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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 27, 2023

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The Saga of Karl Kasarda

File under: Internet Drama

Dramatis personae:

Karl Kasarda is very real person with a significant internet presence, whom I have paid attention to since maybe 2015. He is (or has been) partners with Ian McCollum, who runs Forgotten Weapons, initially a website, mostly famous as a Youtube channel, and lately expanding to other social media platforms. If Forgotten Weapons is Ian's baby, InRangeTV is Karl's baby, though Karl has rarely (never?) made an appearance on FW, while Ian is (or used to be) a regular on IRTV.

Ian's focus is mostly on rifles and handguns, occasionally shotguns, and often military weapons. If it fires a brass cartridge, it's a potential Forgotten Weapon. While the focus is mainly on lesser known and rare weaponry, Ian won't hesitate to cover ubiquitous guns like the AR-15. He is also known as Gun Jesus for his long hair, mustache, and goatee, and his extensive research and authoritative takes on niche subjects.

Karl's competency is mostly based on competition shooting. He's a cerebral guy with a network security career, who has historically competed in "High Power" rifle disciplines, as well as "Cowboy Action Shooting". In the last 10 or 15 years, he has been a big promoter, host, and competitor in so-called 2 gun Action Challenge Matches, which are mostly defined in opposition to 3 gun competitions. There is plenty of history and internet words spillage regarding "2 gun vs 3 gun", but here's the gist: "3 gun" refers to rifle, pistol, shotgun, while "2 gun" omits the shotgun. "3 gun" as a discipline and community has a focus on precision without much physicality. "2 gun" as a discipline and community has a focus on effective shooting with lots of physicality (action challenge match).

Mostly within the last 5 years or so, InRangeTV has featured Russell Phagan, aka SinistralRifleman. He is a skilled 2GACM competitor, and good friend to Karl and Ian, who are all based out of Arizona (AFAIK). Russell works for KE Arms which manufactures firearms parts, largely for the AR-15 platform.

WWSD (What would Stoner do?)

In 2017, it was widely recognized in the American gun community that the AR-15 rifle (aka M16 or M4 in its military designation) (5.56mm ammunition, 16 inch barrel, gas operated, with a buttstock) is a pinnacle of engineering and design. It was designed by Eugene Stoner in the 1950s, as a scaled-down successor to the AR-10, which used a larger 30 caliber round (7.62 mm). It's pretty wild that here in 2023, the best all-purpose rifle for Americans was designed nearly 75 years ago. Have there been improvements along the way? Abso-fucking-lutely.

So now it's 2017, and what would Eugene Stoner do? Well, one of the unifying principles his early design was to use modern materials, like aluminum and polymer, to reduce weight for the same effectiveness. Polymer science was very primitive in 1950 before carbon fiber and modern epoxies. Both aluminum and steel production have become much more sophisticated, consistent, and reliable. Small parts tolerances have improved with CNC and modern milling machines.

I have a lot more to say here, but Karl and Ian came up with a modern "build" of an AR-15 rifle that uses carbon fiber and polymer along with modern metallurgy and design lessons learned from the last 75 years. Importantly, this design was based off of a polymer "lower receiver" for the AR-15, which is the item that the BATFE (Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives) considers a firearm. The milspec lower receiver is a chunk of forged aluminum that is then machined or milled to its final dimensions.

There have been many attempts at polymer lower receivers throughout the years, essentially all of which have been failures in function, design, or sales. The WWSD 2017 design was based off the CAV-15 from GWACS, which is a one-piece polymer lower receiver which includes the grip and the buttstock. The milspec lower receiver does not include the grip or buttstock and instead provides attachment points. The so-called "monolithic" design of the CAV-15 gives it extra strength and reliability relative to other polymer lowers.

Then, in 2020, just before the COVID pandemic hit, we have a product called "WWSD 2020". Partnered with KE Arms, Russell Phagan's company, Karl and Ian want to produce WWSD AR-15 Rifles to sell for a profit. First of all, due to their following, there are thousands or millions of enthusiasts trying to buy CAV-15 polymer lowers, along with carbon fiber handguards, and pencil profile rifle barrels, and the suppliers cannot keep up with demand. Second of all, of course, let's "monetize" this following. No shade.

I have a lot more to say but I am running out of steam. I will augment this post within 12 hours.

I never knew what to think about Karl.

On one hand he runs a very interesting and fun channel and is attuned to the issues a lot of old school cypherpunks are, which I believe to be of great import today.

On the other hand he has insane meme political views only a child could entertain.

How a grown man who in many respect is a respectable expert and subtle enough to make the best of some of the problems of modern life (his video on online censorship I believe to be quite enlightening) could also behave like such an idiot at times puzzles me.

I won't begrudge nerds for being weird, but he goes so much further than that. At least Ian has the professionalism not to embarrass himself with this sort of online drama.

I'll preface this by saying I do not know the details of whatever dumb things Karl said a few weeks ago. Other than what you posted below.

I believe Karl suffers from a simple and severe case of contrarianism. Karl is or has attended Church of Satan stuff, and the Church of Satan is filled with contrarians, skeptics, rebels, and cynics. Out in the world, a contrarian can be satisfied as a supporter of guns rights. There's a litany of false beliefs and memes surrounding firearms to feel sufficiently superior to the masses when it comes to firearm discussion, the Second Amendment, etc.

On the internet, especially in the "guntuber" scene, it's not enough for an uber contrarian to be satisifed as A Gun Guy. The gun guys can be said to be pretty similar to one another. They are freedom loving, right coded, proud rural Americans. To satisfy uber contrarian desires, one must go against the grain. It's the culture he has to set him self apart from as a transgressive guy.

A few years ago Karl would appear to be a principled libertarian or anarchist with libertarian streak. Maybe he always had some edgy takes, but what he shared were principles that could be considered advice-- no matter political leanings. A healthy skepticism of authority and the Feds, high value on self-sufficiency, personal responsibility, and safety/security. Now, he's a culture warrior. It might be the youtube version of audience capture, or it might be a natural progression with Karl filling a niche in the market. These days there is more demand for self-declared leftist/left of center gun enthusiast types. It's the culture war stuff that fills the gaps and allows him to stand out.

I suspect Ian saw this coming years ago. Whatever falling out they had over InRange business wise (afaik they are still friends) I am confident it was around Ian's basic "minimize political stuff, keep it professional" policy that has allowed Ian's brand to explode. They made some entertaining content together, but without Ian to check Karl's excesses he's gone a little kooky.

They were friendly until the most recent drama. Nwallins glossed over it, perhaps for the better as the details are buried in long forum threads and private Discord servers. Both previously maintained the story that Ian was too busy with his own channel, so Karl took over InRange in a mutually amicable split and the there was no bad blood between them. However, when Brownells decided to back out of their deal, they put their remaining stock of WWSD rifles on liquidation sale, and Ian promoted it on his social media. He all but confirmed this was him choosing a side, stating that he wants to continue working with Brownells in the future. For this, Karl called Ian a backstabber and a coward.

I've been following these men for many years, and when this exploded a weeks ago I was pretty torn up. I imagine it was like witnessing the break-up of the Beatles.

However, when Brownells decided to back out of their deal, they put their remaining stock of WWSD rifles on liquidation sale, and Ian promoted it on his social media. He all but confirmed this was him choosing a side, stating that he wants to continue working with Brownells in the future.

Damn, that's what that sale was about? I saw the YT Community post about the sale, didn't know there was a deeper context.

Man, y'know, I actually saw the two of them together at a local gun show like a couple years ago.