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vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

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Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

Conversational account. For work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian. IKEA builder.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

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    1. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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      Venkatesh Rao Retweeted Venkatesh Rao

      So... thinking more about this mall-ninja white house syndrome in the context of American gun culture overall... some more thoughts on the role of guns in situations like this.https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1267915370658009088 …

      Venkatesh Rao added,

      Venkatesh Rao @vgr
      Just realized the Trump WH is kinda full of mall ninjas giving professional soldiers navy-seal copypasta grade "orders"... the "dominate the battlespace" line feels like that https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Navy%20Seal%20copypasta …
      Show this thread
      3 replies 26 retweets 86 likes
      Show this thread
    2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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      Gun culture in the US is minority serious, majority some sort of EDC tacticool larp. It plays a weird fetishlike role in discussions of societal breakdown that it doesn't in other countries. Guns are not generally a major variable. You expect some will be around, but that's it.

      1 reply 3 retweets 21 likes
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    3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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      In the US, it is hard to separate mythology around guns from the practical effects of their presence in large quantities in citizen hands. The main practical effect is that police-citizen relations get a lot more edgy and violent.

      1 reply 3 retweets 16 likes
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    4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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      The cops militarized in part because of history of drug war etc, but also because they operate in an environment where they expect the *citizens* to have guns. Cops in most countries does not expect guns in typical policing situations like domestic violence or traffic stops.

      3 replies 2 retweets 27 likes
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    5. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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      But in situations like this, where people are thinking about SHTF scenarios, guns play an even bigger role in the imagination. Guns are in top 5 things everybody's minds turn to (second only to toilet paper perhaps). They buy guns. There are debates about gun stores being open.

      3 replies 3 retweets 9 likes
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    6. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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      I'm kinda neutral on the whole gun debate. I think of it as the American equivalent of holy cows and beef-eating prohibitions in India. A meaningless piece of historical baggage you nevertheless have to navigate.

      2 replies 1 retweet 23 likes
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    7. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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      I've thought idly of at least taking a gun handling class, simply because basic level of firearm literacy here is so high, but I'm not actually interested in the skill and I doubt it's actually useful for *me* to have even in US. I lack the larp instinct and have no other need.

      1 reply 1 retweet 12 likes
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    8. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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      It's a bit like my attitude towards investing. Keep it mostly in index-tracking passive. I have zero confidence in my ability to beat the professional investors in the public markets, and I lack the net worth to be an accredited investor to play in the private markets. Same logic

      3 replies 1 retweet 9 likes
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      Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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      In an actual armed conflict, even the gun nut larpers/EDC type mall ninjas stand absolutely no chance against the vast ranks of professional police and military who handle weapons in live risk situations day in and day out, not just during weekend target practice.

      3:19 PM - 2 Jun 2020
      • 3 Retweets
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      • Geffen Avraham 📐 Kwame Adebayo Lewis 🇺🇸 NothingBetter Maven 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚣𝚘 🟡 Death will not release you 🌨 big worn out energy
      4 replies 3 retweets 11 likes
        1. New conversation
        2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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          Otoh, the equivalent of "accredited investor" is having enough of a physical asset base (eg. a house and property worth looting by mad max gangs). Don't have that either. I lack reasons to be an "active investor" (gun owner) in both the public and private violence markets.

          3 replies 1 retweet 8 likes
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        3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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          When I look at the macro picture, the US is actually very much like most countries when it comes to guns. Most private guns are owned by a small minority. For most of the rest, thinking about guns is somewhere between a non-strategic distraction to unacknowledged larp tendencies.

          1 reply 1 retweet 7 likes
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        4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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          So my summary take on guns in the US is: they are a mythological distortionary force acting on the imagination when it comes to thinking about collapse/societal breakdown scenarios. Being an active investor in gun culture is a bad idea for most people.

          2 replies 1 retweet 12 likes
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        5. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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          Almost *any* other kind of preparation for collapse scenarios is a better use of your time/money/energy than guns. Like cooking, electronics repair, first aid, fire fighting, CPR...

          4 replies 3 retweets 26 likes
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        6. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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          This is a topic I don't discuss with Americans much, for the same reason I don't discuss cows with devout hindus. There is a basic deep-rooted belief that there's something exceptional and special about the American relationship with guns that the rest of the world doesn't get.

          3 replies 1 retweet 32 likes
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        7. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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          I mean, it's not as if guns are a great mystery to the rest of the world. They all have their professional military/police. Most also have serious terrorist/secessionist movements running actual guerrilla wars (not theoretical) with AK-47s. All have private gun culture too.

          1 reply 1 retweet 12 likes
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        8. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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          Most countries also have their traditional martial classes with some sort of pride/honor culture that makes them more inclined to private gun ownership (legal or illegal). Criminal classes and tough-guy student groups have guns. There's paramilitaries and equivalents of ROTC.

          1 reply 1 retweet 6 likes
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        9. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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          Plenty of countries have mandatory military service and all adults have firearm literacy -- more than most Americans. Terror-ridden countries like Pakistan have entire cottage industries making AK-47s in villages. So... what's unique about US gun culture is its religiosity.

          1 reply 3 retweets 18 likes
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        10. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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          I guess this is why I'm meh on US gun culture and besides being aware of the weird risks (mass shootings, possibility that random minor conflict could involve guns), I just can't take the *culture* seriously, even though guns are serious.

          2 replies 1 retweet 11 likes
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        11. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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          My view of gun culture is the same as my view of creationism, which is another thing exceptional in the US among developed countries with high education levels. Nobody else anywhere takes creationism seriously.

          1 reply 3 retweets 16 likes
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        12. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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          And both gun culture (which is not the same as non-religious levels of firearm literacy) and creationism are things that I think make America significantly dumber in its response to serious societal problems.

          1 reply 1 retweet 14 likes
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        13. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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          Specifically, this means everybody who lives here has to pay an annoying "gun culture literacy" tax and accept the higher risk of really stupid ways of dying. Just like in India you have to accept a "sacred cow literacy" tax and accept higher risk of violence around it.

          1 reply 1 retweet 10 likes
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        14. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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          More generally, native-born Americans tend to have an all-or-nothing approach to their exceptionalism. They demand that you either accept that all the great things like tech innovation etc come from the same roots as gun culture, creationism etc. or keep your mouth shut.

          1 reply 2 retweets 19 likes
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        15. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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          Of course, the rest of the world -- including immigrants here with significant experience of other cultures, simply rolls its eyes and indulges the self-congratulatory American view of itself. For the same reason you might agree with a powerful boss you need to keep happy.

          2 replies 3 retweets 17 likes
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        16. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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          The rest of the world has its own different account of the source of American strength, and contrary to insecure American fears of it, it is NOT an unflattering one that tldrs to "smallpox and slavery." People genuinely admire America and believe in a positive story about it.

          3 replies 1 retweet 21 likes
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        17. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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          It's in general a more accurate one, that more correctly separates truly exceptional features of America vs. the features that Americans just assume is exceptional. The overall picture that emerges is actually more flattering to Americans than the one they paint for themselves.

          3 replies 1 retweet 15 likes
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        18. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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          This entire thread is for non-Americans and immigrants. I've now spent more of my life here than in India (22.6y vs. 22.4y) and one thing I've learned is that there is no upside to challenging American views of themselves. They simply don't believe non-native-borns can see them.

          3 replies 3 retweets 35 likes
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        19. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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          If you're not native-born, all you can do is quietly nod and skirt native-born introspection conversations and place your bets according to your own estimates of whether or not you believe their own accounts of themselves.

          1 reply 2 retweets 8 likes
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        20. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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          The most effective tactic for dealing with native-borns is to indulge their deep-rooted belief that you couldn't possibly understand them or see parts of them they can't see themselves. Don't take them at their own estimation, don't try to communicate your estimation to them.

          1 reply 1 retweet 12 likes
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        21. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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          It's a bit sad, an acceptance of eternal outsider status no matter how much you learn and understand. But it's also a bit of fun. Like Hercule Poirot exaggerated and played up his foreignness in Britain to seem both more clueless and inscrutable than he actually was.

          4 replies 1 retweet 20 likes
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        22. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jun 2
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          I'll add one thing. When a B-grade-TV-star-turned-politician like Trump governs by the American mythology of itself rather than any genuine sense of America, it actually tends to devalue and destroy everything that outsiders actually admire about America. Sad.

          0 replies 3 retweets 33 likes
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        23. End of conversation

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