Mainsail
Member
I stayed out of this thread for a long time, waiting to see where it was going to go. As usual with OC threads, myth, lack of understanding, and pure hogwash quickly began to surface. I tried to be as reasonable as I could, and went out of my way to be civil, but ended up getting banned by the forum owner, Parabellum.
Here's a few things I've learned:
1. Parbellum is a coward. There's no nice way to put it. He argues himself into a corner and when it's pointed out to him he gets pretty uptight. He allows and participates in bashing you even after he's banned you- so no way to defend yourself- which in anyone's book is pure cowardice. He can talk tough behind the keyboard, but if he were to say any of that to a person's face he'd be going home on a stretcher. In any event, when he has no intelligent argument left, he just starts swearing and threatening to ban you.
2. The anti-OC crowd is little different than any other anti-gunner. They use pretty much the same methods and arguments; "This might happen!" etc.
3. You should never try to make more than ONE point per post. When you make more than a single point the antis latch onto the easiest one to twist the meaning of it and then beat it to death- thus avoiding all the other points you've made for which they have no intelligent reply.
4. Few on that forum seem to realize that written communication lacks the cues that other communications have to enhance understanding. IOW, if your meaning can be twisted- they'll twist it. If you try to explain it, they'll ignore the explanation. They don't (or won't) recognize that maybe they're imputing a meaning you didn't have. Whatever, healthy debate is lost on most of them.
5. I suspect there are some folks in there that won't say what they really think. Like the example I mention of the gun-store clerk who is too opinionated to listen to another viewpoint, you'll find much of that. I asked a guy in a certain shop why he disliked open carry, and after destroying his arguments, all he had left was his real feelings, which he revealed when he blurted out, "If people can walk around with a gun on then the blacks and the Mexicans will open carry; how would you like that?!" Unfortunately in a written forum you can't push a person like you can verbally, but needless to say, I think there's a lot of less-than-truthful folks in there on the subject of OC.
6. The forum is little more than a fan-boy club for a few supposedly adult men to stroke each other. The OC folks there are willing to express their viewpoint, but seem a little intimidated about pushing it (for fear that they'll get banned maybe?). The fence-sitters will side with the fan-boys or say nothing. Nevertheless, it is less of a forum and more of a group's opinion about things. They don't want open discussion any more than they want open carry.
7. The most important lesson is that you cannot convince a closed mind, of which there are plenty.
Here's a few things I've learned:
1. Parbellum is a coward. There's no nice way to put it. He argues himself into a corner and when it's pointed out to him he gets pretty uptight. He allows and participates in bashing you even after he's banned you- so no way to defend yourself- which in anyone's book is pure cowardice. He can talk tough behind the keyboard, but if he were to say any of that to a person's face he'd be going home on a stretcher. In any event, when he has no intelligent argument left, he just starts swearing and threatening to ban you.
2. The anti-OC crowd is little different than any other anti-gunner. They use pretty much the same methods and arguments; "This might happen!" etc.
3. You should never try to make more than ONE point per post. When you make more than a single point the antis latch onto the easiest one to twist the meaning of it and then beat it to death- thus avoiding all the other points you've made for which they have no intelligent reply.
4. Few on that forum seem to realize that written communication lacks the cues that other communications have to enhance understanding. IOW, if your meaning can be twisted- they'll twist it. If you try to explain it, they'll ignore the explanation. They don't (or won't) recognize that maybe they're imputing a meaning you didn't have. Whatever, healthy debate is lost on most of them.
5. I suspect there are some folks in there that won't say what they really think. Like the example I mention of the gun-store clerk who is too opinionated to listen to another viewpoint, you'll find much of that. I asked a guy in a certain shop why he disliked open carry, and after destroying his arguments, all he had left was his real feelings, which he revealed when he blurted out, "If people can walk around with a gun on then the blacks and the Mexicans will open carry; how would you like that?!" Unfortunately in a written forum you can't push a person like you can verbally, but needless to say, I think there's a lot of less-than-truthful folks in there on the subject of OC.
6. The forum is little more than a fan-boy club for a few supposedly adult men to stroke each other. The OC folks there are willing to express their viewpoint, but seem a little intimidated about pushing it (for fear that they'll get banned maybe?). The fence-sitters will side with the fan-boys or say nothing. Nevertheless, it is less of a forum and more of a group's opinion about things. They don't want open discussion any more than they want open carry.
7. The most important lesson is that you cannot convince a closed mind, of which there are plenty.
