You are an Ambassador

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Have anything to say about Wallace and his men mooning an entire army?
I don't think basing part of your world view on a movie version of Wallace lends much credence to your argument when the amusing scene of Scots covered in woad and raising their kilts from the movie never happened in history. Wallace lived in the 13th century. Kilts or belted plaids didn't come about until the 17th century and warriors painting themselves with blue woad was a 2nd century phenomenon that ended by the time the Romans were well through with their British adventure. There is no record of Wallace's troops "mooning" anyone at any time any more than there's a record of their wearing kilts 400 years before they came about or woad nearly 1,000 years late. The movie's full of errors, big and small.

If you read his post carefully, he was talking about die hard anti gunners.
Wrong again. I wasn't just talking about die hard antis who have their minds made up, another mistaken interpretation. Those committed politicians and antis can't be changed by our responsible behavior, but the fence sitters who vote and fund them can. The whole concept of being a good ambassador for gun owners is directed at the vast majority of folks who haven't completely made up their minds about what a bunch of dangerous, overbearing, irresponsible, reckless overly aggressive thugs the antis paint us to be.
 
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It is important to conduct yourself accordingly.
I do, is there anything I posted to suggest I don't?
Yeah. Your "I occasionally give the finger to people on the freeway after they pull some kind of BS on the road," comment pretty much tarrs you with a black brush. Responding to people who vehicularly offend you in some way with a visual insult is childish and absolutely can lead to escalation of violence. It is not the right path to take. Even if you don't care about the ambassadorship element of life, what does such an act gain for you? Nothing.

No one has EVER offended or insulted another person to such a degree that the other person decided to agree with them, apologize, or in any other way make restitution for their poor actions. So why respond? The only possible answer is that it offers some impotent release for your anger. But that is a monstrously immature justification.

Duh. I'm not talking about an advantage in taking bullets/razor blades/getting hit by a truck. Working out makes you a healthier person in every area of your life and gives you a mental advantage over people who do not.
So that's what you meant by being physically superior to others? O.k. Enjoy it. It is fleeting, temporary. Try to think beyond to a couple of years down the road when your body won't be a few percentage points above average capacities.

In a lot of places that can get you arrested, and just about anywhere, it can get you killed or injured. Bad idea. All downside, no upside.
If they give me a reason to and a cop see's what happened, any cop with half a brain is going to pull them over before me.
Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe there will be a cop there. Maybe not. Maybe the other driver will draw a gun and shoot you before you have time to react. It happens. Actually it happened near here recently. You never know what the other guy will do. If you can't improve your own life or situation by antagonizing him, why risk tripping his trigger?

I have read extensively about all of them. I am not a pompus jerk or a civil butthead or a social misfit.
Good to hear. Perhaps you've just chosen some unfortunate examples of behavior to share here.

If you have read about them, then you would know that William Wallace was a "pompus jerk" to his opposition. He was not civil to England in the least bit and would be considered a social misfit according to them.
I think you should consider the scope of what you're discussing. Armed grassroots resistance to an oppressive "foreign" power is a far cry from offering a fellow driver a profane gesture as an ineffectual protest against being inconvenienced in some infinitesimally minuscule way. Try not to insult the memory and accomplishments of great men by comparing piggish road rage to the legendary causes they fought and (usually) died for.

If someone cuts you of and you flip them off, it is not going to end in a deadly confrontation, so this argument is invalid.
Oh... wow. You really have no idea of what happens in the big bad world? Yeah. People die over stuff like this. People end up in jail over stuff like this. "Good guys" turn into "bad guys" over stuff like this. It isn't harmless. It isn't cool. It isn't responsible.

Have anything to say about Wallace and his men mooning an entire army?
Yes. Not to get off-topic, but I do. Celtic, Briton, Gaels and Picti warriors (and all those other tribal societies) did all kinds of things to cause terror in their enemies, including face-painting and unnerving vocalizations. Those were battle tactics. They were organized, purposeful, and effective -- preparatory to killing your enemy and/or dying in battle.

If flipping someone off in traffic is analogous ... well, I'm not smart enough to see the connection.
 
Boomm,

You're still young enough to be full of a young man's foolish aggression just having turned 21 where casual rudeness is mistaken for taking a stand. It's just marking your territory. Flipping people off and other antics with vehicles is something that cause or escalate confrontations and might lead to not living long enough to mature. Being polite to everyone is part of growing up as is handling vehicles and firearms safely. Life can be a long trip so it's best to slow down, cool off and don't mistake being civil in your daily dealings with weakness.
 
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Boomm:

It's easy for anyone to be 6 foot tall and 200+ pounds on the internet. Myself, I'm only 5 foot, 9 & 1/100th inches tall. But at a moderate 180 pounds, my feet and hands are much quicker than I am in my mouth. I've seen guys that had the opposite issue.

I guess it's due to me having been a professional Taekwondo instructor for 32 years that I have learned to keep my fingers and hands clinched. I don't ever one-fingering anyone. Well, sometimes might mindlessly one-finger my own nose when I think they ain't no one lookin'. I mean, really...give the guy a break. Maybe he had a sticky booger an' was tryin' to flick it. Maybe he wasn't flippin' you off at all. See, if you think of the poor fool as being just that, it lessons the offense.

Over the course of 50 years, many people have wanted to see just how much TKD I know. They run their mouth, or flip me off, etc, etc. I determined years ago, I have nothing to prove to anyone. Same counts for on the road, or at the range. I have nothing to prove to anyone. I'm not much for bravado. :cool: In closing, we just about two or three months back saw a kid get shot and killed because some fool thought he "...dissed him..." I learn from others' mistakes. You might benefit from that, and if so, you too might grow old like me. Then again...given your views, you might not see 22.

Geno
 
If someone cuts you of and you flip them off, it is not going to end in a deadly confrontation, so this argument is invalid.

It certainly can end in a deadly confrontation. Esp. if you have a pair of knuckleheads who refuse to back down or be "unmanly." So one or the other or both ends up getting a hole or two, and finds out big biceps mean bo diddly.

Carrying a firearm means leaving all that nonsense in childhood where it belongs.
 
If someone cuts you of and you flip them off, it is not going to end in a deadly confrontation, so this argument is invalid.

It's an escalation. The other guy could easily escalate it to the next level. Then you return the favor and so on...

Am I guilty of it? In my younger days...yes. I had a horrible temper up until about 25 when I nearly got arrested over it. If I explained the story, I'm sure many people would armchair quarterback it...but a large percentage of 25 and younger crowd would react similarly. Now if I get flipped off or otherwise insulted, I ponder it too much and don't react other than to preserve my safety or my family's safety. It bothers me none to see the guy behind me flashing his lights and blowing his horn. If he gets more aggressive, he can follow me to the pd. I can outrun him, but that's reckless. I've taken defensive driving classes in the past and he's going to need to be good to run me off the road.

Don't get me wrong, brother. I'm not criticizing. It sounds like something I'd be guilty of in the past. I'm just saying there are better ways of handling it.
 
Escalating a traffic altercation does not make you a strong, moral man unwilling to back down and fighting the good fight. It just makes you an insecure fool.
 
That's why i never put bumper stickers on my vehicles. Don't want ppl. to associate the NRA with jerks that speed.
 
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lts or belted plaids didn't come about until the 17th century and warriors painting themselves with blue woad was a 2nd century phenomenon that ended by the time the Romans were well through with their British adventure.

And all of the bagpipe music that went along with it in that movie didn't arrive until much later too. Hollywood is Hollywood....certainly not reality.
 
Corporal K:

Direct to the point, and pretty durned accurate! Kudos!

Geno
 
If someone cuts you of and you flip them off, it is not going to end in a deadly confrontation, so this argument is invalid.


You come to North Little Rock and do that and it may very well lead to at least a violent confrontation, if not a deadly one.
 
I don't worry about it too much. It's not just us. For every "Start seeing motorcycles" sticker you see, there are a dozen 21 year-olds on crotch rockets zigging in and out of traffic attempting to become road pizza.

I try to give outsiders enough credit to realize that when they see a bad example of a given group, it doesn't necessarily mean that they judge us all by that example, and if the DO, well.......they probably already had their mind made up anyway.
 
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