We want to be instantly recognized as a force to be reckoned with. We want them to see us coming a mile away in our new uniforms.
MARINE CORPS SPOKESMAN ON THE MARPAT CAMO UNIFORMS (the purpose of camo is to remain unseen)
It has been awhile since I posted some unpopular opinions. I had to let them accumulate in my mind first. Of course, I wonder to myself if having and sharing these opinions is arrogant. Why should the world care what I think about anything? But that's the point of this blog. It allows me to say it and allows you, Gentle Reader, to ignore it. This also allows me to keep my opinions to myself in the real world and live my life as Carlos Silencio. I am better read than heard. Here are more of my unpopular opinions.
1. The Old Farmer's Almanac is better than Mother Earth News.
Before I knew anything, I was a subscriber to Mother Earth News. I thought the magazine had a lot of useful content for someone like me interested in homesteading and alternative living. The reality is that I rarely read the thing and most of the information was useless to me. It became even more useless when I gave up my homesteading fantasy in favor of the backyard garden reality.
The Old Farmer's Almanac seems like it would be the useless publication in our modern age except that I actually read the thing from cover to cover. There is some gardening info, but I find myself looking keenly at the weather forecasts which claim 80% accuracy.
Comparing the two publications seems like apples and oranges. I don't have a lot of cash to buy dead tree media subscriptions. I can buy one or the other. The reason I eschew Mother Earth News for the almanac is related to lifestyle and worldview. Mother Earth News is a hippie style rag of alternative living and environmentalism. The almanac is old school farmer type content. Basically, the almanac is boring while Mother Earth News strikes me as a sales job for the lifestyle.
You can find practical gardening information online and in old books. This is money better spent than on a subscription to a magazine that you aren't going to read.
How Accurate Is The Old Farmer’s Almanac? See Our Forecast Results
2. Winches are overrated. Come alongs are underrated.
Guys with Jeeps and 4WD vehicles love a winch on the front of the vehicle. A winch looks bad ass. The problem is that winches are expensive and are limited in what they can do. They are convenient for pulling your vehicle or some other vehicle out of a stuck position, but that assumes you aren't buried winch first in a ditch. In those situations, a relatively cheap come along is what you need. The come along isn't convenient and requires some elbow grease. But it won't burn up. You can also attach it to the rear of the stuck vehicle to get it out. The problem is that a come along doesn't look bad ass. This is usually the flaw with a cheap and practical solution.
3. Camo for hunting is stupid and dangerous.
Deer are mostly color blind, so you can wear almost any patterned shirt to conceal yourself from game. The greatest hunting jacket of all time was the red and black checkered wool coats of yesteryear. They hid you from the deer but kept you visible to fellow hunters. Sometime after Vietnam, dudes decided that camo for hunting was more bad ass than plaid hunting jackets. Naturally, this increased hunting accidents and necessitated wearing orange safety vests and hats in the field on top of the hunting camo.
I am not a hunter, so it doesn't matter to me because I don't buy hunting gear. If I wear something camo, it is because it was kitschy looking while being cheap and practical. If I was a deer hunter, I would wear regular clothes not camo. I don't want to get shot.
4. Olive drab is better than military camo.
The military is stupid on the camo stuff, too. Since the World Wars, the military has discovered that solid color olive drab uniforms are very effective for forest and jungle environments. OD is universal and cheap and works in 80% of environments. For arid regions, a solid color like khaki or coyote tan is an effective option.
Why did militaries around the world go nuts for camo? It was a fashion thing. I am not making this up. It became most ridiculous with the blueberry camo uniforms of the US Navy. That was just dumb. But everybody wants to look bad ass and special. I think the Israeli Defense Forces got it right by sticking with OD. The US military should bring back solid color olive drab uniforms.
5. Benchmade knives are overrated. Opinel knives are underrated.
Hands down, the Benchmade is the knife for the douchebag with more money than brains. Basically, the Benchmade is an overpriced knife that is overrated to justify the high price. Meanwhile, you can get a razor sharp and always reliable Opinel knife for a fraction of the price of a Benchmade. Even if you need something more modern, I recommend the cheap Ozark Trail knife from Walmart over a Benchmade.
6. Pretty boys should shave their heads.
Some men are born too good looking. Their features are more feminine than masculine. In an effort to correct this, many of them elect to grow facial hair. The better way to go is to shave your head. David Beckham was a pretty boy, but he changed that in a single day when he shaved his head. He went from pretty boy to bad ass. Unfortunately, he grew his hair back out and put on some facial hair. He's old looking now with some balding. He is rumored to have a hair transplant. He should have stuck with the shaved head look.
7. Professional wrestling deserves more respect.
Professional wrestling is totally fake. It is pure entertainment and doesn't pretend to be anything else. That honesty from a fake sport is better to me than the dishonesty of the "real" sports. Wrestling gets respect from me. They put on a good show.
8. Field Notes are overpriced hipster notebooks.
Field Notes are good notebooks and would be awesome at $1 or less . Instead, they sell for $4 for a single notebook. The premium price comes from the marketing. You can get better notebooks for less money. One example is the green Army memoranda notebooks which are more durable, higher quality, and contain more pages at a similar price to Field Notes. The problem is that those Army notebooks don't have that cool hipster vibe going on.
9. Dad hats are superior to trucker hats.
I used to wear trucker hats, but they are worthless for sun protection for a bald guy. That mesh just makes an embarrassing sunburn. This is why bald guys like me need the full cover of a dad hat. If I had hair, I would go with a trucker hat for the air conditioning.
10. Physical QWERTY keyboard phones are a waste of money.
I use a flip phone, and I admired the old Blackberry phones with the keyboards. They seemed more practical and functional than the touchscreen smartphones. Unfortunately, buying an Android smartphone with a physical keyboard makes no sense today. Like it or not, Steve Jobs got it right with the iPhone. You want more screen. Not having the physical buttons is a trade off. For me, I love my flip phone and plan on keeping it to the bitter end. When I capitulate on this, I will get a cheap Android smartphone without a physical keyboard.
11. Red dot sights are a fad.
I remember when they had laser sights on handguns in the eighties and nineties. They were a fad. Now, I see red dot sights and see the same thing happening again. Optics on a handgun look cool, but I find that grip and trigger control matter more than aiming. People didn't have problems with the iron sights. They just jerk when they shoot. Red dots don't fix this problem.
12. Catholic influencers should shut up.
I used to follow all sorts of professional Catholic types on the blogs, podcasts, and YouTube. Some are good, but most are trying to get clicks. Scandal and controversy get you clicks. Meanwhile, the influencers scandalize people into cynicism and out of their faith. The ones who do it right are boring which is what you want. I recommend EWTN and Catholic Answers. They get it right, and you end up better off.
13. Email is better than social media, but Facebook is here to stay.
I do not use social media. I believe in email as the original killer app of the internet. It is my preferred way to communicate on the internet. For everyone else, they compete for each other's attention on Facebook. I want to declare that Facebook will die one day, but we are 20 years living with that platform.
14. Maneuver warfare is better than attrition warfare.
Attrition warfare is where mathematics takes over for strategy. Basically, the side with more personnel and stuff decides to throw it all at the enemy until they run out of personnel and stuff. This has been the preferred strategy of the US armed forces since the Civil War. It certainly pleases the contractors who get paid to make all that stuff. It doesn't please the American people who sacrifice their kids to this madness.
Maneuver warfare is where brains are used to make the enemy give up and surrender. Often, this can be done without a single shot being fired. It is the less costly and more humane way to fight a war. Needless to say, the USA doesn't care for this sort of thing except in the USMC who operate on a tight budget.
15. Multi tools are better than Swiss army knives.
I have a SAK and some multitools in my collection of gear. I never use the Swiss Army Knife. I use the Leatherman Squirt on my keychain quite a bit. I have a full sized Gerber multi tool that I have also used many times. I am not sure why anyone would prefer the SAK to the multi tool except that the SAK is easier to carry in a pocket.
16. Smartphones with folding screens are dumb.
They are teasing all sorts of folding screens in the near future for smartphones. I don't use a smartphone, but I would use the traditional non-folding version if I did. I don't like creases in my screens. I also don't like iPads and tablets. Having a smartphone that folds into a tablet doesn't make sense to me. I think people should roll with a phone and a laptop. That covers all the bases.
17. I like the old Air Force One paint scheme more than the new one.
I think Jackie did well picking that robin's egg color scheme for Air Force One. It is less obnoxious. Naturally, Trump had to go with something bolder with the new Air Force One. The new scheme doesn't look bad, but I prefer the classic colors to the new colors.
18. Sting is nothing without The Police.
With The Police. Sting made great rock and pop tunes. Without The Police, he made elevator music. That guy needed the creative tension he got from playing in a band with two other awesome musicians. At a Sting solo show, you know the fans want to hear The Police hits. I doubt Sting would ever admit this, but it is the bitter truth.
19. Minivans are better than SUVs.
Minivans are more practical for families than SUVs. But soccer moms want to be cool, so they opt for the sporty vehicle over the practical vehicle just like guys will opt for a Jeep over an old fashioned pickup truck. SUVs are just trucks with roofs on them, and they guzzle too much gas. The minivan is the superior option.
20. The Opinel No. 8 is better than the Buck 110.
Out of appreciation, I bought a friend a Buck 110 knife. He loved it because he is a fan of a quality classic knife. I will not throw shade on the Buck knife, but I do think the Opinel is a better knife. This is because the Opinel is $40 cheaper. I also like the carbon steel option on Opinel which makes a wickedly sharp slicing blade. Buck seems more rugged, but I don't kneed a pry bar with an edge. I need a slicer.
21. Putting in new batteries and a NATO strap on the Casio F91W is worth it.
People will make the argument that you should toss the old Casio when the strap breaks or the battery dies. A new strap costs as much as a new watch. I think the NATO strap is more durable than the resin strap that comes on the Casio. In the long run, I think this is cheaper. As for the battery, you can get a new one for $2. I have two F91Ws on NATO straps now. I have no regrets.
22. Twin Pops are better than Outshine bars.
Twin Pops are the cheap popsicles made with artificial colors and flavors. They are like frozen Kool-Aid on two sticks. I call them "ghetto pops." We switched to the more expensive Outshine bars because they were made with real fruit and were healthier. Then, they had a recall on the Outshine bars because of possible broken glass contamination. There's nothing healthy about that. Needless to say, we have switched back to the cheap ghetto popsicles. The only issue I ever had with Twin Pops was getting a batch that had run low on sugar in the mix which made them taste bitter. They are so cheap that we tossed them.
23. Peanuts is the GOAT of comic strips.
I remember when Garfield hit the comics page, and I thought it was funnier than the Charlie Brown comics. Then, it became mediocre. The Far Side was always hilarious, but that guy couldn't keep it up and finally retired. Calvin and Hobbes had awesome art, but it got stuck in a rut of the same old gags. Peanuts was somewhere in the middle of all this but endured until the present day as a classic comic. It wasn't always funny, but it didn't need to be. Sometimes, it was philosophical. Other times, it was melancholy. What Peanuts gave us was a line up of enduring characters. That is what makes it the GOAT.
24. We should bring back "blockhead" and "good grief" in place of vulgarities and swearing.
This was the Charles Schulz strategy with Peanuts, and I have decided to use them in my own speech to try and clean up my foul mouth. I am also going to use these on the blog. Maybe this will help me to stop being a blockhead with a potty mouth.
25. You should never believe a prediction from Elon Musk.
The guy said we would be on Mars by 2024. He has said other things about the end of work, more robots than humans, and universal basic income. I believe none of it.
That's it for this edition of Unpopular Opinions. Be sure to visit back for the next edition!
