Jane is an Ignorant Slut

jane ignorant slut
December 11, 2016  
|  4 Comments
Categories: Op-Eds
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Things are more like they are now than they ever were before.

We sometimes create confusion in the minds of our readers as to the Breach-Bang-Clear’s collective stance on things, receiving messages asking for greater clarity on where we stand on [insert issue name here]. Sometimes it’s a surprise (I thought you guys were pro-cop!), sometimes outrage (I’m never reading your page again, because someone just said something I don’t agree with!). Occasionally it’s just someone asking about our “inconsistent message”, asking why we sometimes contradict ourselves. Do you guys have organizational schizophrenia?

I have personally fielded messages, from inside the industry and out, wondering what I was doing, publishing something like [insert article topic or stance here].

Whose side are you on? 

That’s easy. I’m on my side, when I take side, and unless someone takes the time to persuade me to join their side. You’ll know my side when I expressly articulate my own opinion, the same same as every member of my team. They rarely if ever agree in totality, and that’s the way I prefer it.

This will come as a surprise to many, but you can disagree with people without vitriol. If everyone is thinking alike, not everyone’s thinking. Breach-Bang-Clear has a unique gestalt, but we try very hard not to become an echo chamber. Disagreement and civil discourse is where learning occurs.

Sometimes civil discourse can be difficult, but it is important.

 

“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.” Bernard Shaw

That’s one of the greatest strengths of the improbably talented, miscegenated farrago I’ve been blessed to gather here under one banner (apologies for any catachresis there- sesquipedalianism is one of our things). They’re (mostly) willing to discuss things academically and to make decisions or offer commentary based on compromise or an agreement to disagree.

‘The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.” Leonardo da Vinci

We believe our readers are better served hearing differing opinions on contentious subjects than by presenting an unrealistic unified front, and we accept that some of them will get butt hurt about this thing or the other and never come back.

So be it.

Grunts: miscegenation and farrago.

The world throws a massive amount of information in front of us, and unfortunately many people are all too willing to digest it indiscriminately — and to treat it all (much of it well within the academic definition of propaganda) as though it’s of equal importance. That information is almost always derived from sources with a very clear, consistent ideology and systemic themes. Ironically those sources frequently decry the clear, consistent ideology and systemic themes of their opponents or competitors. Although obviously we can be as guilty as anyone else of confirmation bias, we strive not to be one of those places.

“The superior man is watchful of himself. Even when alone.” Chung Yang

Critical thinking and emotional maturity are the counter, and though we cannot necessarily teach either, we can encourage the demonstration of both. Sometimes we can do this with contrasting opinions, other times (and often in the comments) with the Socratic Method.

Bill and Ted with Socrates

“I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.” Socrates

Here are a few things we have debated internally:

  • The proper number of lumens in a flashlight
  • Illuminating someone constantly if you’re going to shoot him vs. “flashing” him and shooting him after you move
  • The death of Eric Garner
  • The shooting of Terence Crutcher
  • George R.R. Martin
  • Democrat/Republican/Libertarian platforms
  • The Thin Blue Line
  • Women in the infantry
  • Henry Charles Bukowski
  • The practicality of tomahawks
  • Red dot preference on rifles
  • Red dot optics versus variable optics
  • American Exceptionalism
  • Gay rights/gay marriage
  • Red dots vs. iron sights on a pistol
  • Gun control
  • #BlackLivesMatter
  • Ernest Hemingway
  • The militarization of police
  • The presence of coconut in chocolate
  • The practicality and necessity of BUIS
  • Atheism vs. agnosticism vs. specific religions
  • Gun bunnies
  • AR gas tube lengths
  • Racism, pragmatism, and Islamism
  • Immigration

…etcetera ad nauseum.

Sometimes our disagreement is just a few degrees off azimuth, other times we’re diametrically opposed. In fact, about the only thing we’re all in complete agreement on is boobs. All of us either really like them, or have them, or have them and really like them. Even still, there is more than one ‘ass man’ among the cadre.

The fact is, we love a good debate the way fat girls love chocolate and Germans love David Hasselhof, and we’d kinda like to see a little more aristotelian rhetoric in the world politics.

“…one could view the U.S. news information system as a sort of trough into which propagandists, calling themselves PR professionals, regularly dump information; journalists and news organizations nose in hog-like to feed at the trough. The notion of an independent and objective news system conducted by truth-seeking journalists is highly romanticized, exaggerated and self serving in regard to the actual role of mass media journalists in interpreting reality.” B. A. Patrick

Critical thinking, civil discourse, open-mindedness, and discernment, that’s the ticket.

 We appreciate your willingness to participate. We’ll try to avoid demagoguery and myopia, and I’ll apologize for taking so long to publish this. As you can see from the image below, I’ve been meaning to do so for a while now.

That’s it for today. Go forth and conquer.

Ho Chi Minh typing. Image text: Quite frankly we are in dire need of remembering the original intention of the Goldwater-Nichols Act...and returning to it! The idea that each branch of service requires a unique, proprietary uniform or individual weapon system is just ridiculous. Only those who bow unthinkingly at the altar of service pride can deny the advantages of shared procurement...through whomever decided on UCP cammies was definitely a fucking windowlicker.
 
George Orwell typing. There were 21 new organizations to fight terrorism created in 2001 after 9/11. In 2002, 34 more. In 2003, 39; in '04, another 30, and so. Though the wars were - allegedly - ending, we added 40 more in '09, then another 24 in 2010. There are scores assigned to intelligence operations. Sure, they're mostly redundant and they don't collaborate, but hey, at least we still have the TSA! At least we have that going for us!

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Author David ReederAbout the Author

It might not be too surprising that David Reeder, who never met a $50 word he didn’t like, one of the “leaders” of the pedagogic and frequently obstreperous Breach Bang Clear team — insomuch as they have a leader (the terms orchestra conductor and rodeo clown are equally apropos). A former POG who tastes like chicken, Reeder cannot play the harmonica. He founded Breach-Bang-Clear quite accidentally at his young son’s behest several years ago. He is the Mad Duo’s Chief Wretched Flunky and Breach-Bang-Clear’s HMFIC. A LEO for many years and former AF Security Forces SNCO, he was an O/C at the National Homeland Security Training Center for many years and a longtime MOUT instructor at the Bold Lighting UWS. Reeder has appeared on Fox News Business and written for a number of publications, from US News & World Report and Military.com to RECOIL Magazine and Soldier Systems Daily. All of that sounds way cooler than it actually is. You can read more about him here. Follow his banality on Instagram, @davidreederwrites.

“Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.” T. S. Eliot

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” Benjamin Franklin

Firelance Media - Author David Reeder in a stars and stripes suit.

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4 Comments

  1. Will

    “David Reeder, who never met a $50 word he didn’t like”

    Eschew obfuscatory aphorisms.

    Reply
    • Will

      I should add that “miscegenated farrago”, from the post, sounds forced to me

      But then again, I have been accused of being a simpleton.

      Reply
    • Mad Duo

      Will, you sound like a man who hasn’t been reading our stuff very long. The use of ridiculous words has been part of our schtick since we were just a desultory collection of abecedarians bloviating in sesquipedalian fashion on a blogspot.com site back before the Surge started in Iraq. But thanks very much for weighing in! Also, for the record, he really does use the $25 words normally. That’s seriously how he talks. The more expensive ones are usually reserved for articles and are intentionally used precisely because they’re ridiculous. Note that we’re still looking for some $100 or even $500 words – if you know any, send ’em our way! Mad Duo

      Reply
  2. Hem90

    Diversity of thought it was makes America great. I’m sure most readers here appreciate the lack of mental regurgitation that is common in many gun blogs.

    Reply

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