BBQ Guns

I occasionally see videos where the topic is "BBQ Guns"- a gun you would wear, openly, to a gun-owner-friendly BBQ where that was the dress code- or even kind of the whole point.

I want to go to a BBQ like that! I've never been to one, but it sounds like a lot of fun. 

Anyway, the point is that you wear a really nice, or at least unusual/interesting, gun to show off a little.

I don't have any highly polished, gold-plated guns. I tend to find those boring, even if they look nice. But I do have a couple of ideas of what I'd wear in such a case.

My DL-15, shown above, is probably my top choice. It might not be anyone else's idea of a BBQ gun, but I really like it. And, judging by the reactions I get at the shooting range, it's interesting and unusual.

If I had to choose a backup, or if the invitation demanded a BBQ revolver, I'd wear my "Man With No Name" 1851 Navy.

If you were to pick a BBQ gun for yourself- either from your collection or from your want list- what would you choose?

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Fear and aggression

Fearful people (and animals) are unpredictable and dangerous. They are prone to aggression. That's part of what makes statism so dangerous.

You can pretend there's no problem, but that doesn't change it.

You can try to protect the feelings of the fearful by avoiding the issue. Their dangerous fear is still there. Quiet, behind the curtains, influencing their every move.

You can try to calm their fears, but fearful people aren't likely to be rational enough to listen or watch. Even when the truth is a lot less frightening than what they imagine. Everything they experience is filtered through the lens of fear. They see and hear only what they want to see and hear.

They'll often want you to lie to protect their feelings and make them less afraid. They'll still sense you're lying, so don't bother.

You can try to show them how to handle what they fear- or just be an example. Teach them how to handle situations that they've been afraid of, if they are open to learning. This works on a few.

If you give in to your fear of what dangerous people might do, you're in danger of becoming afraid enough that you advocate for the same sort of things they are advocating for, to "protect" you from them. You've seen it happen in politics.

It's a twisted cycle. Don't participate.

Be dangerous only in that you will defend yourself when they force you to do so. Not by using the aggressive methods of statism and calling it "defense".

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I don't trust these experts either

Every time Bitcoin starts tumbling and the “experts” go back to predicting its demise, I graciously offer a Bitcoin Disposal Service, so that they can anonymously rid themselves of the doomed crypto.

Funny thing is that no one ever takes advantage of the offer.

That tells me that either they don’t believe what they say, or they don’t have any Bitcoin anyway, so why would I listen to them reassuring themselves they didn't miss the boat? 

It’s kind of funny.

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Curing Statism?

So, if fear is the foundation of statism, how can that be addressed?

How can you make people less afraid of being ungoverned? Less afraid of liberty?

How can you cure someone's irrational fears?

You can't reason most of them out of their fear. They won't listen and can't hear- their fear keeps them sheltered. If they do hear you, they'll assume you are lying. After all, that's what they do to advocate for their side; they project their own flaws on you.

Maybe you can show them. Exposure therapy. Demonstrate that you don't need to be governed. That people can cooperate and coordinate without being forced.
But showing them anything that goes against their biases is hard because statism acts like blinders, and liberty isn't generally in-your-face. And if it is, it scares them.

Neither of those paths address the root fears.

Summing up all their fears, they seem genuinely afraid of liberty and of what others might do with it. They won't understand that there's no such thing as "too much liberty" when even a little liberty in the hands of the other guy scares the pants off them.

Statism is liberphobia, where "-phobia" really does mean "an irrational fear", not just a strong dislike, as so many tend to misuse it today. (A related clinical term is eleutherophobia, but that clumsy word refers to a fear of freedom, and I prefer to talk of liberty.)

How can I fix it? Why fix it? I don't know about you, but I'm tired of them being a threat to my liberty. To your liberty! But is it even possible to fix something someone doesn't want fixed; that they would deny needs fixing?

Statists didn't become statists through thought and reason; thought and reason may not be the way to cure them. But, how to reach their feelings? Can feelings only be reached through irrationality? How would that work? Lowest common denominator media? Habituation? 

If I were inclined to use their own unethical methods against them (and pretend they planned a method), I would suggest weaponizing fear to turn the tables and make them more afraid of government than of liberty. No, that wouldn't be right, but it might happen anyway, and if that happens, it will be government doing it. 

About the only thing I can see working in the short term, until enough people get smarter, is to live parallel to them, defending yourself and others from them when you have to. And, of course, that will probably only make them more afraid. That is the opposite of my goal.

It's a conundrum.

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Statism is terrorism

If my conjecture is correct, and fear is the foundation of all statism, then statism is terrorism.

Terrorism is defined by Dictionary.com as:

• the unlawful use of violence or threats to intimidate or coerce a civilian population or government, with the goal of furthering political, social, or ideological objectives.
• a terrorist method of governing or of resisting a government.
• intimidation or coercion by instilling fear.

Leaving out the arbitrary distinction of "unlawful" and the irrelevant definition ("the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism"), it fits.

Statism uses and promotes violence, specifically aggression; initiated force. 

Its followers want to violently impose a State on people, if those people don't consent, and they will take advantage of largely irrational fears to make them believe it is necessary. This is intimidation to further its objectives. It is how they coerce the people to go along. By scaring them and threatening them with harsh consequences if they don't cooperate. Manipulation is coercion.

All government uses aggression and threats of aggression to keep the population in line. If it didn't, but was by unanimous consent, it wouldn't qualify as anything you'd call "government".

Statism is terrorism.

Do not be afraid. If you can't be terrified, you are immune to statism. It has no power over you.

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The 'rich' aren't the problem

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for June 3, 2026)

There's a lot of hostility toward "the rich". Especially billionaires. The hostility is misplaced.

The real divide is not "the rich" versus "everyone else". It is those who seek to rule, versus everyone they seek to rule...read the rest...

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Left, Right equal enemies of liberty

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for April 29, 2026)

It’s wild how people pretend “Left” and “Right” are mortal enemies. They’re not. They’re two bowls of the same authoritarian slop: theft and enslavement sold as “the greater good”.  

When the Left rules, they’ll tax you into the ground to fund their pet projects, regulate your speech, your guns, your business, your very thoughts, and call it compassion.

When the Right has a turn, they’ll ramp up the surveillance, the wars, and the “law and order” boot on your neck, all while waving a flag and quoting scripture.

Same result: your money, your time, your choices- stolen by someone with power. Only the propaganda differs.

I can’t even blame one side more than the other. Both cults worship the State. Both believe they have the right to point guns at peaceful people in the name of governance. Both cheer when their team wins and will suddenly discover “tyranny” the moment the other team takes the reins. It’s the same disgusting ideology wearing different colors.  

Which is the greater threat right now? Both.

When Democrats are at the wheel, their brand of authoritarianism- green mandates, speech codes, endless redistribution- does the damage.

When Republicans seize it, their version- endless spending on “defense”, border theater to expand the police state, moral crusades backed by badges- takes its turn.

Americans keep losing.

I lost income during the pandemic because politicians of both teams proved they could shut down the economy on a whim, and most folks would comply and thank them. That lesson wasn’t lost on either side. They now know exactly how far they can push before people resist.  

The binary is a trap. It keeps libertarians, the actual liberty-lovers, arguing over which master is preferable instead of rejecting all masters. Left and Right are not opposites; they’re both whistling the tune of “we own you” in different keys.

I love people. I also know humans are flawed. Which is exactly why no one should ever be handed the power to rule the rest of us. There is no "right to govern". Until enough people wake up and stop cheering for their favorite brand of authoritarianism, we’ll keep trading one set of thieves and slavers for another.

The only sane position is to despise both teams equally and demand they keep their filthy hands off our lives, our property, and our liberty. Stop volunteering to be enslaved by "your team".

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Fear

I'm more and more convinced that fear is the foundation of statism. Not evil intentions, not ignorance, not greed. Fear.

I asked the question, "What justifies government?", and got a lot of input from Statists. I did my best to ask the question in a non-biased way, and even to ask unbiased (as possible) follow-up questions of those who answered flippantly. It’s hard because I’m obviously biased for liberty, and after I had the answers I sought, I let my bias shine.

A pattern emerged in those answers. 

Fear is the most common excuse I see used to justify government. It's what every justification I've encountered distills down to, even when they try to frame it otherwise. They are scared and feel safer under government.

Don't want the government taking its "laws" off of machine guns, even though you acknowledge all such rules are illegal under the Second Amendment, because you're afraid of criminals having machine guns? That's advocating statism because of fear. (The most dangerous criminals already have machine guns if they want them, and always will.)

Justify "borders" because you're scared of what migrants do or might do? That's advocating statism because of fear.

Over and over again, I watch the same thing.

Maybe you're afraid that poor people would die without government help. There it is: fear. 

Maybe you're afraid children would remain ignorant without govschooling.
Maybe you're scared that without government, children would be exploited, violated, and killed.
Maybe you're afraid the natural environment would be wiped out without government making up rules protecting it.
Maybe you're afraid that corporations- a government creation- would take over the world without government stopping them.
Maybe you're afraid criminals would run rampant without "laws", police, and a "justice system".
Maybe you're afraid people would drive dangerously without government traffic enforcement.
Maybe you're afraid there would be no roads to drive on at all; all we'd have are cow paths and potholes.
Maybe you're scared your culture will be eradicated without government propping it up in some way.
Maybe you're afraid radio signals would overlap, and the airwaves would be nothing but unintelligible gibberish without government allocating frequencies.
Maybe you're scared of drugs, and think that without prohibition, people would die of overdoses and contaminated drugs.
Maybe you're scared of being invaded and having foreign rulers replace the rulers you've grown accustomed to.
Maybe you're scared of having to figure out what time to set your clock to without government guidance.

I could go on like this forever. This doesn't begin to cover the answers I got, but there's a common root.

It's all fear, and it's all misplaced and misguided, since the worst-case scenario is almost guaranteed to happen, not prevented but actually facilitated by the entity statists look to for protection. 

And, if you address the fear, questioning the justification for government, you'll experience their anger.

Everyone feels fear. Not everyone gives in to it and sacrifices the world to their fears. Statists do.

Giving in to fear is cowardice. Even if it just means excusing government's existence.

Do not be afraid. It’s one of the most common messages in religions (even Statism).
You don’t need government. Fear makes you believe you do. Fear not. And reject that which is justified by fears.

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Related: Statism is terrorism
        And Curing Statism?

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The Statist "solution"

The foundational statist lie is that if you don't want government involved in everyone's life, you "don't care" about them.

One such example from one of statism's brightest:
"The libertarian solutions (all of them) come down to a simple one-liner, 'Just let the poor people die.'"

As opposed to the statist solutions (all of them), which come down to, "People are government's property; kill them if they resist".

Yeah, that's so much more caring. Right? LOL

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