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.
Conversation
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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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...
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Replying to
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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