Sam Culper posted a comment on FB recently, in light of the protests-turned-riots in Berkeley, and elsewhere, asking, “What happens when the black bloc (“anarchists”) get AR’s?” A legit question, all things considered, and one deserving of serious consideration, which we’ll get to in a moment. The problem that arose, which I, in turn, confronted in a FB post on the MG FB page, was that the responses to Sam’s questions were retarded. Seriously. The comments read like the locker room bragging of a bunch of 13 year olds, after PE class, about the hot dates they’d had last Friday night.

Seriously….these ranged from “Open season on liberals!” type macho posturing, to “they’re just a bunch of cowards who can’t do shit in a stand-up fight!”

Here’s the reality. I am going to share my response to the commentary, from Facebook, then I’m going to discuss some harsh truths that are the 900-pound guerrilla in the room (see what I did there?).

(The below has been edited from FB to make it more legible.)

“So, I saw this come across my FB feed today, from Sam. I’m going to address it, because there’s a whole bunch of fucking stupid in the comments. Since I’m reasonably certain some of those commenters are also subscribers here, it will probably be wasted effort, but I’m willing to give it a shot….

Comment on Sam’s page: ‘Battlefield pickup: Plan for it. Make sure your people know how to clear them, get them into duffle bags, and into your supply channels to be re-issued as necessary. You may keep ammo as needed to replace expenditures, but the rest goes to the S4 for caching and resupply.‘

My response: While technically about the closest thing to a legitimate response I saw, this is ridiculously optimistic. In all of the classes I’ve taught, over the last half-decade plus of teaching through the MG blog,including the auxiliary and support classes, nobody—NOBODY—has even come close to having anything near an organizational footprint that this answer would matter too…except the Left.

Comment on Sam’s page: ‘This is what I have been chatting with some friends about for a few months. Particularly the myopic ones who don’t understand that the hapless morons will eventually be armed and given some level of training to escalate their own surge. Arming these ppl is not the next move, but it’s not far off.‘

My response: Dunning-Kruger much? “Hapless morons?” These “hapless morons” are off their fucking couches, engaging in the physical violence that the Right yammered about for the last eight years, without doing fuck all. I’m not condoning it, and certainly not supporting it, but intellectual dishonesty about skill at organization, and willingness to engage in violent direct-action is going to get a whole fuckton of “prepared militias” killed dead…and there ain’t no fucking restart to this game.

Comment on Sam’s page: ‘They maybe (sic) psychologically conditioning the left for kinetic operations, but it takes years to build capability and capacity. They maybe (sic) ten years out if they started today.‘\

My response: Bullshit. They could go hardcore tomorrow, and be effective, at least for some time. They’ve got organizational infrastructure in place. They’ve got leadership cadre and numbers. They’ve got the will to get violent, right now. What they don’t have is their puppet masters handing them guns and ammo…yet. Sam’s right. It’s an ugly potential that is probably not far off. Ten years? You’re fucking dreaming.

Comment on Sam’s page: ‘The left gas lighted themselves into destroying their gun culture. Where are the black block gun blogs? Training videos? PT videos? Discussion about Intelligence capability? The design of OPSEC programs? How to effectively use Command and Control for tactical, operational and Strategic success? Fuck blogs even where are their white papers? There are none.‘

My response: Again, see my comment above about Dunning-Kruger. Intellectual study is important, but getting out from in front of the computer, and getting out and DOING counts for more, and the other side IS DOING.

Comment on Sam’s page: ‘A blood bath.‘

My response:Yep. Because only one side has consistently displayed a willingness to get violent, right now, right here, despite the blatherings of the Right about ‘Molon Labe!’ and ‘From My Cold Dead Fingers,” etc….Talk is cheap. It will be a number of blood baths, but 99% of the victims are NOT going to be the Leftist pseudo-Anarchists that are willing to fuck shit up, already, without quality weapons at their disposal.

Comment on Sam’s page: ‘We get to slaughter them wholesale! YeeeeHaw!‘

My response: (parenthetical note to point out, I specifically referenced LaVoy Finicum in this response because the dumb motherfucker who posted the above comment had Finicum’s cattle brand as his profile picture. I’ll address the stupidity of the “Let’s Be a Martyr” mindset of Finicum below, this really wasn’t the attack on Finicum that some readers assumed it to be. This was a comment about a dumb motherfucker saying dumb shit.) Ah yes, the redneck, LaVoy Finicum response. How many people you slaughtered tough guy? Nobody? Then, you’re full of shit.

Comment on Sam’s page: ‘Are we talking about the Black Bloc types? I can see them going with drive by attacks because they seem to attack in groups and then run away. Don’t expect a standup fight.‘

My response: So, they’re smarter than you? Because, I can tell you what…fair fights? “Standup fights?” are a sucker’s bet. I decide to go hunting bad people, I’m going to be rolling up to their back door at 0430, while they’re sound asleep, and lighting their house on fire, while they’re still asleep inside. I’m only gonna stick around long enough to make sure nobody gets out before the house the engulfed. I’m into winning, not playing macho games.

Look, I get it. It’s fun to poke fun at the opposition. It’s easy to make jokes about ‘safe spaces,’ etc. Those dudes smoking people in the head with bricks? Those people staring down the riot cops, and taking bean bag rounds to the face and chest, to get a chance to lob a brick or a Molotov Cocktail at them? They’re not scared of you and they’re not looking for a fucking safe space. They’re willing to stand by their convictions, right or wrong.

That doesn’t make them good guys, by any stretch. It does make them far more qualified for the change in velocity of the collapse that we’re witnessing. People have been talking smack since election night, about how now, the Left was going to go away, because POTUS wasn’t going to put up with their shenanigans. Well, he may not, but it’s going to take a lot more to stop them than people are ready to understand. I’m not even saying that won’t happen, but if you’re sitting here, talking shit on your computer, instead of DOING shit, and TRAINING, and PRACTICING for how you’re going to REALISTICALLY respond to this shit, when it shows up in your neighborhood? You’re full of shit.

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That was my Facebook response. Here, as ol’ Paul Harvey liked to say, “is the rest of the story.”

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A whole lot of ‘ardent patriots’ and ‘expert preppers/survivalists,’ breathed a giant sigh of relief on the morning of WED 9NOV16. They woke up to the news that “R” had one, both the White House and a majority of Congress. All was saved from immediate damnation, and since everything was cool now, they could get on with not worrying about the future anymore. Big D got this, right?

There is a huge problem with normalcy bias in this country—a subject I’ve written about a lot on this blog, in the past. As long as “our guys” have control in DC, all is fine, right? Well, just like this last presidential cycle demonstrated that people on the Right were no longer content with the Beltway status quo, it should have demonstrated that people on the Left were no longer content with the Beltway status quo as well. The DNC pissed all over their own party, broke their own rules, and then basically, told the voters to “go fuck yourselves if you don’t like it,” in order to get their gal the nod to run. People on the Left are not fucking happy, and just like people on the Right swore they would contest the election results, and be ready to take up arms if Hillary Clinton got the White House, people on the Left are ready to take up arms, since there is a dude with an R behind his name sitting their instead.

It’s not that they wanted HRC—although, I know for a fact, some of them did—it’s that they didn’t want a person with an R behind their name in there. Donald Trump getting the White House was, to the modern day Left in this country, the exact same as Abraham Lincoln getting the White House in 1860 was to the Southern States. We are, make no mistake, in a Civil War. Fort Sumter is past, folks. Seriously. Wake the fuck up already.

Now, before I’m accused of being melodramatic, or hysterical, slow the fuck down for a second. There are some pretty serious differences that DO have to be taken into account, when we look at this.

#1) The people of Dixie weren’t stupid, and neither was their leadership. They didn’t run right out and start attacking the Army of the United States. They took a defensive role, and said, basically, “Hey, leave us alone, and all is well.” They didn’t want a fight. The Left today isn’t content with that, for a variety of reasons. They DO want a fight, and they’re not taking a defensive role. They are already attacking their enemies. They’re just not doing it with guns…yet….much.

#2) The Confederate States of America was the disgruntled party in the last go-round, and they were the more “libertarian/anarchist” of the belligerent parties. In this go-round, the roles have reversed; the “disgruntled party” is the statist party that wants to control everything, in accordance with their world view.

#3) While not technically accurate, Fort Sumter was the first “official” battle of the War of Northern Aggression. It was the real opening of hostilities between the uniformed services of two distinct, autonomous governments. In the current conflict, the legitimate government of the United States is, at most, a bit player, thus far. The War of Northern Aggression, while labeled a civil war, was not. It was a conflict of conquest by a sovereign state, against a sovereign state, that had declared its independence, and been recognized as a sovereign state, in accordance with international law. None of that mattered of course, but the difference with the current conflict should be obvious.

This is an actual civil war, as in a conflict between ideologically-opposed factions within the civilian and political population of a country. Like real civil wars, it is not going to be pretty. It’s not going to be armies, in pretty uniforms, fighting pitched, conventional battles. It’s going to be a matter of assassination, sabotage, hit-and-run raids, targeting ideological leadership figures, enemy families, etc.

As Matt Bracken pointed out in a recent Facebook post himself, we’re looking at more of a Balkans and/or Argentine “Dirty War” conflict. People just haven’t accepted that, because it doesn’t fit their mental images of what “war,” even “guerrilla war” looks like. That, in turn, is because, even the most devout conversions to the “Church of the Anti-Media” in this country today, have a lifetime of conditioning to the media’s portrayal of what “reality” is. From what a “proper” war looks like, to what “collapse” looks like, to what “bad guys” look like.

We commonly jump to the idea of “well, George Soros is funding this shit, so it’ll cause a breakdown, and currency collapse, and he can make a fortune off it.” There’s probably a lot of truth to that. I don’t know Soros, so I can’t tell you what his ultimate goals and motivations are. I have however, met a lot of Leftists, both in the US and elsewhere, and I can tell you, they are not looking for a currency collapse, in order to get richer.

It’s easy to sit in your lounger, with your laptop across your knees, and pontificate on the false motivations of the Leftist activists. “Oh, they’re just attention whores!” “Oh, they just want their safe spaces!” “Oh, they’re just useful idiots being played.” “Oh, they’ll quit as soon as the money stops.” There’s a very real problem with that though, and it’s called underestimating your enemy. If you don’t believe that a dude who is out, in wintertime, in a protest/riot, and eating some riot cops baton, as he receives a solid washing with “hickory shampoo,” is not a dedicated True Believer, you’re deluding yourself.

If you think that some twenty-something kid, who just saw his buddy take a bean bag round from a PD riot gun, in the dick, and then ignored his friend’s screams, to continue advancing, is not dedicated, and a True Believer, you’re fucking stupid.

If you think POTUS is going to magically save you? You’re dumb. Large urban areas and entire states are telling the federal government to go fuck itself on the immigration issue (and granted, the states are wrong on this one, but that doesn’t change the fact that this—as I mentioned, in detail, in Forging the Hero—is symptomatic of the collapse of the American Empire.) Things are not normal, and if you’re still stuck in your normalcy bias about “Make America Great Again,” you’re WAY behind the learning the curve.

I’ve talked with a number of friends in recent days; police officers and public services personnel, in large urban areas, across the country. None of them are taking this shit lightly. A fireman friend, from a major urban enclave on the east coast, that has been the scene of a number of ethnic conflicts in the last year or two, posted the following on FB recently,

“They are organized, they are violent. The cops aren’t shooting back because when some Tumblr shit biscuit doxxes them, their kids will be targets. Molon Labia and snowflake bluster isn’t cutting it anymore.

I’m a fucking fireman and have had body armor issued. That should say something very loudly and clearly.”

A cop friend told me, in private conversation, “Yeah, man. It’s serious. We know it can kick off at any moment. Sitting in your cruiser, at a stoplight; writing a citation, sitting at lunch. We just have to be ready to rock, all the time.”

Another cop friend, “Man, I’ve upped my off-duty EDC to three twenty-round mags for the Glock, and I keep eight loaded mags for the AR in the plate carrier behind my seat. It’s getting weird out there.”

So, if THEY get it, why don’t you, Mr. Expert Prepper/Survivalist?

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This is not about being a tough guy. This is not about the questionable PSYOP value of talking shit with social media memes about the opposition. This is about knowing, and understanding, the realities of the battlespace.

#1) Dirty civil wars are ‘tribal’ guerrilla wars. This was discussed in-depth in The Reluctant Partisan, Volume One: The Guerrilla. This is not about dudes in cute camouflage coveralls, running through the woods with Kalashnikovs. This is about people burning down their neighbors’ houses and businesses, to run them out of town, over ideological differences. Look at the Balkans in the early 1990s.

This is about a group from one side, murdering the entire family—Dad, Mom, Brother, and baby Sister—of their neighbors, over political differences.

There’s nothing pretty or heroic about it. It’s about pragmatism. It’s not about dying for anybody or anything. It’s about changing the dynamic of the battlespace, so none of your people die…or at least, as few as possible.

#2) Heroic gestures and martyrdom are dumb. LaVoy Finicum, bless his heart, may have had good intentions, but he was a fucking idiot if he thought he was accomplishing anything. If you fucking people would get outside of the echo chamber of your masturbation studio, you’d realize that. You think anybody in mainstream America—the undecided majority in the current conflict—remembers Finicum? Go up to some random stranger, in the supermarket and ask. I got good money that says, 99 out of 100 are going to say, “Who’s she?”

So, nobody, outside of his own side’s True Believers, even remembers his “heroic” gesture. There’s Strike One.

What changed, following the Malheur Malcontent Mishap? Anything? Nope. Not a single federal policy changed. He LITERALLY died for nothing. There’s Strike Two.

Despite the acquittals of the ring leaders in federal court, far more of the participants are still in jail, and the other still face trial in Nevada (as far as I know. Did it ever get dealt with down there? I quit giving a shit). At best, it is possible that his death swayed some of the jurors towards leniency, out of pity for the deceased. It didn’t help the majority of them though, that are still dealing with the effects of the case. I’d call that Strike Three, but perhaps I’m being too harsh, and that was a foul ball.

The point isn’t to besmirch the dead. The point is, it was pointless. If you want to survive; hell, if you even just want your team to win, and don’t care about survival, you have to focus on efforts that make a difference. Stand-up fights don’t make differences in this type of conflict, because the other side isn’t interested in them. Quit focusing on some macho, redneck John Wayne image of conflict, and focus on doing what works. Right now? That still means organizing, because, while it’s not “tacticool,” it’s way more important than running around in the goddamned woods in cammie jammies. That means, instead of worrying about running raids and ambushes, you should be focused on gathering intelligence information about the opposition’s leadership cadres in your local area, so you can set about changing their mindset, by focusing your PSYOP activities on a specific target audience (them). It means training with your EDC concealed carry weapon, to protect yourself. And yes—you knew it was gonna get slipped in somewhere—it means doing your PT and combatives training, so you at least have a chance of fighting your way to an escape route when you get caught in the middle of a protest-turned-riot, and then getting away, instead of getting knocked the fuck out, so you have to be rescued by the local riot police.

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The Right—especially the preparedness/survivalist/III/Threeper/Militia segment of the Right—is full of tough talk from self-professed badasses about how they’re gonna “slaughter” the other side when “open season on Leftists” is declared. It’s all a bunch of bullshit, written for an audience of people they don’t even know, but need to feel big in front of, for whatever reason.

Let me tell you a couple of trade secrets:

#1) I can train a fucking monkey to run an AR or an AK in three days. Give me ten days, and I can bring a complete novice to a near-expert level of proficiency with the gun. That’s fucking easy. The hard part? Convincing somebody to actually use it. Convincing someone that they actually need to overcome the culturally conditioned aversion to interpersonal violence that Americans have been spoonfed for the last sixty years, is far more challenging than teaching someone the mechanics of gunfighting. Guess which side has already overcome that cultural conditioning? I’ll give you two hints: first, it’s not the guys typing away on FB about how they’re gonna “slaughter” Leftists, as soon as they get permission from their Mommy. Second, it’s the people that are already cracking complete strangers in the head with bricks, then putting the boots to the unconscious victims, before throwing a Molotov Cocktail through their car window.

#2) The Left has won far more dirty civil wars and insurgent conflicts than the Right has won. There are a host of reasons for this, but most notable is the aversion, on the Right, to give up the security of law-and-order. As long as there is a politician telling them, “Now, now, let’s all keep calm. Let the authorities sort this out,” the Right is content to sit at home and bitch about those juvenile delinquents. The Left? They’re all, “FUCK THE MAN! LET’S MAKE IT BURN!” As long as there is a police officer in uniform…even if he is, like so many are currently, telling people, “Hey, we’re probably gonna be busy with other catastrophes when your personal catastrophe happens, so you’re on your own….” as long as he is on the job, the Right is going to say, “Meh, we’ll let the police do their job.” The Left? They’re going, “FUCK THE MAN! KILL THE PIGS!”

#3) The government isn’t going to save you. The government isn’t going to save your neighborhood, your city, or your state. The government MAY try and save itself. Those piranhas in the Beltway, on both sides of the aisle? They don’t give two shits about Mayberry RFD, until Mayberry RFD isn’t paying it’s taxes anymore, and by then? It’ll be too late for Sheriff Andy, Deputy Barney, Aunt Bea, Opie, and all their friends and neighbors. You want to be saved, you’d better be looking around and building what SF once upon a time called “CIDG,” or “Civilian Irregular Defense Groups,” among your neighbors and friends and families….you know…your tribe: the people in your local community that share your values and traditions. There’s a couple of really good books available that tell you exactly how to go about selecting those people, and training them. Let me see if I can recall what they are, and where you can fucking buy them……

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People are emailing me and asking, “John, what can we do?” “John, what should we be doing right now to get ready?” I see the same questions getting asked everywhere; Sam’s pages, Matt’s FB page, etc. Here’s the problem….

WE ALREADY FUCKING TOLD YOU WHAT YOU NEEDED TO DO!!!!!! WE’VE BEEN TELLING YOU FOR THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS!!! Hell, in Bracken’s case, he’s been telling you for over a fucking decade!

You want to know how a Dirty War is fought, even on defense? With pistols, in urban areas. Guess what? I know a dude teaching a Clandestine Carry Pistol class in a couple weeks, in Arizona! He’s doing a CQB class the following weekend! If you live in motherfucking Arizona….with the cartels running shit through your neighborhoods every…single…fucking…day….and you’re not already keyed in on this shit? You’re too fucking stupid to save. So, why is it that my wife is telling me that we’re gonna have to cancel these classes, because there’s not been enough people interested in taking them? Because nobody wants to face the ugly reality, that it’s already started. It’s easier to sit on your computer, order multicam gear off Amazon.com, and talk shit about “open season on libtards!” than it is to face the task of somebody maybe telling you that you don’t know what the fuck you’re doing, after all, by bucking up and taking a class on shit that is actually relevant to you.

Don’t want to take my class, because I’m an obnoxious, foul-mouthed prick that calls a spade a spade? There’s a host of classes available from qualified dudes who are far nicer than me (not really. Anyone who has taken a class with me will tell you, I’m actually Prince Charming…in my own inimitable way…)

That’s okay. I get it. Classes are expensive, and might be embarrassing. I mean, not as embarrassing as getting anal raped with your own EDC gun, by the dude that just killed you and took it from you, but, yeah, it could be embarrassing. So, there’s an alternative. I fucking wrote THREE goddamned books for you people. They are all how-to books. Two of them have the step-by-step curriculum, and the techniques and drills that make up those curricula, to train with somebody you know, that already has a background in the skills. I’ve written seven or eight books worth of free information on this blog, over the last six-plus years, explaining what you needed to be, know, and do, to be ready. When you ask, in public, “gee, golly. What should I be training in for this?” it tells me, you haven’t done your fucking homework. You’re just reading shit on the Internet forums and Facebook, and imagining yourself as Sergeant Fucking York.

So, here’s my actionable steps for readers (who haven’t yet) to take, to play catch up, and start getting ready for the festivities to come to their ‘hood:

Enroll in a fucking legit concealed carry-centric gunfighting course. Get some advanced trauma medical care training. READ THE FUCKING BOOKS! Yeah, they’re expensive. As someone pointed out, not long ago, they’re a fucking post-grad course in “how to be The Most Dangerous Man You Know.”

Yes, I just pimped my own classes and books. Get over it. They’re that important, and that valuable.