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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 27, 2025

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Concealed carry comes with the burden to lose every argument and to walk away.

That's Fudd lore. Perhaps it's generally a wise sentiment to hold but it's in the same vein as Dave Ramsey: "never use credit cards" of trying to keep low impulse control people from doing low impulse control things.

The problem is that low impulse control people say "Ha, I'm not like those other idiots" and then mag dump at IHOP.

The truth is, you don't know who you are, deep down inside, until your life is on the line. A rational well meaning person that operates 99.9% of the time in a rational and logical manner can turn into a bloodthirsty animal in the outlier. Most Americans do not find themselves in such a situation in a daily basis.

And not only that, but high impulse control people hear the meme and repeat it uncritically; this then harms other high impulse control people.

High impulse control people don't need to be told "they have the burden to lose every stupid argument", and continuing to tell them that will over-calibrate them into losing fights they really shouldn't be walking away from.

You don't need to tell me not to shoot people with machine guns because their dog pissed on my lawn, and someone treating me as if they did need to tell me that "because Some People would" is best seen as projection (as in, the speaker is low-impulse and has to tell himself not to do that, so he assumes he has to treat me as if I would).

Non-gun-owners have a higher rate of violence than gun owners do for this reason, or at least they do in at least one country that has a licensing scheme and keeps stats in English. The effect is not just limited to guns but looking at them is revealing.

When I'm training people on the legalities of self defense, I still remind them that THEY have to determine where their personal 'line in the sand' is to determine when it is go time.

You draw it further from you, you'll probably respond more quickly and are more likely to survive, but risk legal consequences.

You draw it closer, you'll probably be legally safe but not before the attacker gets a couple blows in and thus you might end up dead if your reactions aren't quick.

No 'right' answer, but make sure you decide where your line is well in advance so you aren't thinking that over when the attack is already coming.

De-escalation IS a skill that carriers should try to develop... and of course noticing when someone you're talking to might be willing to throw hands over a 'friendly' argument.

Not when Stand Your Ground applies.

Of course not in the legal sense. In terms of moral culpability, it’s better to plan to lose every argument than to plan to enter gunfights.

I decline to subscribe to your morality.