refused to sign their government loyalty pledge, I’d find it interesting.

See, the problem here is you’re lumping all of the US in one group, while conveniently ignoring that half of this group is against the use of firearms and is for gun control, and the people who have wet dreams about mowing down “the gays” are the biggest owners of said guns.

“Dutch government does X”

“It’s them fuckin Americans again”

They convinced themselves that every other major government in the world, as well as every single scientist and most other people were lying to them about Covid.

I remember extended family members going on about how it’s a hoax as they were dying in the hospital from it

Some people will flip the universe inside out, upside down, and throw it in a blender to make their world view okay.

Lmao ban weather because rainbows make you gay

The problem is that there pushing their culture onto everyone else.

This is so fucking priceless, it should be in a museum.

Please inform me which part of their culture they are “pushing” on everyone else, that way I can ask you why it’s okay for the straights to do it, but nobody else gets to.

LGBTQ people exist. That’s something you can never, ever change. So maybe get over it and stop saying that them existing in public is somehow negatively impacting anyone who isn’t just a scared little bigot.

They might.

Personally I mean the entire country goes back to pre-1948 borders.

This is exactly the dumb shit take from y2k.

I Still hear people go on about how “it was supposed to be this big thing and then nothing happened! Smart people are so dumb!”

Yeah nothing happened because a lot of smart people worked very hard to fix the goddamn problem, you fucking shitwaffle.

Here? “You dum dums got so worked up thinking it would pass and then it didn’t, so the freak out was for nothing!” yeah it didn’t pass because a lot of Europeans got very upset about their governments trying to spy on them harder than ever.

I’m not European, so I can’t say how people talked about it openly on the metro with random strangers, but online? People were vocal and pissed. A PROPER government (lol can we have some of that functioning democracy please) listens to its people. This was them listening to the people.

The people’s reaction was appropriate, and necessary. And shouldn’t be lessened just because “lol you guys got so propaganda’d and it was obviously never gonna happen and I knew cause I’m so smart” is quite the take on things.