Disclaimer, the image above isn’t real… yet. Today’s Ask Josh isn’t a gun or ammo question. In a long email, reader Bob lamented the fact that people were being gaslit and removed from mainstream social media sites. I have an answer for this and many of you aren’t going to like it.

Bob wrote a rather lengthy email detailing a story of an innocent discussion in a Curio & Relic group. A member of this private group asked where he could find ammo for an old rifle and Bob replied, but the link automatically was flagged and Bob found himself instantly banned. He was sent a copy of the community standards and it was case closed. Bob had been deplatformed.

“A lot of people just say ‘well just don’t use [insert social media company of your choice] anymore. But that isn’t right, should we just give up and let them win? Starting to get that socialist vibe where the opposition must be suppressed and silenced in order for the new party to move forward.” 

Like the movie War Games, answer here is that the only way to win is to not play.

The main problem with the idea of winning is that puts emphasis on the idea that there is the possibility of fair play and even terms. The terms here, though, are not fair. They never were. At this point it’s obvious that many platforms are carrying out a concerted effort to disenfranchise 75 million Americans who they believe voted or think the wrong way.

You’re kidding yourself if you think that you can coexist long term with people who actively want your kids brainwashed, want you fired from your job, and your name permanently ruined. Participating in online platforms just makes you easier to identify at this point. As they say in clownworld, “the game was honked from the start.” You can’t win if you play in their court.

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There are people who are actively talking about and publishing articles encouraging the new regime to look at Grant’s ideas for putting down an insurrection. They believe you are an insurgent. You, reading this now. They want you dead or emasculated and humiliated so badly that you dare not speak for fear of being labeled a ‘white supremacist terrorist’ or ‘right-wing extremist’.

If you think that you’ll be alone if you get deplatformed you’re wrong. The internet existed before social media companies began to dominate it. Don’t give up on establishing communities, talking guns and culture, helping newbies, and generating outreach. You need to simply walk out of the big tech gulag and go back to independent forums, chatrooms, and sites that allow free speech.

Ask yourself if your life improved because of ZuckBook? When was the last time you saw your wife without her phone, fishing for comments and likes? When was the last time your daughter went outside? How many things have you found out about your friends and family through a post on a wall instead of over a nice lunch or on a phone call with your elderly dad?

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You can walk away. The dominant social media platforms are poison and they’re killing you. The second you open your phone you’re bombarded by ads and tracked like an animal. They want that way and you’re helping them. Like an old school vampire, it can’t come in unless you let it.

Make friends at your local range. Maybe start a range night or a beer and pool night once a week with guys from your church. If you don’t go to church, maybe start going to one even if you’re not the praying type. Getting involved in a strong community will fill those voids in your life that you’re seeking now through social media. Get your validation through real people, not the number of likes on a post.

If you are on social media, walk away. Uninstall the apps. Delete them. Don’t give them the tech oligarchs the satisfaction of removing you for wrongthink. While you’re at it, start shopping at local stores again. Help your community and make friendships.

The point is that you need not be afraid. If you rightfully think the news is lying to you, turn it off. Make your life simple again. Start raising chickens or plant a garden. Perhaps disconnect from your video streaming services and go take a look at what’s in your DVD library. I find myself watching Magnum, PI and Stargate SG1 all the time now just to escape the vomit of endless remakes.

You’ll be stunned — or maybe you won’t — by how degenerate modern media is and how good storytelling was without needing to force political messages into the content. If you think for a minute that it isn’t there to keep you complacent and worn down, again I remind you that this we’re living in clownworld and everything is calculated to shape your opinions, votes, and morals.

There is no honor in this battle. You are not fighting. You’re being walked into a trap. The gun community needs to voluntarily remove itself and come up with a plan to maintain a strong front and media presence. We need our own hosting, our own communities, and to be forthright in protecting our culture and heritage.

My challenge to you is to stop tilling poisonous soil and find new and fertile land. It may come to a point when the only America left is the America that lives in our hearts and minds and in spaces we share privately together. America only dies if we let it, and I will make the wild guess that it is still very much alive in many of your hearts even now. Do not be sad, you’re not alone.

And remember, if they were winning, all of their propaganda wouldn’t be necessary.

67 COMMENTS

  1. Well kids I have 3 fakebook pages. 2 are active and 1 can easily be turned on. After I “lost” a page for a year(never figured out why) I busily prepared…I have folks telling me go GAB. Go Parler(whoops!) If TTAG goes whatever.

    • Gab is the way to go. They had some growing pains when a big bunch of people came in after the Parler shutdown, but server space and speed have probably caught up by now. (I pop in every now and again, but don’t do any kind of social very much.) Almost everybody there is 1A (both free speech and religion) and 2A friendly, and the whole platform is as resistant to mass deplatforming as it’s possible to get.

      • I run a pro-2A group and a preparedness group focused on the probability of civil war on Gab. I have been completely deplatformed from all other big-name social media, including MeWe. I can vouch for everything Ing said.

        Yeah, there are some unsavory types (real racists and real jew-haters) on Gab, but that is the price of free speech. There are also Christians, patriots, conservatives and even some old-school liberals. Lots and LOTS of libertarians.

        Here’s the thing; free speech requires a thick skin. Gab is not for snowflakes. If someone offends you, just block them, don’t go running to Big Brother …because he aint there. If you go deleting posts and banning people just because they’re offensive, pretty soon everyone’s getting banned and this is what’s happening at Fascistbook and Twitler. It’s a slippery slope that has no end.

        The other problem is, we have sat back and allowed a communist coup d’etat to overthrow our Republic. The Left is fully in control now, not just on the big-name tech companies, but all throughout corporate America (just look for ‘woke’ virtue signaling from the major brands); they have their people in government and are even now weaponizing government so anyone who’s not a good little woke commie will be targeted for removal from this society.

        This is why civil war is inevitable. We have two nations living within one country. They have absolutely NOTHING in common and their values are diametrically opposed. People have been sounding the alarm about how the Left keeps moving further to the left and conservatives refuse to move to the Left to accommodate the neo-marxists. Sometime soon, the cork is gonna pop; the issue of 1A violations is just the next-to-last warning sign. When they come to take your guns because you’ve been designated a domestic terrorist (by virtue of being a Trump voter, patriot, Christian, libertarian, gun owner, pro-life, etc.) that will be the breaking point. Now is the time to prepare. https://gab.com/groups/4393

        • “allowed a communist coup d’etat to overthrow our Republic”.

          Another delusional Trump supporter, the fact is, we prevented a coup d’état and preserved our government from Trump and his delusional followers.

          But go ahead, continue to provide aid and comfort to America’s enemies, the depth of your delusion is exceeded only by the depth of your ignorance.

        • What a sad, pathetic little flailer is Miner49er, spends her days coming to a gun site to troll people, waiting with bated breath for some sort of reply.

        • Ridge runner, all you have is an ad hominem attack?

          Could you contemplate the possibility that a commentor who uses the name of one of the 20th century’s worst right-wing military dictators might not have America’s best interests at heart?

          Would it trouble you too much or tax your cognitive abilities too greatly to actually respond to the content of the discussion?

        • That IS the content of the discussion, Miner.

          For one thing, you talk about “enemies of America” that Trump voters and various people on TTAG are giving aid and comfort to…but who are they?

          Maybe you can tell me…but I think I know. Everything I’ve seen from you and the “progressive” powers that be indicates that you all think that enemy is the rest of America.

          You’ve probably seen this – https://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-election-campaign/ – and you also probably think all the mass manipulation and coordinated deplatforming, and the decisions in so many states to just change the election rules and procedures midstream, were wonderful.

          But here’s the reality of it: powerful interests behind the scenes decided that America could not be allowed to elect Trump under any circumstances. They disenfranchised 75 million-plus voting citizens. THAT IS NOT DEMOCRACY. It’s the polar opposite. And you’re cheering for it.

          And now mainstream commentaries are calling for treating everyone in America who noticed the anti-democratic collusion and all the vote-counting shenanigans and is not okay with it as potential terrorists. Totalitarian communist buzzwords like “deprogramming” and “mass reeducation” are being thrown around by people with power and influence, and they’re all talking about pointing the government’s massive surveillance apparatus at “extremists,” who are pretty much half of the country…

          If you think all of that is a good thing, then YOU are the enemy within the gates. Don’t expect to have your opinions treated with any kind of respect, because you’ve got to give some to get some. You’ve given none, and you’ll get none. Enemies deserve none.

        • Inga, I never used the phrase “enemies of America” as you claim.
          The discussion would proceed much more smoothly if you didn’t make false statements.

          And regarding the article you link, you would have a problem with businesses and workers coming together to protect free and fair elections?

          From the article, here’s a description of the ‘conspiracy’ you fear:

          “The handshake between business and labor was just one component of a vast, cross-partisan campaign to protect the election–an extraordinary shadow effort dedicated not to winning the vote but to ensuring it would be free and fair, credible and uncorrupted.”

          I’m not surprised that conservative extremist would find a problem with a “cross partisan campaign to protect the election”.

          That might get in the way of illegal attempts to disenfranchise millions of Americans of their vote and install an authoritarian dictator by violent insurrection disrupting the constitutionally mandated elect Oriel ballot process.

          As to your claim of “vote counting shenanigans”, Trump and his allies had over 60 opportunities in court to present their case and failed miserably each time, unable to provide any credible evidence of their claims of mass fraud.

          In fact, Trump’s attorneys never claimed fraud because they knew if they did in open court, they would be sanctioned and/or disbarred or even found in contempt of court for perjury.

        • Here are your exact words, Miner: “…continue to provide aid and comfort to America’s enemies…”

          Enemies of America is a succinct and accurate paraphrase; the quotes were scare quotes, because those so-called enemies *don’t exist.*

          And here you are, calling me one of those enemies again, via mealy-mouthed insinuations of being some kind of “extremist.”

          I’ll say it again: there’s *nothing* democratic about a cabal of billionaires manipulating the public, suppressing conservative votes and voices, and forking up the entire vote-gathering and counting process. But whatever. If I’m “a conservative extremist” because of that, then so be it.

          I’m just a guy who made a a decision to vote for Trump based on evidence, my own values, and a desire to preserve the constitutional republic and complete civil liberties of the United States of America.

          I don’t want to be anyone’s enemy. All I want — the same as millions of other Americans — is to be left alone to live by my own conscience in peace and be given a fair shake in the marketplace.

          But here you go, you and that cabal of billionaires that “fortified” the election against those of us with the wrong opinions, nominating me as the enemy. I’m no extremist, but I bet I could do a damn good imitation of one if I had to.

    • “Twithead and Faceshit need to be shut down…”

      No, what needs to happen is for us to sit at the front of the bus like any other person.

      A “Separate but equal” policy just encourages more of their bigotry.

      I refuse to be satisfied with sitting at the back of the bus, so to speak…

      • Shutting down the servers and putting the execs in prison would be a GREAT start towards getting us back to the front of the bus. Would probably be the best thing to happen to America in the last 20 years.

      • Geoff, what needs to happen is for these companies to be seized under RICO. And while we’re at it, give these commies helicopter rides because Hoppe is right: There can be no tolerance towards leftists in a libertarian social order.

        If you want to be free, you need a nation that outlaws leftists. They can go live in the socialist/communist/marxist/maoist country of their choice. Just not here.

        • Your moniker says it all, you hate American democracy and wish to establish a military dictatorship. Tyrants like you are exactly why patriots in America have rejected Donald Trump and his delusional followers.

          “August Pinochet was a Chilean Army General, politician and military dictator who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being self-declared President of the Republic by the junta in 1974 and becoming the de facto dictator of Chile,[5][6][7][8][9][10] and after from 1981 to 1990 as de jure President after a new Constitution, which confirmed him in the office, was approved by a referendum in 1980.“

        • Would you be quoting Wikipedia at us if Lenin, Gramsci, Bell Hooks, Iosep Dzugashvili, or some other Marxist were his moniker?

          He’s invoking Pinochet because the man removed Leftists from Chile’s government by any means necessary — including some really spectacular ones — which was necessary and laudable. And that’s what makes you nervous, isn’t it.

        • And there it is, the naked, unvarnished bloodlust of the right wing extremist authoritarians:

          “He’s invoking Pinochet because the man removed Leftists from Chile’s government by any means necessary — including some really spectacular ones — which was necessary and laudable.“

          You characterize a terrible military dictator’s illegal and reprehensible oppression of dissent as “necessary and laudable”.

          I’m sorry to inform you, but America is, and shall always be, a representative democracy, a free republic governed by the People’s vote and not by military dictators.

      • Ha! The thousands of National Guard troops that are still stationed at the capitol at the behest of a “moderate” leftist belie your claim. And which of the billionaires and political brokers who “fortified” the election against my bad/wrong votes and opinions represents me in this “free republic” of yours?

        “Naked, unvarnished bloodlust” isn’t such a bad thing. I much prefer it to the candied poison that’s currently going around under euphemistic terms like “reeducation” and “deprogramming” and “anti-extremism.”

        Totalitarian leftists reeducated and deprogrammed about 100 million of their own citizensextremists to death in the 20th century (and that doesn’t count 100 million more they starved to death). Nothing ominous about that at all, no, sir. Properly varnished, it almost looks like a good thing. Pinochet giving free helicopter rides to the scions of those leftists was SO much worse. So…unvarnished.

        • My comment was to Augusto Pinochet, not to you.

          Anyone who adopts the moniker of one of the 20th century‘s worst military dictators is no American.

          Our pal Augusto is flying his flag and it’s the flag of authoritarian oppression.

          In my book, anyone who advocates for the repression and illegal extermination of their political opponents and the press in order to perpetuate their military dictatorship, is an enemy of America.

          And you think Augusto Pinochet‘s political assassinations and death squads were “laudable”?

          “a cabal of billionaires manipulating the public“

          So you are opposed to billionaires like Rupert Murdoch (Fox) and Rebecca Mercer (Parler) using their media empires to manipulate the public?

          And I don’t think I noticed your opposition to Citizens United, the conservative lawsuit that opened up our political system to unlimited contributions by big business, but I’m glad you’re on board now with the resistance.

        • Chalk that one up to the limitations of WordPress, I guess. I’m not 100% on board with our pseudonymous Pinochet here, but I do understand where he’s coming from with that reference, and it’s not a desire for a military dictatorship.

          “So you are opposed to billionaires like Rupert Murdoch (Fox) and Rebecca Mercer (Parler) using their media empires to manipulate the public?”

          Yes, I am. You’d have done better to use Alphabet, Facebook, Twitter, and the establishment/left media as examples (Parler is small potatoes, not an empire), but yes.

          As for Citizens United, I don’t have a strong opinion about that one. Haven’t actually studied the grounds it was decided on, just observed the aftereffects. To the extent that it protected the ability of everyone to make financial contributions as they’d like, I’m not complaining. But it seems to have done a terrible job of that in practice, so…

          Unlimited contributions are okay with me, as long as they come solely from individual American citizens — REAL ones, not corporate “persons” — and with names attached. That’s the only reasonable and fair way to do it.

  2. I quit Facebook a month ago. It was hard. Old high school friends. Past co-workers etc. But I did it and you know, all in all I really don’t miss all the back and forth bullshit.

    • I walked away about a month ago as well. It became too toxic. All I miss are the dad joke memes, and I can find those in my non google search engine….

      I tend to agree with Geoff about sitting in front of the bus, except for the fact that I don’t want to be on the FB bus. I certainly don’t need it.

      • If you want the memes visit sites like TheChive or EbaumsWorld. I highly recommend TheChive as a friendly and open community (it’s not social media, just groupings of fun images with no account required).

  3. Gab if you want social media or disparate sites like forums and blogs like ttag.

    Other alternatives are Spend time with the family, go outside, hit the gym, shoot a few rounds from stash if you have them, dry fire practice if you don’t, get a 3D printer and some CAD software and start making some guns. Heck even get some work work done you’ve been putting off.

    There’s a lot of alternatives. Facebook is run by people with the ethics of a coke dealer. Think about it.

    • Correct, Zuckerberg’s a coke dealer, FB is engineered to be addictive, and so many insecure, unhappy people out there need that constant affirmation, so they overstate their happiness and endlessly try to solicit “likes” to bring meaning to their meaningless lives. I joined for a high school reunion over 10 years ago, saw it for what it was, and deleted my account. Never go back, never missed it, glad I don’t have that trail.
      The “trail” aspect is even more true with Twitter, and Instagram, because there’s a million little hall monitors scouring socials for any minor misstep whenever somebody pops their head up so they can scream “racist!” or “white supremacist” or “fascist!” or “nazi” at people who are usually none of these things.
      Now is the time to lay low, let it ride, disengage, work hard, keep your close ones close, watch quietly, stay above the fray, and prepare.

  4. The bottom line is – The internet is the new public square. The current make-up of the SCOTUS should be sympathetic to that argument.

    The only way this is going to stop is for the ones pulling those strings is for them to be strongly incentivized not to do it in the first place.

    Study the Leftist scum’s tactics, and use it against them. Get creative. ‘Struggle Sessions’, etc. Whatever it takes, they are the ones who have declared war on us. When they finally recognize that doing what they are doing will have personal negative consequences in their lives, the crap will stop.

    Hold them personally accountable for their fascist illiberal behaviors…

      • Unlike a fvckwit like you, I have something that actually fills those pants.

        Maybe one day your nads drop, but I seriously doubt it… 😉

        • “I have something that actually fills those pants.“

          Are you trying to avoid the draft using Ted Nugent’s tactic? It worked for him to stay out of Vietnam but it sure was a smelly tactic.

          Boy, there ain’t no draft no more.

      • Wow. Geoff has earned “paid troll” status. Must be hitting close to the mark….

        Congratulations Geoff! 👊

    • You’ll be disappointed if you put your faith in SCOTUS. The deep state either blackmails them, or assassinates the Justices that can’t be suborned (like Scalia).

      If you don’t believe me, watch what happens in the coming months at SCOTUS. IF they hear a gun case, they will rule in a way that guts the 2A on paper.

      Instead of relying on people who are corruptible, we need to rely on God and the accuracy of our arms to stay free.

      Live Free or Die. It’s not just a catchy phrase. It’s the credo of patriots, a PERSPECTIVE and a WAY OF LIFE.

      • August Pinochet, one of the most detested and evil military dictators in the history of mankind.

        In America, we do not rely on God or the accuracy of our arms, we rely on the principles of democracy and liberty enshrined in the United States Constitution, which does not mention God or condone armed insurrection against the government.

        You’re nothing but a tin pot wannabe dictator, hiding in your mothers basement tapping on your keyboard as if you had the courage to carry out the evil deeds you speak of.

        • “We” do rely on God and so did most of the men who wrote the Constitution. The men who wrote the Constitution did indeed condone armed insurrection, if they didn’t they would not have had a new country to draft a constitution for. Save your history revisionism and bureaucratic tyranny for somewhere else.

        • “…we rely on the principles of democracy and liberty enshrined in the United States Constitution…”

          Remember, one of the principles of liberty enshrined in the Constitution is the part where we can indeed rely on the accuracy of our arms. The people you voted for are doing their best to erase that particular principle — and if they’ll openly go after that part of the Bill of Rights, what other rights do they think the rest of us don’t deserve to exercise?

    • Nobody likes change. That’s one of the main keys to apples success. They just make minor incremental changes every 6 months. They’ve probably run algorithms on how much change the average user can take and target just below that mark.

      There are things I don’t love about the new format, but I actually like the way articles are grouped by category.

    • I was deplatformed over at Ammoland already so if I get zucced here – oh well. Ammoland is full of RINOs, cuckservatives, and commies. I don’t miss it, because for one thing I dont have to watch articles from that shill of a fudd, Harold Hutchinson, drop on a regular basis. I detest watching that little ahole publicly suck off Wayne LaPierre in prose.

  5. Amen.

    I have a life. Therefore, I’ve never had a Fece-book account, or any of the other social media garbage.
    Many people probably see that cell phones were a huge advancement. Personally, I see them as one of the most negative things to happen to society. They’ve created a whole generation of mindless zombies that have nothing better to do than stare at a tiny screen. What’s even sadder is when you see many in the elder generation doing the same thing.

  6. I like playing records. It’s low tech and I have hundreds to choose from. My job forces me to look at a screen all day but afterwards it gets turned off. I just built a greenhouse for the garden, low tech again for sure.

    Now that TTAG has jumped the shark with the new format my final on line hobby will probably fade away soon.

      • It’s going to make me jacking it to MORE gay porn, because I’m gay and this layout sucks.

        Also, who are you trying to win here? You’re clearly anti-gun, so it’s not the right. You’re a screaming homophobe, so it’s not the left. Centrists generally don’t want to piss off either the right or the left, and libertarians like myself are too busy having gay weed sex at the gun range after church to deal with you.

        No wonder you’re lonely.

  7. gnisU soul shull me dia two discus fire stiks and fire stik related eye tums .
    ✅ the transmission fluid, “they” are.

  8. And while you are at it, quit Cable TV and go high speed internet access ONLY. Use a Roku box or similar to get more news and entertainment content than you and your entire family could possibly have time to watch, even with all the extra time spent sitting home because of Covid-19. You may be amazed at all of the movie and TV content you can stream for FREE. And most importantly, carefully select all of your free and paid streaming media services in a way so as to ensure that not one single penny ever goes to fake news media ever again.

    If you are paying for cable TV, you are paying money to CNN and MSNBC and so forth even if you never even watch them. They are part of every “channel package” offered and sold by every cable company in existence. STOP ENABLING YOUR IDELOGICAL ENEMIES. Refuse to purchase any cable tv “channel packages” that include them, and you’ll soon be “cutting the cord” and going high speed internet access only as that is the only way. Maybe some day the cable TV companies will wise up and offer better channel package selections, but until then you can get more media content than you could ever need and even save money while you are at it. So it pays to win.

    • Although owned by Google, YouTube is the majority of my viewing. In particular Forgotten Weapons, C&Rsenal, The Cheiftain, and other channels about SciFi, History, and tech.

    • I have antenna. I use cash.
      Hard to know what I watch or what I bought.
      No car, no transmission.

  9. THERE IS AN ANSWER TO THIS DILEMMA, IN THE SHORT TERM!
    Get GAB. It is the ONE free speech social media left. It has been hardened against ‘cancellation’ by the Left. If you are a conservative, libertarian, Christian, Jew, pro-life, anti-communist, gun owner, small business owner, or homeschooling parent then this is the option for you until THEY make it impossible to do anything but gor to WAR against THEM for the preservation of our very lives and liberties! Gab.com – till the revolution.

  10. What has changed in the past 40 years that could cause such disturbed commie garbage to take over??
    It’s pretty simple to see why…. there’s a subset of people in this country that HATE the other subset….. you know, the ones who have been given positions of authority but have NO BUSINESS in positions of authority…
    This is the chickens coming home to roost and I think it’s funny to watch people who allowed the criminal into their house wonder why the criminal is being mean to them….

  11. Sarah Connor had the right idea. Rise up against the machines and the oligarchs that control the machines. Seriously contemplate the moral response to a regime that believes in Anthropogenic Global Warming Theology. Of you actually pay attention to their apocalyptical propaganda, the only solution to save the planet is the final solution.

  12. TTAG posts this article and does the same thing…. Let’s see if Dan deletes this comment. Free speech is scary.

  13. Like an abusive relationship, you may feel a pang or two for a few weeks but then you realize how much happier you are without them.

  14. Yea, you can leave.

    But here is my take.

    Think of it as a country, lets call it Jermany. And they don’t play nice with others and you decide that instead of having to deal with them you’re just going to not participate.
    Meanwhile Jermany is stockpiling arms and recruiting other like minded countries and it’s easier for them now because you stopped watching the rail ways and trade routes because as a good conservative you’re abstaining from being part of whatever they do.

    All of a sudden Jermany gets frisky with your girlfriend Loland and crap hits the fan and you get caught with your pants down because you’ve been playing old school with single shot trap doors….

    Keep your enemies close, and when they do things that done jive, shut that sh!t down!

  15. “We need our own hosting, our own communities, and to be forthright in protecting our culture and heritage.” But MOSTLY, we just need our own hosting. So-called “dominant/mainstream” social media platforms and the concomitant juvenile, capricious, intolerant, sanctimonious “cancel culture” can go straight to hell.

  16. Imagined or not what, in Plain English, is the illustrated admonition saying. Also, I wonder as to why people would put up with such rubbish.

Comments are closed.