REDACTED Culture Cast

Talk Back to Me Motivation, Meaning, and Purpose stand out in the 21st Century as missing from society. On the one hand, this may be the problem our era faces, and on the other, it appears to be timeless. As subjects that draw charlatans like flies, we try to navigate the difficulties of the subject with some delicacy, recognizing pitfalls along the way. If it were only so easy to come to a conclu...

Talk Back to Me One of the pleasures of engaging with Philosophy, is that it nearly requires one to read the old texts. There's a reason we so often go back to the Greeks, and it's not always that we understand them to be correct. Whether it's the good works that survive history because they are so good, or that the Iliad and the Odyssey provide such an excellent landscape to explor...

Talk Back to Me The idea that there is no such thing as evil has historically remained an uncommon belief. Call it a privileged one if you will, but that alone is not sufficient in making an argument one way or another. The existence of evil perplexes in ways beyond the intellect.  How we think about evil will determine how we approach it, and our conclusions will make demands of us, so tread ligh...

Talk Back to Me Picking up where we left off, we start again with a conversation on Multiculturalism, from our differing and aligning perspectives. The Gun Industry has changed what it means to be a typical Gun Owner. Multiculturalism remains a sensitive touchpoint in a world that is getting smaller through technology, and as a result, the stakes are high and will no go away. We are regularly bein...

Talk Back to Me Much has changed since 2013. In the world of Red Dots, we are no longer forced to choose between a T1 or EOTech. Lead & Steel, the company that brought the LP-1 Promethean brings forward some of their optic design in this conversation, and in our fashion, quickly turns to what drives us in Gun Culture. Ahmad's perspective on the shift in our community started over a decade...

Talk Back to Me "I'm not a Pessimist, I'm just being Realistic" This phrase has become familiar to many, by becoming a calling card of the cynic. But what does it mean to be a cynic, or a skeptic, or a nihilist?  Cynicism flows through so much of our contemporary culture, whether within the microcosm of Gun Culture or macrocosm of the Post-Modern West. We imagine that the absen...

Talk Back to Me The Common Criteria that Gun Culture has given for bearing arms has come up short when it comes under scrutiny. For the past decades we have based our moral 'ought' when it comes to carrying a firearm on the potentiality of being attacked or infringed upon, as well as the deterrence it might bring. But under closer consideration, this leaves a massive gap in our reasoning...

Talk Back to Me Rhetoric holds a position in both rigorous philosophy and colloquial conversation that carries a connotation of the mystic. Aristotle's work on Philosophy by the English title Rhetoric begins with identifying the difference between effective public speaking, and logical discussion. Things go awry when one presents Dialectic, while performing Rhetoric.  In order to understand a...

Talk Back to Me It may be a brutal reality, but the moment you step out, sit down, or take a break, you'll start falling behind. This has been the state that individuals live by in Special Operations, cutting edge Industry, and those kinds of pursuits that require aspiration. Never being allowed to rest on your achievements may sound like a truly frustrating way to live, but when it comes to...

Talk Back to Me In the Army, there is a saying that Military Intelligence is an Oxymoron. And that could hold if we were to be satisfied with cynicism having the final say in how we move forward as a culture. If the intel world is messed up, than rightly it need to be fixed. But if that is not the case, were do we start looking to remedy this issue?  Andrew's history in Military Intelligence...

Talk Back to Me The Military Industrial Complex: the ire and foil of politicians, pundits, and economists galore. But what is the proper response from a Free Peoples? Sometime you vote at the ballot box, and sometimes you vote with your dollar. But it doesn't stop there for all people. Instead, when people hear the word Militia, we would like them to think of a volunteer group of people takin...

Talk Back to Me In order to complete a purchase from Fenix Ammunition, customers are required to check a box. For Justin Nazaroff, the way one votes should be consistent with how they act, and how they spend their money. Instead of blind support, Fenix Ammunition works with only those who remain consistent to their values. Whether individual customers or larger endeavors, integrity is a part of do...

Talk Back to Me With the Boy Scouts' fall from grace before us, as well as the decentralization of American culture, organizations like the Appalachian Rangers Association are forming, in some cases to support their local community, as well as to create a fire to circle around. Mark from the ARA continues on the REDACTED Culture Cast, to discuss more of the how, who, and why behind what they...

Talk Back to Me It's fair to say that the Boy Scouts of America is a past-tense organization. It's even in the name change for that matter. With its decent into madness, a void is created. It may not be the intention of the Appalachian Rangers Association to replace them as a whole. But for a regionally focused volunteer organization and for Mark, it functions as something men are lookin...

Talk Back to Me Part 2 of the conversation with Chuck of All Skill No Luck and Raid Skateboards gets deeper into the topic of culture, particularly on subject of the cost of entry and the concentric rings of the community. We trace briefly to a time before social media, and attempting to better understand the impact that it has made on both Gun Culture and beyond. Follow Chuck Robeson on Social Me...

Talk Back to Me Is Gun Culture jealous of the skateboarding community? The tactical and competition sub-genres regularly exchange both ideas and gear that find their way across the spectrum. In the same way, we see how the fashion and function of clothing flows in and out of Gun Culture as we ride the wave of time. Does Chuck Robeson brings that military-inspired-flare to civilian attire through A...

Talk Back to Me On the one hand, The Right to Self Defense could not be clearer. And on the other hand, further consideration both clarifies and complicates the matter. We engage with a valuable resource: The Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, on how we think about self defense in terms of rights, culpabilities, causation, and responsibility.  In this we are reminded, that just because someone...

Talk Back to Me We have heard that the Bible teaches to love our enemies and turn the other cheek. If that were the whole story, then we would rightly conclude that so much of history, even Biblical history, is in direct contradiction of these rules.  But what if those two phrases were spoken in a greater context? And what if that context was visible through Bible as a whole?  In this episode, we...

Talk Back to Me Part 2 with Chris Blau returns with a discussion on some of the advantages of shooting different disciplines: competition, long range, tactical, and so forth. But while some argue for one over the other, those with the long game in mind will typically cross over from one to another to gain maximum perspective. But that's not where the conversation ends. Follow Chris on Instagr...

Talk Back to Me While we were asleep as a society, the tensions between the ATF and the population only increased since the events of the last 30 years. Chris Blau, of 1911 Syndicate, returns to the show to discuss what a good response looks like when agents show up at your door.  A little close to home, two individuals in plate carriers approached to home of Moonlight Industries with an inquiry t...

Talk Back to Me Terms like the Dunning-Kruger Effect are often used to explain the phenomena presented when we observe people who's level of confidence does not appear to match their level of skill. While we may often use it to observe this demeanor in others, the real value comes from introspection.  So we take the Model often represented in an X-Y Graph, and apply it to the skillset of CQB...

Talk Back to Me Once again we are entering a week of Social and Political discourse, loaded with the events of the weekend. One part, a following up on the subject of gaslighting, another part deeper dive into why it's important to have a firm foundation for what we believe in, this episode of the REDACTED Culture Cast focuses on the proper response to the kinds of accusations that will be le...

Talk Back to Me It is not enough that we hold on to our liberty with fingers stressed tight through dedication, while doubt troubles our minds to the values and virtues of our cause. It is not enough that we merely hold onto the means of our liberty, while casting aspersions on the reasons why we hold these truths to be self evident. In is book " Brave New War," John Robb argues that, in...

Talk Back to Me Part 2 with Vlad Saye picks up where we left off on the topic of Software Defined Radio. This time we dive deeper into various pieces of equipment and their capabilities, as well as different use cases.  When it comes to decentralization, guns, and technology, we are beset with the question of not only what are the capabilities, but how they could be socially implemented, all built...

Talk Back to Me In Part 1 of our conversation with Vlad Saye of Terminal Armament, the converstation begins with how he entered into American Gun Culture with a desire to bring something valuable to the table.  A tone begins in this first part, about how the tech milieu may have one set of means to securing their privacy and freedom, but are otherwise incapable of defending it, with Gun Culture of...