10 Things To Consider Before Participating In Civil Conflict

Not posting on YT any more?

Okay. Here's what I took away from this episode:

How will you align? Which faction do you support the most? With friends & family on all sides of the issue, whom are you ready to shoot for your beliefs? Are you going to be fluid based on who's on the bleeding side of the bullets or is there a firm line? If you can't pull the trigger on conflict are you a support person or are you Switzerland?

Whatever you decide, you need to be brutally honest about what your actual role in conflict will be. What, honestly, are your personal capabilities? Are you front line, committed to absolutely being able to pull the trigger? Are you supporting the front line as EMT, tactics, supply? Are you hiding in the bunker?

THESE ARE QUESTIONS YOU NEED TO SERIOUSLY PONDER BEFORE THE FACT. If the SHTF, knowing these things may very well determine whether you & yours survive, regardless of whether the SHTF is a local short-term loss of normalcy or a complete descent into TEOTWAWKI.

Maintain your own informational network. Don't burn bridges, don't take the leadership of your organization as the last word in "what the sitch really is". Big or small, leadership will always have their own agenda and if you're not 100% on board with their vision, you need to immediately rethink where you are.

Be observant, especially if you're not in the top of your group. This kind of follows on maintaining your own information sources. Being observant also means you're paying attention to what the gossip & grumblings are within your group. Are complaints you hear valid or sour grapes? What does your Spidey Sense tell you? Gut instincts are called gut instincts for a reason.

Even if you're not a military leader or tactician, do some reading to see what works in battle and what doesn't based on your specific situation. Sometimes the people planning your group's Ops get so focused on their fancy tactics that they overlook something. While there's nothing worse than having a novice point out something's that been overlooked, truly worse is having an Op fail costing your group lives because something wasn't considered. I can't count the times I've seen people present "but what ifs/abouts" after the fact when their questions might have changed an outcome in advance.

If you're leadership, never forget to keep the hearts & minds of your Switzerland's and supporters. Lose them, lose all. If they feel that the path you are guiding them down is wrong, you risk their loyalty, leaving your group open to betrayal by those who feel your higher motives have betrayed them.

Leadership Goal: Normalcy. You want to get life back to the best lives your followers can expect. Even if 100% back to pre SHTF isn't possible, you want to approach 100% as much as possible to engage and encourage followers.

"Hot wash". Not a term I'm familiar with without Googling (which I haven't yet, and the first time you've used a term I wasn't even mildly familiar with). Is this a term that I, as a follower should be familiar with?

There is as much honor (and in some cases more) in supporting the men in the field as the man who is given all the glory. I never ask someone what they did in the military before thanking them. My respect is just as high for the cook, supply officer, the clerk as a Navy Seal. With Militias. I personally would never follow anyone who serves as a officer who has no real experience. Just seems like common sense to me. Someone like you, or Hibernionson I would follow, no questions asked and with complete fealty. But you have verifiable experience. I would join a militia, maybe some day, but none around here are good in my book. Then again, the GOOD ones, the one that are flat out legitimate ad so underground that you don't apply to them. You get recruited.