502 - (FREE TO READ) Mailbox: Reader questions and shared videos
Passive bystanders with phones / Jordan Peterson / Vox Day / Hollywood industry abuse / Taekwondo / Use of force: male vs female / Is your family itself under attack?
Copyright © 2024 by Jeth Randolph
All Rights Reserved.
No part of this work may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the author.
Third-party information and viewpoints do not represent my personal views or work. This is not legal advice. This content is purely educational and does not advocate for breaking any laws. Do not break any laws or regulations. Consult with your solicitor.
Thanks to those of you that write in and send stuff, much appreciated.
I’m working my way through this stuff along with several articles and also content for the next book. So here are a selection of things that stirred a response from me.
If you’re not yet a paid subscriber, consider hitting the subscribe button and stop missing out on useful training tutorial content (fighting skills, conditioning methods and more) like these last two supporter posts:
How to feel involved
Out and about in town?
Feeling bored?
Want to be part of the urban action but can’t afford a VR headset? Here’s how!
Our regular reminder not to do this…
You’re not an unpaid CCTV camera operative - maybe some fantasise that they are? Aspirations are a subjective thing I suppose and it’s cheaper than the SIA course...
It’s a weird sort of docile mindset to just stand and record.
If you can’t stop events or disrupt them, then leave.
If it looks serious for the safety of others call the cops - while leaving.
These are actual actions rather than just standing and watching.
Without it though, I admit, lowly self defence writers would have little visual content, so your folly is much appreciated.
I remember a well known Ewetube expert stating that getting a cloud video recording app and filming if threatened was the FIRST thing students should set up for themselves to collect evidence against an attacker.
Helpful in court, let’s hope it isn’t a murder trial.
Watching this, do you think this is expert advice?
“When we moved out to Los Angeles she knew everything all the rumors about Hollywood, the casting couch. She put me in women's self-defense against sexual assault classes when I was 10…”
I have the good fortune to have absolutely no idea who most celebrities are when I see videos and so and am keen to keep it that way, so please forgive my reluctance to dig on who this lady is and wilfully stay in a state of ignorance - at my advanced age now I need to budget my mental faculties on family or work - though I must say that despite years of sparring and various knocks and dumps, my cognitive abilities haven’t yet declined to “Presidential” levels and I’m still cool with stairs etc - but I digress… Is that a symptom?
Several people have passed me Peterson videos and I usually take a pass on his stuff. He always seems to be someone that sections of the media appear to be pushing as someone we should be getting our views from and that’s always a red flag right there for me.
My first thought watching this (apart from WTLF is Peterson wearing - maybe his fashion IQ is just too high for me to appreciate? Yeah, that’s probably it) was why would you want to expose your child to this industry at the age of 10 if you KNOW that assault is a high percentage problem?
There doesn’t seem to be a day that goes by that doesn’t contain a revelation about another “Pizza-loving”/ abuser degenerate industry name or celebrity - at time of writing yet another BBC key personality is pleading guilty to crimes that should be associated with public hanging.
Sure it might have been this lady’s individual choice if she was older at the time, I guess but for the mother to be seeing this as a recognised risk of the casting landscape potentially at the age of 10…? And except that she would be possibly placed alone in that type environment and at risk? And that this was her solution rather than safeguarding and chaperoning her child?
I have to say that I obviously believe strongly in training young people to recognise and escape situations of personal risk that become life long skills for safety as that’s what I do for a living but it’s worth remembering as well that cockroaches like Harvey Weinstein would effectively use career threats against his rape victims not just as aggressive coercion to submit to him but also after the fact in order to silence them as well as utilise Israeli Mossad connected security firms to intelligence gather and gain leverage - it’s not always as clear cut as a simple physical response, an escape from a horrible experience and your problems are over.
The psychological pressure that an industry abuser could use on a 10 year old child must be unimaginably powerful.
This is a huge, dark subject about industries, individuals and organisations involving layers of literal evil.
Related:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/harvey-weinsteins-army-of-spies
https://qz.com/1540811/israeli-spy-firm-black-cubes-secret-pitch-to-clients
Read Vox Day’s interesting book on Peterson and his cult of personality:
Vox Day: Jordanetics: A Journey Into the Mind of Humanity's Greatest Thinker
https://voxday.net/2022/01/20/chris-langan-sees-through-jordan-peterson
Q - “Are most Taekwondo places not doing "proper" taekwondo or is it an inherently ineffective system in a self-defence/combat scenario? If so why do the armed forces of both respective Koreas use it?”
Systems get taught different ways for different purposes and this is a good thing to remember.
Is it a family martial arts centre that wants to stay in business? No one comes back next week if you smash them all up.
Is it a military unit (“Hollywood unit” ) that does propaganda displays for the world press? You need an indigenous style to show how all-powerful you nation is!
The actual combat training if it’s provided is unlikely to be technical and stylish but rather based (or at least should be) on aggression for killing an enemy. It also needs to be quick to deliver and cheap for a budget. A poor guy press-ganged off the streets in Kiev to form the next meat wave isn’t going to receive the benefit of years of thorough hand to hand training. Special units may be a different matter.
I’ve trained with several former TKD instructors over the years including one that competed successfully in the UFC and another that was at an international level as a combatives instructor while still teaching family TKD classes in his hometown and all of these men were formidable in their fighting abilities.
This has been my experience of other systems too that are routinely slagged off by internet tough guys as not street or hardcore or cage worthy. It really is the individual not the style that makes fighting efficacy a lot of the time. The same can be true of completely untrained people who are comfortable with fighting.
Q- “What can you do as a man if being attacked by a woman without looking, to the cops or a jury, like you just hate women but also without allowing her to glass you or anything?“
This is a common question from some men when they start training. This is why you learn a full range of force responses and approaches along with a full contextual understanding of applying force not just “Caveman Combatives”…
Regardless of gender, as a human being living under the law in the UK, to try and claim self defence, your actions must be perceived as :
Justified.
Proportionate.
This takes time along with serious study and consideration because at the end of the day it’s not just the fight for your physical well-being you are facing but the threat to your continued freedom from prosecution.
Are algorithms dividing your family?
Your family is the foundation of your life and the thing that you would defend more than anything else, with your life if needed.
What if the technology in your home was actively working to undermine that for profit?
This is an interesting take on this subject and something that many may not have considered.
From conversations with Lisa at Let the youth live, it’s clear to me that social media is a key driver behind youth violence and crime and that this is making a lot of income for the companies that use targeted algorithm content to kids. It’s another thing again to consider that this doesn’t just occur outside the home with the peer group but is attacking the communication and fabric of families themselves by dividing and polarising members against each other:
And finally!
Heavy bags are cheap on ebay, just sayin’