Matter of Facts: Gatekeeping

[00:00:03] Welcome back to the Matterfacts podcast on the Prepper Broadcasting Network. We talk prepping guns and politics every week on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify. Go check out our content at MWFpodcast.com on Facebook or Instagram. You can support us via Patreon or by checking out our affiliate partners.

[00:00:17] I'm your host Phil Rabbley and my co-host Andrew Bobo is on the other side of the mic and here's your show. Welcome back to Matterfacts Podcast.

[00:00:25] I have a couple of administrative chores to deal with and then we're going to get right to a topic which I am hoping resonates because Andrew and I have both complained about this in the past

[00:00:34] And I don't know anyone that counts himself a member of a community that hasn't dealt with gatekeeping If even if you haven't heard that that word used to describe it before

[00:00:45] But first and foremost, I've been delinquent in thanking the patrons. The patrons that contribute a dollar five dollars or ten dollars to us every month On uh, patreon keep the show afloat. The show doesn't have sponsors. We don't chill

[00:00:59] We don't have just get a couple new patrons too. Uh, we did just get a couple of new patrons. We got one from Wisconsin to join the other Wisconsin to contingent and I'm drawing a blank on the other one

[00:01:15] Thank you, Andrew. I was doing so good like I remember to thank the patrons for the first time in six months And then here's Andrew with who are they Phil? Darn it Is it uh another guy from michigan? Yes

[00:01:30] So we added it. We added two Yankees to our ranks. I am still the only louisianan um Leonard his name. Mm-hmm. Does that sound familiar? Yeah, Leonard's uh, yeah, Leonard's a friend of mine Um good dude solid dude. Uh, he actually He lives downstate And uh

[00:01:53] I met him through mbfi classes Uh solid dude really cool. I I he's awesome to talk to um, I love his camping setup I am really jealous of his camping setup actually

[00:02:04] But uh, it's yeah, so i'm he texted me and uh when I I think we when we put up the episode about The mof trip being in michigan. He uh, he texted me and he's like, okay, you got me to sign up

[00:02:16] And uh, so yeah, i'm really appreciative. I'm I mean i'm appreciative of all of our patreons, but uh Yeah, you know, it's it's it's awesome to hear Yeah, well, I mean and and i'm remiss and not mention them more often

[00:02:28] but I mean the truth matter is is that the patrons afford us a certain level of What's the word i'm looking for here they afford us the ability to focus on the show

[00:02:40] And focus on things we want to talk about and not have to either a chase advertisers every month, which I hate that Mm-hmm and even better is that

[00:02:51] We don't ever have to worry about upsetting a sponsor and then them threaten and pull their sponsorship out from underneath this Because as long as I keep that little group of patrons perfectly happy, I mean things are good and

[00:03:02] I think we've established by now that they're a little hard to offend For the most part, but I have to acknowledge them I have to get better about doing that the other thing I got reamed out By our merchandising partner

[00:03:19] Oh, yeah, I haven't checked that chat in a long time. Okay, not really terrible about it. It's not reamed out One of one of the two Who runs who runs our merchandise partner the southern gals?

[00:03:32] One of them reached out to me and said hey dude, you've been really really remiss about like Mentioning that we even have merch and I took that on the chin and

[00:03:42] I swore up and down. I would throw the shirt on I would mention we do have merchandise the Links are down in the show description Anywhere you're looking at this So if you're curious if you want to look and see what's out there

[00:03:57] Then I recommend you go down to the little link says merch and has a URL next to it Um, I browbeat my wife into working on some new merch for raising values Literally like 45 minutes ago

[00:04:12] And uh, that's on my radar because I've got some ideas. I just gotta I'm not a graphic design person I'm an artist. So I have to find somebody who can take my stupid ideas and then put them on the shirts

[00:04:25] But that also, um, I just want to throw it out there really quick I just pulled it up because I wanted to make sure that it was on the website So if you go to mofpodcast.com and if you go up to the top

[00:04:37] Depending on what your browser is and stuff like that you might see the little link It says more if you click on that or it says gear So click on gear and it actually will take you to southern gales merch store as well

[00:04:50] So a couple different ways you can get there Yeah, and the thing I'm the most happy about is is that you know People that have been listening to the show for a while will remember that we have We used to do merch through

[00:05:02] Teespring and then what happened was we had some friends of ours approach us and say hey, we do a small business We we run a small business and we could Do the merch for y'all and if I have to throw money into somebody's pocket

[00:05:15] quite frankly, I'd rather put it in a small business Than to you know give it to teespring Yeah, um, so I'm just gonna I'm gonna so I'm just gonna throw it out there right now And uh, I'm gonna throw her right under the whole school bus But uh

[00:05:33] somebody Another co-host of yours won't name names, but um She needs to contact a certain doctor that we met at prepper camp And she keeps putting it off

[00:05:47] I'm waiting for the nasty message in the in the facebook. You do know that she's like right on the other side of this wall I think I heard her scream

[00:06:01] Well the minute you say one of your other co-hosts there's only two but I didn't I didn't name names I didn't drop any names Uh, but no so I'm just gonna throw it out there. I mean I think I've hounded her a lot About getting this doctor on

[00:06:23] It's okay. Kyle. I uh I'll be asking for but feel feel hear it since Here's the card Did you just find it you just told us entire time that you didn't have it

[00:06:37] I never said I didn't have it. I said I kept forgetting. I'm a forgetful person, but I have the card I uh, I left it right on the nightstand where all the um

[00:06:48] Where all my man is training. Hey, okay, where I would you five? I'll give you five seconds Run around the corner and give it to her right now Okay entertaining the audience. I'll be back in one second do do do do um

[00:07:02] No, uh, so those of you guys who uh, don't know we're talking about um I'm not gonna throw them on here because it's a good show for raising values It's a doctor and his wife that approached uh, phil and I at prepper camp and

[00:07:19] Basically the doctor was very uh, he was very anti-covid. It was very uh against the shot And everything and he was very he's pushing back against it and he actually like lost a lot By by basically being one of the only doctors that I can think of

[00:07:38] That stood up against the government stood up against the mandate stood up against uh, Hit what the people like his higher ups were telling him to do and he's like no, I don't I refuse to I refuse to um push the shot

[00:07:50] Uh, and he he lost a lot And so that we talked about that and that was like I Phil and I both like basically after we got done talking to him

[00:07:59] We basically looked at each other was like raising values like that was that'd be a perfect episode for raising values. So so I've been hounding Your beautiful beautiful amazing better half

[00:08:16] But she's she's been busy taking care of you. So I'll let her slide the business card to the host of raising values directly Anyway, now that I got stop getting you into trouble and me into deep

[00:08:28] I'm gonna make dinner as soon as this is over. So I'll get right back out of trouble. I know the weight of my women's hearts But let's talk about gatekeeping. So gatekeeping for anybody not familiar with the term

[00:08:40] Is when you encounter a person who is trying to exclude you from like an From information from a community from a resource because of some reason usually it's like perceived

[00:08:56] A lot of times this like the best analogy I can make is andre like you and I've talked about like the gun community and how they love to eat their own over That guy has a palmetto state armory and I have Daniel defense and

[00:09:08] You know, what are you poor and why didn't you buy a better rifle? And it's not duty rated your optics are from china It's all this sound familiar

[00:09:16] That's all gatekeeping that is basically saying like you are not allowed into the community because you did not spend $4,000 on your rifle Oh, I just thought that was just someone being a dick

[00:09:28] Well, but there's a term for it because you know being a dick doesn't roll off the tongue as well as gatekeeping But I thought I'd bring it up because like

[00:09:37] One of the things I ran into recently because like I've been getting more and more into amateur radio and As part of that gmrs community I almost died. Jesus andrew You know what? But I've had a hard day You want me to come rub your head? No, okay

[00:09:56] That sounded that sounded wrong We're not that we're he's not that kind of host We don't have that kind of relationship But any hoosers One of the things that I notice a lot with

[00:10:10] The uh with the amateur radio community the more I get into it is that you know, there are those people within that community that are they're extremely judgemental of Like equipment based on cost like there are those guys out there that

[00:10:26] Listen ain't nobody paying for me to shake my money maker. Okay, nobody wants to finish your thought anyway But like if you come into that group and let's say you have a bail fang or even like the wookson that I've run

[00:10:37] Or any of these chinese radios, there's a group out there They get really bent at a shape because it's a chinese radio. It's crap. It's this and the other you'll hear things thrown around like spurious emissions and everything about your ability to join that community

[00:10:57] Or the validity that you were even part of that community is called in a question because you bought chinese radios instead of Yesu, Motorola, so on so forth

[00:11:08] And I this this came to my the forefront of my consciousness just the other day because I happened to be in one of the gmrs groups that i'm in And I saw a guy in one long five paragraph long rant He started off having a complete

[00:11:24] Meltdown over people using what's called like non type 95c approved equipment, which basically means You know when something is 95c approved the the fcc says this complies to the regulations it's supposed to so you can use it for gmrs

[00:11:40] And there is a debate within the gmrs community that if it's not 95c approved you are violating Fcc's regulations by using that equipment even if you're using it in compliance With the terms of 95c. So in other words, this would be like If you own a car

[00:11:59] And let's say the dot hasn't said that cars prove to drive on the roads But you follow all the laws then you're still breaking the law. That's the best analogy I can give you And that all was going on and then in the same

[00:12:13] In the same paragraph he got bent out of shape over people buying chinese radios and a few people rightfully so pointed out to him All of the 95c approved radios all come from china There are no us made or japanese made radios that are 95c

[00:12:32] Like even midland that are a lot of people consider to be like made in the usa they're not manufactured here So the point was if you want one of these radios that you're saying are the best radios out there motorolas

[00:12:44] Yesus and all those they don't make anything for gmrs They those are all ham radios now you can take a ham radio and you can program it so that it will Functionally work like a gmrs radio, but that wasn't his argument His argument was if you do this

[00:13:01] You're not you're not part of the community. You're not part of the community And then if you do the exact opposite you're also not part of the community So that's what got me all You know hot under the collar and fired up. Isy, huh? In a tizzy

[00:13:14] Well, it made me think about like all the other times where we've encountered gatekeeping and i'm sure other people have encountered it And the frustrating part for me specific to like the gmrs community because that's where this happened was Like i've talked to my dad who is

[00:13:32] My father is he's been a ham radio operator longer than i've been alive And he has done things on ham radio that like a very small group here in the us are licensed to do

[00:13:45] He knows a ton about it, but he and even though he has an active ham license He doesn't all of his equipment still unboxes He doesn't want to rejoin the ham radio community because of gatekeeping because

[00:13:59] There were people who wanted to like pick and choose and exclude who was allowed to be in the club For stupid reasons and he he didn't want to associate with those people

[00:14:08] And i'm seeing some of those same people dip their toe in a gmrs because it's getting more and more popular And then the same reason why they chased a lot of people out of ham and they

[00:14:18] They part of the reason why i didn't join the ham radio community Is because of these people who were gatekeeping Because i don't want to be told that my sack of 25 dollar chinese radios

[00:14:29] You know isn't good enough to talk on a repeater with somebody with a 400 r radio If i'm if i'm if i'm enjoying the hobby and if i'm using if you know within the bounds and i'm doing what i'm supposed to be doing

[00:14:43] Then your opinion of my equipment or my whatever shouldn't be relevant, but that's that's gatekeeping That's when i'm seeing more and more not just cross the amateur radio community But we see it in the firearms community. We see it really really seriously in the night vision community

[00:15:00] And we see into the preparedness community I mean andrew if you've ever had anybody in the preparedness community tell you that if you don't have 20 acres and homestead You're not a prepper because i've heard that

[00:15:10] Oh, i haven't no my my big thing was with firearms. Um, that's i that's one reason why i uh, just that's why i got off of uh facebook among other reasons, um

[00:15:23] I i remember when i i remembered when i got into building ars and stuff and i think i got it was like ar 15 builders something or whatever i don't remember and I mean it was fun. I was always just you know

[00:15:37] Seeing whatever the people were doing and getting ideas and stuff. I never really Posted i think i think i posted one time and uh, it was basically actually no i replied that's that's the thing

[00:15:47] Is i don't remember i don't i've never posted anything but this one guy posted a uh ar that was An anderson manufacturing lower that he got for like 25 bucks or something like that I know i because i have i have a couple of those

[00:16:02] Um, and he built it. He was on a budget the dude the dude built it built it himself Well, you know assembled it. Uh kind of thing, but he basically put it together Was on a budget was super proud of it researched his butt off

[00:16:16] Go went through and was like this is what i did these are the specs and all that and The fricking community tore him apart because he had an anderson manufacturing lower and The and it was it was constantly all that I kept reading was

[00:16:33] Uh, why didn't you get bcm? Why didn't you get no besky? Why didn't you get daniel defense? Why didn't you get this and he was like and I mean honestly it was well? Yeah, because the bcm all these lowers were You know three four five hundred dollars

[00:16:50] assembled lower with a with a stock and stuff like that I mean you're looking at a daniel defense and stuff like that. I mean they're not cheap Especially no besky and uh if you look into it and look at where like these parts actually come from

[00:17:03] They don't they all come from pretty much the exact same suppliers as far as like the lowers and stuff It's just these manufacturers. They they're the ones that you know, they might finish them and stuff like that

[00:17:11] But I mean and the people they were making they did make the one valid point They made was the fact that hey qc is somewhat better at these other companies. Okay. I I give you that

[00:17:23] Uh, because I have had some issues with uh, actually, you know, it was our guns My first day I ever built was with an r guns lower. It was out of spec. It would not do crap

[00:17:33] I had to send it back. They kind of milled out a couple things It was fine But that being said I've never had issues with uh with um Anderson manufacturing and lowers and I know people who have built Anderson lowers I'm pretty sure if I remember right

[00:17:53] trek had a Lower or I had a rifle with Anderson manufacturing parts in it at a carving class and he beat the hell out of that freaking gun And he was like see it runs

[00:18:05] The thing that cracks me up is you'll the the thing that really makes me laugh is you have somebody say you have somebody with a $500 a r and you have somebody with their 3,000 or whatever thousand dollar a r Or even a thousand I you'd say

[00:18:19] I can guarantee you the $500 a r has been out of the safe and used Pretty much more than some of these other guys that get this gun and they don't want to shoot it

[00:18:30] They don't want to mark it up. They don't want to scar it up. This other one is beat to crap and it's it's used I've seen that time and time again

[00:18:37] I'm not saying that's with everybody with these kind of a r's but i'm just saying I've seen it time and time again And it's just ridiculous because it's something as small as the parts that you're putting your gun Honestly, I don't I don't care

[00:18:49] What you have in your gun what your gun is what what what what your gun is pieced together with If you can run it and you're responsible Okay Like that's it like I want you to be a responsible armed citizen

[00:19:03] I want you to be able to run it and I want you to know it And I want you to uh, and I want you to be able to like to actually

[00:19:11] You know send some rounds down range if ever needed. I like honestly, that's all I really care about uh, and you know so I want them and so that's what gets me is and that's what also gets what annoys me also is the fact that

[00:19:26] The community whatever community you want to talk about If we as a gun community could freaking stand together And actually push back against the government. We won't we won't need firearms. We won't need bullets We don't need we won't we wouldn't need that kind of crap

[00:19:43] if all if all the gun owners in America would stand together and say, you know what other politics aside We can agree on that we need we need the second amendment and it's important to fight off the government or to for the people to be armed

[00:19:57] Uh, yeah, we should actually band together and let's uh, let's make some corrections We would actually make a lot of change In this war in the united states if not the world And uh, that's the thing is it we're so separated. We're so divided over the stupidest crap

[00:20:15] There's people that get mad over the freaking the color of your serco like come on You are that retarded like that freaking petty come on Well and more than more than just in the in the narrow context of the second amendment community and like us trying to

[00:20:31] Push us trying to reclaim our gun rights But I look at it as you know, what is the one thing that keeps every community? Going And it's new membership because communities in my experience are either expanding or they're declining They don't stay stagnant for very long and

[00:20:52] You know the gun community can At times be really really good about shooting themselves in the foot and chasing other people out of the community or Say what I said do to Shooting themselves on the foot Shoot themselves in the foot. Thank you

[00:21:12] But they can be really good about chasing people out of the community Who otherwise are really enthusiastic and want to be part of the gun community They want to meet their fellow armed citizen and they want to learn from other people

[00:21:25] And yet when you sit there and tell them that the you know, the anderson manufacturing Lower their ar is built on that might be it might be all they can freaking afford because they're on a fixed income Is crap

[00:21:37] You do one of two things either you chase that person into the shadows where they don't want to be part of your community But they're going to keep the gun, but they're not gonna they may not learn anymore

[00:21:47] They they're just they're going to stop right there in place because you get put such a bad taste in their mouth Or they're going to leave the community entirely and they're going to say, you know, if this is representative of

[00:21:58] This community and this lifestyle. I don't want to be a part of it because I was treated poorly And it might sound extreme, but it happens more and more again

[00:22:07] A lot of the reason why I didn't want to join the ham radio community was because I met a lot of people who

[00:22:13] Quite frankly didn't seem to have a lot of they seem to have a lot of interest in telling you what the right way to ham was But they didn't seem to have a lot of interest in actually inviting in new hams

[00:22:23] And if you can't keep people coming into your community and wanting to learn and wanting to grow it and wanting to spread it The community starts to die And while we're on this subject

[00:22:34] I see this a lot in the night vision community too, which I've only recently become a part of You know, like I see one of two groups. I either see the people who have like the 10 000 dollar binos And when they see some eye with the tv

[00:22:49] Shut up, Andrew We don't all have single-man money to throw around throw around and no one's paying me to take my clothes off MOF only fans is not a thing Although that would be a hell of a cool logo MOF

[00:23:05] But no one's paying me to take my clothes off. It's certainly not enough to afford night vision Anyway, anyway But yeah, you see the guy with the 10 000 dollar night vision and when somebody walks up with a pbs 14 it's like what are you poor and it's like

[00:23:17] A gen 3 pbs 14 even on the low ends two and a half thousand dollars That's not that's not an amount of money to sneeze at for the common man

[00:23:25] But I also find that I see this other weird version of gatekeeping where people are like racing to the bottom of who can get the cheapest night vision Who can get the best specs for the cheapest money?

[00:23:37] And then you're constantly being told when you show up and you say hey, I just got my first pbs 14 Oh, you overpaid for it. You should have got it from, you know

[00:23:45] Joe joe crackhead dot com the fly by night night vision seller who you know who doesn't have Years in the industry who doesn't have the war doesn't have any indication. He'll back up a warranty But you overpaid for it. You could have got cheaper from this other guy

[00:24:00] Yeah, well, I heard I heard that when I got my pbs 14 Honestly now they think about it because like I got mine from ready-made resources And you got and you got told you overpaid right? Well, no, I didn't get no

[00:24:10] I just I was just I was told that oh, what do they know about it and all this And I'm like, uh, well did you listen that's like listen to this episode and you can tell me what you what this guy knows

[00:24:19] Because he freaking walked us through it and he's the one that really got the bug in But uh, I mean but I mean and you have that unit I hate I hate selling it because the picture was so freaking clear

[00:24:30] And uh, it it's one of the best. I mean, I've looked I mean, I don't I don't have a lot of experience with night vision But like I've looked through, uh, you know a handful of units

[00:24:39] Uh and that 14 that you have is it's one of the better pictures that I've seen Especially when it comes to like basically zero blend and so, you know blemishes and stuff

[00:24:48] So that and so you know it and not to tube my own horn, but Jesus. It's got a really nice ebi Yeah, I mean look just I use it differently than I think you did a lot

[00:24:59] I use it a lot for stargazing and I'm going to tell you that Some of the pictures I've managed to take through this thing At campsites way out in the middle of nowhere with minimal light pollution are I mean just like chef's kiss beautiful. It's

[00:25:14] It's a beautiful tube You're welcome. That could be anyway, that could be misconstrued so poorly It's gonna be a that's a meme um But no, yeah, that's the thing and and so it's like what can you do?

[00:25:28] The just well before we move on to the next thing like are there any other I mean You know amateur radio guns night vision Anything any I mean pick your the computers Vehicles cameras, but specific but specific to this show the preparedness community, right? I mean knives like

[00:25:52] I anything literally anything tense like you you name it and there's gonna be community where people are just d bags Instead of helping they tear the people down and that's not what we should be doing as a community

[00:26:06] We should be helping building each other up like that's the biggest complain of that I have I mean, but that's the internet you're gonna have the trolls Uh, it's a sad. It's a sad day when those people can't get punched in the face

[00:26:16] um for being just d bags who Do nothing but criticize but don't want to help the community Um, but yeah, it's just it's ridiculous and so and that's the thing that and that's ultimately what's going to destroy

[00:26:29] Um any community that's what's gonna that's what's gonna do if the when the two a when the second amendment is no longer When it is stamped null and void and we have to and we are being forced to encamps

[00:26:43] I'm gonna blame every single one of those people that uh did not either a stand up and fight for their right um the party but Um, thank you, Kyle I know right Kyle sucks. Will drive sucks so bad

[00:27:00] I'm gonna tell I'm gonna tell you both what I've told quite a few people that give me good nature crap about having a two-wheel drive truck I've driven two-wheel drive trucks into more places that most people won't take a four-wheel drive truck and got back out

[00:27:13] Just because a four-wheel drive already went through it go line up 24-wheel drive trucks on the road right in front of my house right now And I'm promising i'm gonna find 19 spotless undercarriages from trucks that have never been off-road

[00:27:25] You and I both know that my truck goes off the pavement I just have the common sense not to take a place is where i'm gonna have to call triple a to get back out

[00:27:35] But yeah anyway anyway, so this was something that you and I talked about very briefly earlier like Where's the line between advice and gatekeeping because I don't feel like I struggle with this personally because kind of like your your example you gave earlier where you where

[00:27:52] Someone was basically told like hey I see you're using Anderson lower just be advised, you know the quality control and check tolerances got a idea And I don't consider that to be gatekeeping because You're giving some you're not crapping on somebody's decision

[00:28:06] You're saying like hey just in case you weren't aware because you're brand new There's something you might want to be aware of and I feel like there's there's definitely room to give heartfelt advice like Recently in the amateur radio community. I saw a guy who

[00:28:23] So you know when I started as I started building this man pack out my first attempt at using a roll of j-pole was Suspending it off of an aluminum telephone aluminum fishing rod and that did not work very well

[00:28:34] like I had all kinds of problems with that and I After becoming a radio nerf reading a reading a lot about it. I realized that the problem was The aluminum is conductive and the antenna and the aluminum being that close together and touching each other is a problem

[00:28:50] So I unscrewed that problem But it wasn't a week later I happened to be in one of the gmrs groups on reddit and somebody was doing the exact same thing I had just fought with they had they were suspending a roll of j-pole

[00:29:06] I think the exact same roll of j-pole I try I use And they were suspending it from an aluminum fishing rod And bigger and shit. I jumped in there and I said hey

[00:29:17] Learn from my mistake. This is what I ran into. This is what I found out. This is how I fixed it And I got a very quick prompt response like hey dude. Thanks for saving me a lot of headache

[00:29:28] And that was it. It wasn't a oh, you're stupid. Oh, you're a moron. Oh this or the other don't know how to read Between advice. I mean you get this with some of the leadership stuff that I've been looking into and reading on and

[00:29:43] Going into it's advice is Advice is basically like You're not gatekeeping to me as just negative feedback. You're not you're you're saying hey, you're dumb for doing this Uh or this is not the right way kind of thing advice is hey just a heads up

[00:30:01] This is what I did or these are some problems that I've read and this is why I didn't go with it Or this is well the issue I had so hey just fyi. Maybe you might want to go with this brand instead

[00:30:11] Because of this this this and this But hey man Do your own rifle looks cool like that kind of stuff is just like that that's advice I mean by all means give me a reason to get a bcm lower

[00:30:24] But then it's like if you really want to help me out Hey, it's on sale at this website Like you know do stuff like that if you really want to push somebody towards a certain brand

[00:30:34] Help them out look at look it up online for them and say hey Check this out. It's on sale over here. Go get it same thing with ham radio the same thing with night vision

[00:30:45] Um, I mean that's why uh, that's why we like to that's why we push us night vision I mean they're not they're not necessarily the cheapest around but they're not the most expensive around and they freaking know their crap Like I've never like I've never had Duncan

[00:30:58] I mean it'd be nice to get them back on you know they talk to those guys again and because we've never had They start they get straightforward. It's hey, we want this and this is what they have and this is the

[00:31:08] The information they give and they they shoot it straight like and that's what's nice about some of these companies that We need to start talking to them Well, and I I feel like the biggest difference between advice and gatekeeping is actually on it's on the

[00:31:20] It's on behalf of the person giving it. It's the intent Like when I gave that person advice, it was because I really didn't want to see that person spend an entire evening

[00:31:31] Frustrated that his antenna didn't work and then have to cheat like because you have to understand when I encountered this problem Dude, but like before I sat down and Read about it and figured out and I I read four papers that night on freaking antenna theory

[00:31:45] If you think you have insomnia Reading about antenna theory is a great way to cure it. I'll put your right to sleep or make you make you suicidal or the other but in any case

[00:31:57] But like I was checking continuity on the antenna itself. I was checking continuity in the connector I was questioning whether my radio had a problem I was going I was going in like Who remembers the looney tunes where you'd have like

[00:32:10] Donald duck and he would try to go in four directions today At the same time and then split into four pieces and they all run around like chickens with heads cut off That was me that afternoon because I was so frustrated and so

[00:32:22] spun up about what is the problem here. Why isn't this working? And it wasn't until I was actually taking the antenna down off the mast and I just I happened to like hold the mast in my left hand and the antenna in my right hand

[00:32:35] And they were about a foot and a half apart about shoulder width And somebody happened to key up on that repeater and I could hear them clear as a bell for the first time all day

[00:32:46] And as they were talking I just moved my hand with the antenna closer to the Closer to the mass the illumina mass without touching it and the signal went away and I was like, oh Jesus christ So then I figured out, you know

[00:33:01] Electromechanically why that was happening but I digress but I didn't want this person who I've never met before I'll probably never talk to him again. I didn't want him to have to go through the same frustration. I did

[00:33:13] Because he was about to do exactly what I did with the same results And my intent wasn't hey, you're a moron. It was hey, but I made this exact same mistake I'd really like to prevent you from having to walk over that same ground

[00:33:27] Whereas I feel gatekeeping is not about trying to I don't believe gatekeeping Is done with the intent of improving the other person's position. I feel like it's done to prop up the person doing it In other words, like by telling you how stupid you are

[00:33:45] I can feel superior. I can look superior because I've done this the right way with the right stuff and you haven't so That's like my personal metric is that if you go into a conversation from the standpoint of

[00:34:01] This person's an idiot and I'm right and I'm going to make them look and feel stupid so I can feel better about myself then I think you're gatekeeping I think if you go into the into it from the perspective of

[00:34:14] I obviously have more experience or I have different experience in this and I want to share that so that this person can benefit without Having to go through all the headache. I did to get the knowledge

[00:34:24] Then I don't think you're gatekeeping. I think it just has to be done from a perspective of like This person's new we were all new at one point and at some point every one of us joined these communities

[00:34:35] Not knowing what the hell we were doing. We had to figure it out. We're looking for information. We're looking for resources We're looking for other people's experience But you have to understand that not everybody is going to go spend four grand

[00:34:47] on daniel defense or 10 grand on night vision bino's Or you know sell their house in the suburbs and go move out to 20 years Live like little house on the prairie just so they can honor your idea of the perfect gun guide night vision nerd prepper

[00:35:03] Like people are not going to do that. They're going to do what they can where they are today And you got to meet them there and that's always been something that I've been really big on with preparedness is

[00:35:14] I don't I've I've had a person literally tell me now bear in mind andrew you and I've been talking for eight years now We've been in these in these communities for a long time

[00:35:26] And I don't think there's many people that would make the argument that we're not both in the preparedness community But I had a person literally tell me to my face If you're not homesteading, you're not a prepper to my face

[00:35:40] And well, I all I did was I tilted my head and I said that's kind of a hard sell for a person that like Lives in the suburbs and my career is in the city and my wife's career is in the suburbs and like

[00:35:53] What are you saying if I might as well just give up if I'm if I don't if I'm not willing to move out in the middle Nowhere and just grow my own food like little house on the prairie and he said

[00:36:03] You can do you can do whatever you want. I'm just telling you you're not a prepper and I was like Cool beat cool story, bro. And I just walked off because at that point get his name

[00:36:14] I'm not saying throw it out there, but uh, you just write it down So you know like his house you go to first because apparently he's giving himself up

[00:36:21] I couldn't even tell you what his name was is I I put I put most of that out of my memory But I I keep it buried way way in the back of the brain box just as a reminder

[00:36:33] To like never ever ever ever be that person that says if you don't do x You're not a prepper because you know, we've had conversations people live in apartments And if you tell a person to listen in an apartment

[00:36:46] Well, if you don't sell your if you don't get out of your apartment go move out to middle of nowhere and start home saying You're not a prepper. That's not helping them all that does if if it discourages them then it stops them from from

[00:36:59] You know preparing which could save their lives And worst case you turn them off so hard to the preparedness lifestyle They never want to rejoin it again

[00:37:10] And I just I can't sign off on that it's it's frustrating to know that people like that exist in this community that I enjoy being a part of And the best thing I can do is try to not be that person But here's a question

[00:37:27] Knowing that those people not that kind of backdoor. Jeez Where is the back door knowing that those people exist in these communities knowing that they're going to gatekeep knowing that

[00:37:40] They are going to try to turn you off because you bought a poverty pony or you bought Anderson or you bought You know, uh, you bought gen two night vision and you're poor Knowing that you're not knowing that you're gonna encounter those gatekeepers

[00:37:57] How do like what's the way forward? Because you still i'm assuming you join these communities give them a middle finger. I mean that's one option I mean, but that's the thing though is these people who gives a crap

[00:38:10] If they don't give critic or if they don't give like needed feedback or Anything that's constructive towards what you're doing Uh, if you can delete their comment delete their comment Send them like just middle finger and keep walking

[00:38:27] See you later. Like don't let them bother you. Don't let them discourage you from doing what you want to do Uh, just keep going it I mean Do your thing I because who gives a crap Especially on the internet

[00:38:41] If it's somebody maybe that you if it's somebody that you see every day in person in and out and then you can say Hey Maybe confirm to their face and say what the heck is your problem kind of thing

[00:38:52] Uh, but they're on the internet and you'll never see them then f them like just walk Just delete their comment ignore. Whatever you got to do, but don't let them don't let them get to you Yeah, and I think the the other advice I give because

[00:39:07] I mean, I do a lot of internet crawling and forum crawling looking for information and um Honestly, I find that in a lot of those situations that if you If you become a lurker which for anybody not familiar with that forum term

[00:39:21] Maybe i'm dating myself. That's a person that reads a lot and doesn't post very often I Find that nine times out of ten if you just sit back and you read like Don't ask a lot of questions at first

[00:39:36] Just search a lot read a lot browse a lot I find that nine times out of ten. You'll find the information you're looking for and is You know, you're you're able to kind of like cruise through the forums or cruise through the internet

[00:39:49] Find the information without dealing with the gatekeepers at all Because they don't know you exist They're there looking for an opportunity to be an a-hole and you don't give them one You just go find the information that you need

[00:40:03] And on the offhand chance you do feel the need to post about it To do it with a thick skin. Just know that those people are out there And you're gonna have to write them off and you're gonna have to just

[00:40:16] Ignore them for bad for lack of a better word But I mean I bring all this up to say that like You know, if you're the person who in hindsight you feel as though you might be guilty of gatekeeping Please stop that because

[00:40:31] We need to regard every person coming into whatever community we're part of as an opportunity to keep that community alive Because if you're not welcoming people in if you're not growing your numbers If you're not expanding that base

[00:40:45] Then believe me when I tell you that you will be the last person left in that community that you may or may not be passionate about And like I personally

[00:40:54] You know, like over the years. I've been involved in the car community. I've done various things, you know, it was hobbies and Uh, I've left a lot of those because you know my interest moved on but the things I'm still passionate about

[00:41:06] I want to see those communities continue forever because I'm passionate about them. I think that they're necessary I think they're useful But if I'm the only person left on the internet who's playing around with radios in my basement Then it ain't do me a lot of good

[00:41:21] If if you are the last person who's into preparedness Maybe it might do you a little bit of good, but it ain't going to do the community much good And just uh circle back through some of these questions because it's mostly been kyle and my wife

[00:41:37] Um, kyle said that when he first joined the group he was nervous to ask general basic questions about ars And quite frankly given some of the crap we see on the internet these days. That's fair. That's fair

[00:41:48] It's fair to be nervous about that because for all you knew you were about to You know kick over a hornet's nest Run by a bunch of a holes who just wanted to freaking make fun of you unfortunately like We we the

[00:42:04] I want to say that the core group that's kind of coalesced around matter of facts We just don't tolerate that very well like I want everyone to benefit from everybody else's knowledge I want everyone to help each other. It's kind of the whole point of doing this

[00:42:16] And I totally understand you about night vision as a flashlight Totally get it for years and years and years and years And you know to this day I carry a flashlight in my back pocket

[00:42:28] Not a pvs 14 because if you think I get some funny looks in a white collar office for having a flashlight in my back pocket Carrying around a pvs 14 in my pocket would get me some really interesting looks but

[00:42:43] Anything else you want to slip in here? No, just don't be a dick No, please don't I mean Always operate from that perspective of if someone else is trying to do something that I've done before politely give them your input and then

[00:43:00] Just don't be a dick if they gonna if they're gonna do it the wrong way Then let them do it the wrong way I mean quite frankly we have a patron or a patron group who has told me on a couple of occasions like hey

[00:43:11] You're doing that the hard way And he says this piece and then he backs off and then usually I have to come back to him a couple weeks later And be like, okay

[00:43:18] So what was that thing you were telling me that I ignored you the first time because I was doing things the hard way But he doesn't push. He doesn't you know, he doesn't humiliate. He's not a jerk about it

[00:43:28] He just says hey, you're doing that the hard way if you did it this way be a little easier for you and you might you may or may not figure that out on your own eventually but

[00:43:39] I guess we'll go ahead and wrap this up. I really didn't think this would be a full hour and it's 45 minutes I feel like it's a good stopping point. I just want to talk about because like it was something that

[00:43:51] I've I've seen more than once and I always always always try To get people like to leave that habit behind and just really view every person that wants to come into the community As an opportunity to keep the community going

[00:44:08] I mean it is and it is probably no more important anywhere than the preparedness community because we are already such a small community of people And like we To acknowledge that we're gonna have to meet every single potential prepper where they are

[00:44:24] Give them the knowledge that they can make use of and put them on the path towards their version of preparedness Not our version of preparedness All right Well, let's go ahead and wrap it up matter of fact

[00:44:39] Podcast is heading out the door if you want merch the links are in the show description If you'd like to become a patron those links are in the show description

[00:44:46] If you want to harass me and andrew mdf podcast.com is a good place to hit the contact list And send us hate mail or you can find us on instagram or facebook or here on youtube or on rumble or on x even though

[00:45:00] I don't check x very often as you probably should And you can harass us to your heart's content But have a good night stay out of trouble. Talk to you next week. Bye guys. Bye