Freeper badasses

Among their many other traits, Freepers like to think they're a cut above the rest in ways beyond merely not being a loathsome liberal. Mostly they concentrate on their political knowledge or their steely, Bronson-like toughness.

The former is often ironic, but it is the latter that sets them up for some hilarious plans to kill everyone as they go to the store or whatever.

82nd Bragger loves this one badass move that lots of Freepers seem to do:

One good trick is, when you are in a restaurant or public place, is to try and get the "gunfighter's seat". Sit with your back to a corner, where you can see everyone who enters, and nobody can approach you from behind.

That’s not a trick....seasoned LEOs and soldiers are taught to do this. I remember walking into a restaurant and seeing a couple of local police sitting in the middle of the restaurant. When I told them I was surprised they weren’t seated in a corner, they said they had forgotten about that momentarily. Are you kidding me?

PAR35 has refined the technique:

One caveat to the Gunfighters seat. Make sure you have a clear path to an alternate exit. You don’t want to end up cornered. Always scope out two paths of retreat.

Oatka gets his badassitude from a totally badass shirt:

On the rare occasions I go anywhere, I figure everyone is a nutcase, and if they come at me, I will draw my firearm and plant them.

I was looking for the T-Shirt that said "I'm too young to die and too old to fight - I'll just kill you". Maybe it was pulled for legal reasons.

conservativeimage.com is here, posting about something other than pics of you with your guns!

Mind your hands. Use peripheral vision. Practice silence and stillness on your own. You will be amazed at how just 2 minutes of patient stillness in silence will change you. Your awareness will sharpen for the rest of the day and you will avoid accidents. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY IF YOU WANT TO SURVIVE WHAT IS COMING.

Objectivity, not oblivion. Living in the past is anger. Worrying about the future is fear. Now is safe. Look at that sky. Feel the wind. It's awesome, the world.

When you suggest to be patient or calm to someone who is having stress reactions it only makes them angrier because they have not been taught this skill. This is not taught in large, except maybe in some martial arts classes. Not in religion for sure. Awareness comes through suffering. You have to want to become better. You've got to become still. It will even translate to controlling your own thoughts and emotions. If I were the devil I would make sure everybody was always happy and comfortable so they would never feel the need to practice awareness or objectivity. I could get away with anything I wanted.

Tenacious 1 met someone, decided he was crazy, and totally remembered his car and eye color when he facebook stalked him later!

I recently had a VERY suspicious person approach me in front of my house. He stopped his car, in the rain, with the window down and wanted to talk to me about his cheating wife, their pending divorce and if I had any work done in my house recently. He looked like a body builder. I had no idea what he was talking about and, after about 5 minutes and several hints that it was time for him to go, the hair stood up on the back of my neck, adrenaline started to flow and I made a conscious decision to start memorizing details. When I finally told him I believed he was there to rob me or worse and that he REALLY needed to get back in his car and leave, he paused, noted my hand in my pocket and left. I went in the house and typed every detail. Then I called the police with everything from the make, model and plate number of his car to the color of his eyes and hair style. He told me his name and I found him on facebook. Even I was amazed at how accurate my recollection of him and his car were.

rlmorel gets savage badass awareness from pay phones:

I was one of the last people I knew to get a cell phone. I had to, for professional reasons, being on call all the time. On my ride home, and driving around in a 25 mile radius, I had a good understanding of where every single pay phone was. Not only that, I knew the kinds of places that *might* have a pay phone.

I used to joke that pay phones were, for me, like trees probably were to our ancestors who walked the earth with a lot of predators that like to make meals of them. As they walked in that primitive landscape, they probably knew, without even consciously thinking of it, where every single tree that could be climbed was within their field of view, and how fast they could get to it if they had to.

They had situational awareness.

And then rlmorel brings up the reductive animal metaphor Freepers have been on about for years now:

Chris Kyle’s father put it well: Are you a Sheepdog, a Sheep, or a Wolf?

Our culture has tried as hard as it can to destroy the masculine virtues of being a sheepdog (because at its core, it IS a masculine virtue).

I presume it is because the people eroding those values want everyone to be sheep...

...so they can be the wolves.

Riley tells a story about how his awareness helped him save his ex-wife from a caber that woulda missed her anyhow.

It is sometimes frustrating when my companions aren’t, or take ages (really probably seconds) to respond when I’m trying to wake them up to something that’s happening around us.

One that is safe to relate: Took my ex to the Highland Games one year. She’s recovering from some really awful physical trauma, so I’m in bodyguard-mode.

We’re watching the caber-toss. One of the ‘tossers’ had his caber getting away from him, and coming right for her. I’m telling her ‘up-up-up-move-move-move’ and tugging at her arm. She can’t see it coming. How can she not see this happening? She didn’t budge and slowly looked at me with puzzlement. I gave up, stood, turned and arched my body over hers with my hands clasped behind my skull to protect it from the impact.

It missed us thankfully, but not by much. The tosser saw it happening too, and worked to deflect it from us I think.

LongWayHome has almost ESP, because he grew up in a badass neighborhood:

The level of awareness this author is talking about borders on ESP, and that’s what I’m talking about. I was out eating at an establishment on evening & I was the only person out of 70 or 80 folks who seen 2 guys case the place for several minutes before they robbed it. I was not carrying at the time, but I got my friends out the door before the trouble went down.

I grew up in a dangerous, low middle class/poor neighborhood where everyday that you went out the door you were likely to catch a beating, or worse. You learn to read body language real fast in that kind of environment.

AlaskaErik is a natural, and often sees people he thinks are criminals:

After a lifetime of military and LE service and experience, this stuff just comes naturally to me. In fact, my wife knows exactly where to sit when we go out to eat. I’m always scanning my surroundings. A few times I’ve seen individuals who seemed to looking for a victim. But once they know I see them, they lose interest in me. It also helps that I’m tall and broad shouldered and I have “that look”. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been traveling and I’m walking down the street and a hooker asks me if I’m a cop.

Riley also boasts that people think he's a cop:

I can't count the number of times I've been traveling and I'm walking down the street and a hooker asks me if I'm a cop.

I'm not a cop, but I used to get asked that all the time. I got that when I was a 19 year old kid before I went to MCRD even. I still get it every once in a while.

Covenantor is always ready whenever he sees two or more guys split up:

One person turning his attention, may be nothing, two or more, especially not moving together, might be something. They start moving a bit more quickly you might want get some distance before moving into that zone. Watching two or more guys approaching begin to split, left and right, maybe center guy slows up, you’re watching a box open up, guess who’s the present.

Alberta's Child proudly boasts of when police were looking for a criminal, and she had loads of details about the last black person she'd seen:

Years ago I was questioned by the police about a burglary that took place in the town where I lived. I wasn't a suspect. I just happened to be working outside in the general vicinity of the place when the crime was reported.

I gave the police an description of the person they were looking for -- a middle-aged black female. My description included her approximate height and age, the location and direction she was walking when I saw her, and an exact description of everything she was wearing.

The cop didn't seem to believe me. He asked: "How do you remember all that?"

My response: "Something didn't look right about her, and I figured she didn't live around here. I guess I just made a mental note of it when she walked past."

Speaking of black people, ProtectOurFreedom recalls each the times he met a negro as if he narrowly avoided getting murdered:

even in my humdrum life, there have been multiple events where I’ve been surprised by threatening events that I should have been aware of as they were unfolding. My wife and I accosted by some “brothers” in a parking lot in Palo Alto at night; another “brother” shaking us down for money in Palo Alto; two “brothers” walking the opposite direction on a downtown Columbus, OH sidewalk intentionally shouldering my friend and I hard as we passed; getting “knock-out game” slugged by a “brother” in Ithaca, NY when I was 13. Luckily none of these turned real violent or life-threatening, but there were serious enough to make me a LOT more aware of my situation and surroundings, especially when near urban “bruthas.”