Originally Posted by
Default.mp3
Well, to be fair, the tendency for people to prioritize equipment over skill is pretty much universal for anything that requires both (golf, photography, cooking, shooting, driving, gaming, etc.).
As for the part about specifically addressing the PF community, I honestly interpreted it as just a general statement rather than toward just PF, and that the growth of PF was merely a great reminder to you/us about the wider issues.
I personally (can't speak for rob_s) didn't find your post to be negative at all, but in fact a fount of positivity (despite you labeling it as a rant). I'll also note that my mention of clone builders was not meant to be demeaning in any way, but merely a rather extreme example of something with a distinct lack of utility that can still bring its owner much joy and pride of ownership (though perhaps that might speak negatively about our overall consumer driven society...), and it was an example that many of us here would have a relatively high probability of running into, given our shared interests in firearms, and such a person may very well have some kind of passing interest in self-defense, so they might have an interest in the ability to have good hand-to-hand or pistol skills.
Instead, I was merely disagreeing with the seemingly objective way you described some of the things in your post. For some people, the hardware is the endgoal in itself. The question then becomes, how many people are simply into firearms just because they think they're fucking cool, and actually aren't all that serious about self-defense (despite what they might espouse), how many people are genuinely into self-defense, and the gear aspect is merely a means, and all the people that are between those two positions? I suspect that rob_s believes that the first group is the majority of people in the so-called tactical community, and possibly even in the training community, and thus why he might believe that even gentle encouragement to maybe check out an IAJJ AAR would almost always be a waste of time and energy.
I mean, ultimately, all other things being equal, is there any statistically significant verifiable improvement in quality of life for your average civilian if they use a Safariland 7390 versus a SERPA? If they decide to join a BJJ gym rather than plunk down for that factory woodland HK91? As many posters in this thread have noted, people get caught up in the whole gear train and tacticool entertrainment, and none of it is really all that relevant to their everyday lives, but ultimately, how often does the fact that these people are woefully underprepared against any true violence actually affect their lives?
Really, to me, it's just something for me to help keep in perspective. This isn't to say we shouldn't straight up not give a shit, and that we should not make any attempt at prodding and/or encouraging people to take into context what they're buying/what classes they wish to attend, just that when we get all fired up and proselytizing, step back, and see how ultimately inconsequential most of this stuff is (for normal civilians, anyway), and to not be too serious about it.
Reply With Quote
For those that take offense to encouraging a self improvement in training and skill sets attitude, you can still hang out at and enjoy PF but I plan on keeping PF a place where the intangibles are valued more than the material possessions. 
