Analysis by Kyle A. Lohmeier
It’s no secret that the Mainstream Media sees its job as shaping the worldview of American citizens by their selective coverage of events and the bias it applies to the events they do cover.
For example, the MSM strives to perpetuate the myth of America’s “epidemic of gun violence.” They do this by giving endless coverage to crimes involving firearms, the more egregious, the more coverage the tragedy gets with school shootings and mass-shootings (even fictional ones) going to the forefront.
The right cross that follows the left jab of sensationalized coverage of crimes involving guns is to not cover legitimate defensive uses of firearms by civilians at all. Ever. One has to peruse links from local broadcast affiliates for those stories; even though they happen often enough for the NRA to feature a full page of such incidents gleaned from local news reports in each monthly issue of their publications. Self-defense uses of a gun never make it to the front page of, say, Yahoo News’ feed. The intent is to make sure the MSM -and by extension the greater American public – is of one opinion on guns: They’re bad, only bad guys have them and only cops and soldiers should.
That such a position is pure idiocy goes without saying. Sadly, however, many people believe everything the MSM produces uncritically. Usually, this only leads one to engage in foolish behavior or adopt silly beliefs. When it comes to a recent Reuters piece by Daniel Trotta and Tom James, however, blindly believing MSM hype can be very dangerous.
“A Seattle woman who became a folk hero by fighting off a would-be rapist in a public bathroom has sparked a boom in women’s self-defense classes, making a meme out of the war cry she used in battle: ‘Not today!’ followed by an expletive.
Kelly Herron, 36, was taught to ‘be loud and fight like a savage’ in self-defense training at her workplace three weeks before the March 5 incident in which she defeated her male assailant and locked him in the bathroom where he was arrested.
Since then, after publicity about the attack, women have flocked in unprecedented numbers to the same course that helped Herron, and internet searches for the course have increased tenfold, according to Jordan Giarratano, owner of Fighting Chance Seattle, the karate and kickboxing school that prepared Herron,” Reads the first three graphs of their story of one very rare and very lucky woman.
Yes, in 2017, according to the cultural zeitgeist, gender is a “social construct.” Of course, on planet Earth where we all actually live, gender is an immutable matter of biology. One of those immutable biological factors is that men are, on average, bigger and stronger than women; Kelly Herron is the exception, not the rule.
“At a special free course on Tuesday, more than 200 women came to learn self-defense and meet Herron. Many shouted “No!” as they practiced Giarratano’s tactics, such as using hard bone to strike fleshy areas.
Herron began with an emotional address, raising her finger and telling women they can ‘stand up and say ‘not today.’’ The room burst into applause.
‘It was definitely empowering’” said Julia York, 35, one of the attendees. ‘I really loved that this was actually a story where the woman was able to fight off the attack. We don’t hear about that.’
Yeah, that’s right, you don’t. Why is that? Because it almost never happens!
When it comes to individual combat, there is nothing like the sort of fight that comes from an assault or attempted rape, no doubt. The closest thing possible would be a mixed martial arts bout – where there are few rules, the gloves weight a mere four ounces and victory can be had by knockout or submission.
Again, owing to the whole “gender is a social construct” thing, a minor MMA promotion called Championship Fighting Alliance allowed “Fallon Fox,” a man who has undergone treatment to appear somewhat female and considers himself “transgender,” to fight against biological women. His professional record is five wins against one loss by knockout.
So, for those keeping score at home, it took a trained, professional female mixed-martial artist to defeat the least manly “man” on earth, the same “man” that has made short work out of five other professional female mixed-martial artists.
Herron’s assailant has since been identified as Gary Matthew Steiner, a 40-year-old convicted sex offender who weighs all of 130 pounds – a factor that had a lot more to do with Herron’s escape than anything she learned at a gym. Also a fact that Reuters didn’t mention.
Most men weigh considerably more than 130 pounds. By way of comparison, UFC Women’s Strawweight Champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk weighs 115 pounds. Could she have fended off Steiner? I’d bet money on it. But then, she’s been practicing competitive Muay Thai since she was a teenager, winning 60 matches on her way to five amateur world championships and four European championships before turning pro in 2015 and destroying every woman put in her path so far. She’s not a hobbyist getting her cardio on at a kickboxing gym.
“Though Herron suffered a gash above her eyebrow and bruises on her face and arms, she escaped by punching and clawing back. A police mugshot of the defendant showed him with a reddened and swollen face with a large bandage over his right eye.
‘Without the class, I think I would have still screamed ‘not today, motherfucker!’ That definitely came from within. But the self-defense tactics came from the class,’ Herron said,” Reuters reported, glossing over the fact that flailing and scratching are kind of instinctual responses to an attack and that physical combat techniques require training and practice to become muscle-memory for use in a stress situation. Never mind all that, the story continues:
“Since Herron’s story made headlines, Giarratano said he has fielded daily inquiries from companies wanting to contract his service for employees.
Web searches, which previously totaled 50 to 100 a month, shot up to 1,000 per month, he said, and the monthly workshops in his gym are now weekly,” Reuters reported.
Yes, it is great that women would take an interest in their own self-preservation since in reality the cops do not exist to protect anyone from anything ever. Yes, it’s wonderful Herron was able to escape the predatory scumbag lurking in the women’s room; but again, she is the exception and the sort of “skills” being marketed to these poor women as “self-defense tactics,” are more likely to get them killed than anything else.
The fact is and remains that 99% of the time a woman with some “self-defense” “training” – an hour or so a week – is going to be totally ineffective against a larger male assailant with nothing more than ill intent to guide him; no matter how much money they pay to some gym-owner who tells them to shout “No!” while throwing ineffective punches backed by nowhere near enough body mass or proper technique.
In fact, there is only one serious self-defense skill; one that always works and doesn’t care about how big the attacker is relative to the victim, and that skill is pistolry.
If Herron had a .38 Special (of course, living in Seattle that’s probably not possible except for criminals) on her, she’d likely not have suffered any injuries and the people of Washington State wouldn’t be paying $30,000 a year to lodge a piece of garbage that should have bled out on the floor of a women’s room stall.
Of course, the decision to carry a handgun for self-defense is a very serious and personal one; not everyone is cut out for it, and that’s fine. It is definitely a decision that warrants a weighing of all considerations and factors and a thorough self-examination. People should definitely have all available information as they decide whether to carry or not, and then what sort of handgun to carry if they decide to.
Likewise, women should have all available information before relying on unrealistic hand-to-hand combat “training” as their only means of self-defense. Sadly, the MSM makes sure they don’t get any such information to counterbalance the happy, fairy-tale narrative of the afore-linked Reuters piece. Mark my words, women will be hurt and killed as a result of this story. Not that we’ll ever know, thanks to the MSM’s carefully selected coverage.
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