Normalcy Bias

[JohnyMac]

We have talked about Normalcy Bias in the past. This is a new article by John Mosby (Mountain Guerrilla) that talks to Normalcy Bias as only he can.

This is the start of the article. To read the whole thing go here[/url.

One of the most important skills for survival that must be mastered, or at least practiced at a journeyman level, by the prepared individual, family, and tribe, is critical thinking. Of all the practical, tactical training and preparedness you can can do, the single most important, most often overlooked, is basic critical thinking skills. As I write, travel and teach, and interact with contemporary people, I regularly witness the lack of this in the broad majority of people. I've even been known to suffer from it myself.

People, even in the “firearms,” “tactical training,” “preparedness,” and “militia” communities, suffer from a pronounced lack of critical thinking skills, all too often.

An example of this can be seen in the recent frenzy within the preparedness and liberty-minded communities, over the Jade Helm 2015 UW exercise. For months prior to the beginning of the exercise, we saw unfounded, unsourced reports by sensationalist outlets in the preparedness and militia communities repeated across the preparedness “media” and social media as “fact.” Here we are, a full month into the exercise, nearing the stated end of the exercise, and most of the original source reporters have either stopped talking about it completely, or have taken a 180 degree course shift from their original stance, of “it's an imposition of martial law,” to “well, it's still an attempt to normalize seeing military personnel operating on US soil!”

This is despite the fact that COUNTLESS recent Special Forces veterans within our own virtual communities (yes, myself included), have spent an inordinate amount of bandwidth trying to explain to people the concept of a “theater-level” exercise, and pointing out the recent historical precedents for this exact type of exercise.

It's funner, and far more entertaining however, to imagine resisting against martial law, in some form of masturbatory Red Dawn scenario, than to use critical thinking to recognize, “Hey, maybe we SHOULD at least listen to what the guys with actual experience in THIS EXACT TYPE OF TRAINING EXERCISE have to say, before we jump to conclusions. You know what happened as a result of the hyper-paranoia induced within the preparedness and militia communities by these Harbingers of Doom? The virtual community lost even more credence with the average Joe and Jane Citizen, who saw the community represented as a bunch of farcical, paranoid lunatics. Seriously...

We all know of people who talk the talk but do not walk the walk and will perish either emotionally or physically.

Take honest inventory of the folks in your tribe.

[special-k]

Don't just scroll past this topic.  Go back, click on the link in the original post, read the article,  and take it to heart.

One particular paragraph stuck out to me:

Recognize that, as the elevation of “special groups” of people, of whom you are not a member, for whatever reason, continues, if you find yourself engaged in a legal or political struggle with them, you will lose, because they are “special,” and you are not. You don’t have to like it. You don’t have to approve of it, but if you deny it, you’ll find yourself “married” to a cellmate, and the relationship WILL be consummated.

Nowadays, walking on politically correct egg shells (when it comes to "special groups") should be just as much a part of your self-preservation regimen as is all of the firearms related stuff.  It has been said that you should never write anything on the internet that you would not want read back to you in a courtroom.

[JohnyMac]

Great copy & paste SK from Mosby's article. There are several more that got my attention too.

Thanks 

[Kbop]

it's the normalcy bias that represents a psychic blind spot we all have.

Hey guys - perhaps my opinion is in the minority but SOCOM are the least likely soldiers to come and take your guns in the night.  these types of exercises aren't all that uncommon and used to train the SFG(A)/ODA guys.  It's one of their primary missions- or was before Afghanistan.
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if you're interested, look up one of the Q course training missions involving the Peoples Republic of Pineland.
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I would guess a lot of snake eaters would be sympathetic to the idea of being a prepared and self sufficient citizen.

My 2¢ worth