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True enough. But "A homeless black guy harassed me, this is why I wish we could go all Turner Diaries" is the direction I see.
Outrage at being bullied and essentially rendered helpless by a criminal psychopath in public is understandable, but all the stuff about "large, high-testosterone, social and biological inferiors" is just racial seething.
The guy was gutter trash, same as any number of whites I've known.
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I’m not saying he’s my social and biological inferior because he’s black. He’s my social inferior because he’s a destructive parasite, incapable of contributing positively to society, constantly taking from those around him; he’s my biological inferior because he’s schizophrenic. His brain is incurably defective, and that condition is heritable and makes him a danger to others.
I don’t know how you got The Turner Diaries out of anything I’ve said; I do not advocate mass violence against non-criminal black individuals, and never have. We have hundreds of thousands of white bums, schizos, and scumbags in this country, and I advocate precisely the same treatment for them.
Yeah, me and my family are non-white so I have a pretty direct material interest in opposing the advances of white nationalism.
But this is like the “predator bro handshake meme” if I’ve ever seen one in real life. All the people I know who are most hardline about this type of stuff are Latino, Asian & African immigrants. Which really shouldn’t surprise anyone, seeing as they are the ones actually suffering the consequences of the urban decay brought on by violent, mentally ill homeless.
And they know the results of Anarcho-Tyranny as they come from so many similar places; doubtful they want their refuge to turn into the same as they knew.
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Schizophrenia can't be cured (yet) but it certainly can be managed in many (perhaps a majority) of cases.
I think you're making a lot of assumptions and leaps of logic here.
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I definitely agree, and I am also baffled sometimes that more of the smart types with those opinions don't just start hitting the gym. Healthy body, healthy mind and being muscular has all sorts of advantages with practically no drawback besides a couple hours a week during which you can get your motte posting in.
I don't disagree with the advice in general, but specifically here, being physically fit can also lead you to a false sense of security.
There's a reason every single 'street fight' guru tells you to run away every single time if you can. Even if you are in shape, even if you know how to fight, you are potentially one moment away from a knife in an artery, just to name a single life ending risk out of a thousand.
Sure, but even insane and belligerent people are more careful around big people.
Deterring fights by being physically imposing (or at least not being the inverse) is a useful complement to running away if a fight actually happens.
To both you and @aqouta , I feel like you are missing the point. You are still helpless sitting in the subway car whilst some maniac, hopefully I guess, molests someone else. 'Feeling like you could take them' is, again, just a false sense of security. Hoping that they will see you alone because you believe you look swole is, again, just a false sense of security. The actual problem, the schizo in the subway car, is still there. Feeling confident about your chances of not being the unlucky one to catch his attention, knife or a bullet is completely irrelevant to the actual problem.
Not saying this applies to either of you, but it feels like there is this sentiment dominating this thread of conversation that hinges on the idea that physically fit or fight capable people don't have power fantasies, or don't feel the constraints of society around them when faced with potentially physical altercations. They do. But the more smart or experienced of them usually recognize that choking out the schizo on the subway is a very risky thing. Not just in the moment but every moment after that. You kick the schizos ass and then what? Wait for him to find you on your regular commute? Ah, the schizo lunatic is holding a grudge against me, what a great spot to be in.
I can't stress enough, again, the feeling of security you get from having a high opinion of yourself is always liable to be false. You might be helping yourself improve your chances if you ever are unlucky enough get into a bad spot, but you are not getting away from all the other things that weigh everyone down anyways. Not to sound to bellicose but it's literally a cope.
Sure but that was not my point. My point was that being physically imposing causes people to not fuck with you, even insane and violent people. This isn't about my confidence, it's about theirs. It's about whether they feel that they could take me.
Me being large confers an advantage to me but as you state it's smaller than one might imagine and any individual violent encounter carries an unacceptably large risk. Making people not wanting to start altercations is therefore useful, regardless of whether their assessment of your capacity to defend yourself is accurate or not.
Its not that I can kick the shit out of the schitzo lunatic because I am large, it's that I don't have to because I am.
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We've moved a good distance from where I originally, as an aside, expressed how I thought it was strange that many smart people do not see the obvious boons of becoming strong. Only a small facet of those boons is being mostly left alone by crazy people. I was very much not saying "just get buff and there is no problem, lol" so much as "this is another example of why I think everyone should make themselves more fit. There is a sense, and one I saw somewhat in the OP that raw strength is beneath a sense of personal excellence that I find wrongheaded.
I definitely did not mean to imply that the cultivation of strength - nor even the cultivation of a capacity for interpersonal violence! - is beneath personal excellence. I advocate the pursuit of physical excellence right alongside intellectual/spiritual excellence. I’m just being honest about the limitations that my personal body/genetics has placed on the level of strength that I am likely to be able to successfully cultivate.
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Right, I wasn't meaning to imply being strong to actually get into fights with bums, but even crazy bums tend to leave the bigger guys alone. At least this is my experience from going from a slightly chubby nerd to a fairly buff man over ~6 years in Chicago.
This matches my observation, which is one reason that I question just how crazy the bums are. I mean, sure, they obviously have self-destructive personalities, are frequently addicted to narcotics, and have extremely poor impulse control, but I think people are entirely too willing to accept the idea that this is about schizophrenia or that the gentleman in the subway was "having a mental health crisis". Maybe he's just, in the colloquial sense, a complete asshole. If a given belligerent vagrant is suffering more from just being a complete asshole than being mentally ill, I would expect them to exercise some degree of discretion when picking targets to harass for fun and profit, which seems more consistent with what I actually see. There's a continuum here as well as significant group overlap between those groups.
I agree that a lot of the cases of random attacks are just stupidity (sometimes drug-induced, sometimes not) interacting with being an asshole / wanting to fight, but I don't think the 'avoiding big people' is good evidence against it. "Don't directly challenge large enemies" is a fairly old instinct that almost every living thing that moves has, if despite meth mania you have enough instincts left to perceive where other people are and fight them, you probably have enough left to avoid 6'4 270lb powerlifter bubba
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Even animals recognize big and imposing as something to steer clear of, so I'm not sure it's evidence against being mentally unwell that they prefer to pick on women, old people, and small people.
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It's no good hitting the gym if you go to Riker's for popping the overly aggressive homeless beggar (for the sake of argument we'll say he was hitting or shoving you, but ineffectively) right in the nose. The law says you have to walk away or take it, not respond.
It has been my experience that crazy people do not fuck with buff dudes, or at least do so significantly less than others.
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I go to the gym 4-5 times a week, but the results I get have not yet given me the physical tools I would need to contend with a large schizophrenic man with a nearly boundless capacity for brutal violence. I’ve thought about starting a regime of steroids, testosterone supplements, etc. in order to help me see better results, but I’m concerned about what the knock-on effects would be on the other parts of my life.
Within around 3 years of starting a 5 day a week schedule you should be visibly stronger than most people. No real need for steroids unless you're very time sensitive.
That's unnecessarily hardcore imo.
Going 3 times a week consistently for 3 years is more than enough, if you actually apply yourself when you're in the gym. A lot of people seem to just amble around and don't increase the weight sufficiently.
This is almost-certainly part of my problem.
Might be old hat at this point Starting Strength is a classic for a reason.
It’s very practical. Took me from an utter rookie to being able to do 500lb deadlifts regularly in about 2.5 years.
Between that, learning Muay Thai, regularly practicing meditation, and a handful of genetic gifts, I don’t think it’s even a slight exaggeration to say I’m probably physically capable of defending myself against 99.9% of people I’ve ever met or will meet.
Unless they have a knife?
A useful guide to knife defense.
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