Yeager is at it again in the last couple days… first up with “Gay Rights And Gun Rights”:
*yawn* well that was predictable.
Now a second stab at controversy with “Sorry, I do not want your advice”:
*double yawn + stretch*. I really glad I’m not a YouTube personality… the amount of dick riding in the comments is out of hand, I couldn’t take it. I’d feel dirty.
Note also that the comments were disabled on both these videos for a while, just so people would get pissed off and not be able to vent.
When are the videos on abortion or religion coming out? That seems like the next two logical topics. The controversy creating for views thing has proven to work for James, as he’s done it numerous times in the past (which I’m too lazy to link right now, and you guys probably remember anyway).
P.S. That shirt in video #2 tho ROFL, I recognize that from Urban Outfitters. A life goal of mine is to now bump into James in an L.A. location, where I recognize his voice and come around the corner to find him questioning the sales chick if they have any more extra smediums of the Che shirt he’s “absolutely dying to get”. We shoot the shit for a minute about the industry then navigate to the nearest Sprinkles or Casey’s Cupcakes to chill out some more. I show him what Tinder is like in L.A., and he suggests we make a video right then on the topic. I politely decline the offer, which I could tell annoyed him. He quickly finishes his cupcake and fakes like he got a text, then bounces. I put my earphones in, fire up the new A$AP album and destroy another few cupcakes while I figure out what to do with the rest of my day.
Thoughts?
Comments
30 responses to “If Views And Business Are In A Slump Just Create A Controversy”
Dream big playa dream big!
haha always gotta set the bar high my dude. Hope you have some equally lofty goals!
Cant deny that he is successful with that, so why would he stop? People make money by creating controversy. Yeager is probably not as stupid as most people hope he is, he has a business model that includes him being the displayed personality a lot of people hate. Everyone who has met him in real life says he is one of the most polite and friendly people to be around so he is probably just stating his opinions the way he does because it gets him something; clicks, views, customers, money.
Much like the Kardashian gang, I wish people would stop paying any attention to this guy so that he would disappear. He serves no purpose to society other than a mild chuckle for those laughing AT him. ANYONE who is willing to be associated with him is immediately suspect in my book.
I seriously wonder where the $40k he got from his Kickstarter begging went to. I don’t see $40k worth of production value in the handful of “AmmoNation” episodes he has put out. He probably paid his mortgage for a while and then slapped the “AmmoNation” label on some YouTube videos that he was going to put out anyway. I haven’t looked at his YT channel in a long time, but it looks like puts out an average of 1+ videos per day. YT must be a big source of his income otherwise I see no point in him uploading so much of his dreck. Nice to see his fanboys could underwrite his YT videos which he then makes money off of.
I use to really dislike Yeager, back when he was at his most controversial back in early 2012 to early 2013. Then after his infamous “Pack Your Bags” video he has backed off considerably. Now in hind sight, I miss the old fiery controversial Yeager, he was very entertaining to say the least. Now he doesn’t even move the needle. After “Ammonation” and “the Bundy ranch standoff”, which I think was his final “shark jump” I don’t think he has anymore ideas left in his marketing strategy! He made a video like this a while back and seems to be recycling ideas, and opinions that get views on YouTube. – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmQPQX3ZP78 – As long as he has a loyal following paying for his classes from his videos they saw on YouTube, I think he’s fine with that. – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI13zYzmm5s
I pity him now more than anything.
He’s fighting middle age and irrelevance each passing day. He knows it, too.
I, personally, am enjoying my middle aged years. Shooting all the guns and bedding all the younger women I couldn’t afford in my youth. But that’s not the most fulfilling part. The fulfilling part is that I get to be who I am. I accept it and I don’t worry about much.
Now look at this goober. He has to wake up every day to try to piss off the video game kids, the paunchy barfcommers who are too scared to shoot their AR-15 du jour, and anyone else in the YouTube gunosphere.
He’s not having fun. It’s a job. He couldn’t make it as a cop and certainly not as a mercenary, and again; he knows this. So he HAS to do this only to have to humble himself in person. Like all hucksters and snake oil salesman.
It would make a fine depressing French film.
Bucky needs to switch to decaf.
Yeager has a problem(s) in that his subscriber growth is basically flat and his video views rarely break 50,000 views after a month – and many of them fail to break 20k views. Now, someone with 250k subs should be getting more views out of those subs. It’s clear that people click subscribe and then don’t come back to watch more videos. Keep on keeping on there James. Oh, and his daily views show that he’s earning about $60/day from youtube.
I think a lot of trainers are feeling some pressure as many motivated gun owners are now joining USPSA and IDPA clubs for practice and training. Just a year or two ago, the local no-bullshit trainers had their classes filled months in advance. Now I see them on facebook posting about empty slots with a week or less before the class. Just from what I see on state and regional practical shooting groups, competition is exploding in popularity and I think people are figuring out that the guys at the top of the list will help you for free and a season of competition is about the same price as two long-weekend classes.
Not to mention that USPSA or IDPA is far more safe, offers more variety, and works the skills that really matter. We’re seeing the few local Grand Masters we have teaching classes now to competition shooters – and those classes are filling fast. I’ve taken a class with JJ Racaza, in the 8 hours of that class I went from 1.2 second first shot splits .9 second first shot splits. That’s a lot of time over the course of a steel match (more than 5 seconds shaved from my match time). There are far to many Tactical Tommys teaching stuff that really has no value and their business is starting to suffer.
That’s the kind of thing I’d pay for. I’m stuck in the 1.09-1.18 range. I don’t do steel challenge (yet) but it matters on a field course too. I doubt many of the mcdojo trainers could get a shot under 1sec, let alone teach someone to do it.
I posted a video on the dryfire drill that came out of the JJ class. I was dropping my head. , and that is a time killer. If you can juggle, do more of it. If you can’t do it, learn. Juggling does wonders for hand eye coordination and quick eye transitions from target to target.
I disagree with your generalizations. USPSA and IDPA have their uses, just like credible tactical training does. Im not talking about some youtube guy posting videos to his obscure training “company” either. This is strictly in the context of 2nd amendment purposes, where patrolling, field craft, and fire team fire and maneuver are more critical than individuals making fast and accurate target transitions.
Don’t forget trauma medicine. Buy an FM 7-8 and task level 1 manual. Then go compete and get good at shooting.
Buying 7-8 or a Ranger handbook isn’t sufficient by itself either. If you haven’t served (and a large number haven’t), there is absolutely no context or understanding about what is written versus being taught it by a reputable instructor.
trauma medicine is a small part of the “fieldcraft” thing. Very important indeed.
It comes down to this, what tactics are you learning and why? Most firearms instructors are total frauds. Here’s something I wrote a year or so ago:
If you’re old enough to have good memories of the 1980’s you’ll remember the dojo and martial arts wars that went on. About the same time as the Karate Kid movie was released, there was a massive surge in number of dojos that opened as well as all the new so called martial arts disciplines that popped up. It really became a “my karate is better than your karate” circular argument. Most of these pop up McDojos were run by charlatans looking to quickly cash in on a crazy.
I think we’re seeing the same thing today in the firearms training business.
Everyday I see a new firearms training center or academy opening up and teaching questionable things. One thing these firearms trainers share with the former karate teachers is that they’re all teaching “systems” and things with no practical application for most firearms owners.
Here are some tips for vetting a potential firearms instructor.
1. A special forces resume. This is the number one fraud in the firearms training business. There are too many of these guys out there lying about what they did in the past. Always ask to see a DD-214 from anyone making these claims. Someone that’s legit will produce the DD-214 right away, a fraud will give you the run around and make excuses.
2. Ask to see a copy of their professional liability insurance. A quality instructor will have insurance and a legitimate business. The frauds will form an LLC and think that will shield them from all liability for any issues that may arise in a class they are teaching.
3. Ask to see their own firearms training record. What classes have they taken? Who did they take the classes with? Has any organization certified them? Beware, there are some fake organizations out there selling instructor certifications for $40 to look like they’re part of a legitimate training organization (the same thing went on in the 80’s dojo wars).
4. Do they require prerequisites before they let you take one of their classes? If they’re teaching basic firearms safety class then nothing should be required. If they’re teaching advanced firearms techniques they should require that participants show prior formal training or demonstrated skills such as USPSA or IDPA classification. Instructors that will just let anyone show up with a new pistol or AR and shoot on the move or practice room clearing are neither safe nor professional.
5. Watch out for the training ladder. Some instructors will tell you that you have to take their handgun 01 class before you can take their handgun 02 class and you have to have both of them before you take take the elite international handgun operator class they offer. They do this to get you to keep coming back or force you into taking all their classes if you’re just interested in one class. (This was another common 80’s dojo trick)
6. What are they teaching you? Shooting from moving vehicles sure sounds cool, but is it practical? Clearing rooms is another fun thing, but not too practical. Many of the questionable instructors will teach dangerous techniques that are nothing more than dancing with guns (Google: American Defensive Enterprises). A quality instructor will teach recognized fundamentals and then work on making you more accurate and faster.
7. “The System”. Just like the 80’s, there are all kinds of instructors teaching a proprietary firearms fighting system. This is nothing more than rex-quan-do (Napoleon Dynamite fans will get the reference) bullshit designed to sound cool and elite. (Google “Hammerfour” to see how this scam works – tactical training from people with no LEO/MIL or firearms background – the internet may have put this group down for the count)
8. The instructor bashes competitive shooting or says things like the the streets are not like competition. Remember, competition gave us the Weaver stance as well as the modern isosceles. Competition pushes people to excel and pushes them to innovate. If it doesn’t work in competition it sure as heck won’t work in the streets under stress. Instructors who are afraid to put their skills to the test in competition usually know what would happen if they did – an thus why they bash and avoid.
9. The tactifool. Watch out for the combat bearded digicam wearing buzz term talking guys. These guys think basics, safety, and fundamentals are less important than gear, how you look, and how you sound.
10. Magpul on steroids. Keep an eye out for the guys who watched the Magpul DVDs and then decided to do everything faster, harder, and more accentuated. He really has no idea why he’s teaching it, what use it has, but he knows it looks badass.
Effective firearms training comes down to knowing when a gun should come out of the holster, getting out of the holster fast, and getting three shots on target quickly. The NRA had a great study on defensive shootings. Most defensive shoots ended in less than 2 rounds, and rarely was a reload performed.
If you’re going to some class thinking you’re going to be seeking cover, doing a tac reload, and re engaging multiple body armor wearing advancing targets – you’re not grounded in reality.
^^This
You’ll get more out of USPSA or IDPA than these other maroons.
The best idea is to take all the courses you can while you are in the military or law enforcement. The instructors of those courses MUST be accountable and if they teach BS, it gets found out super quick. Plus it is free for you, promotion points, yada and no professional military unit or police outfit will send you off to a fraud.
Honestly, if I never had gun training ever; I’d sooner go to a well vetted NRA instructor who is active in competitive shooting. You don’t need to dress like a ninja turtle and the best instructors will offer to provide testimony of your training and testify on your behalf if you are involved in a shooting.
They also train around the student and not around the gun of the month. I saw a guy teach a young widow around a Beretta she inherited from her husband. His only recommendation was a couple of extra magazines. No “aww you need a GLAWK” BS
Aside from stating the obvious your comment sounds like a long winded version of the same old “competition shooters are better than defensive/practical/tactical shooters” argument.
“you’re not grounded in reality” and neither are you. You sound like an old man who realizes that the world has passed him by and now takes every opportunity to trash things he doesn’t understand.
Hmmm……a lot of the better MIL/LE shooters I know happen to be competitive shooters.
Coincidence? I doubt it.
Shooting is shooting. You don’t have to dress up or have a beard.
Not ground in reality are the tactical athletes who dress up in plate carriers and helmets to run around clearing rooms and practice shooting from the back of a moving truck – oh yeah and on monday they put the tie back on and head into the office for a another week of selling car insurance. There will always be those people who are willing to take the money of a sucker, and there’s not shortage of those firearms instructors pushing their systems and my gun fighting is better than your gun fighting. It comes down to practical application and for most people, the crap some instructors are teaching has no practical application.
Now, as for me. No, I don’t think life has passed me by at all and I’m not too sure 40 is really even that old. I only discovered competitive shooting about 5 years ago. After getting involved in the sport, there were people I thought were good shots that I suddenly realized were just mediocre at best and dangerous at worst. Many of the cops I work with are horrible shots, and I can’t get them to come out to shoot a match. I would much rather rely on an active IDPA shooter that I would some of the cops I work with. I would much rather try things, and fail, on the timer when the only outcome is a bad score.
The best story was this one. Three years ago we had come some Air Force MP or whatever he was called come out and shoot IDPA. He wasn’t good. He was slow from the holster and he was going down a lot of points. He really had trouble staying behind cover and more trouble with movement. Of course, as the day went on, his bitching got louder and more funny. First is was the gun, then it was the ammo, next it was the heat, before finally it was the f’ing rules that were wrecking his performance. In reality, like every other cop, he shoots a static qualifier at static targets. The minute he’s got to move, shoot fast, and shoot from behind cover it became a problem. The things he was tested on, at IDPA, were the basics: Speed from the holster, getting torso shots on target, staying behind cover. He couldn’t do this. Why? He never learned. He never tested himself. Instead of owning up to a poor performance he stormed off after the match and never returned. He relied on the very basic proficiency test from the Air Force as a measure of performance – and that’s where his problem was.
So, as for not understanding defensive and tactical shooting. Let me tell you, in my 16th year as a LEO, I think I have a pretty good grasp on it as well as being forced into the annual defensive/tactical shooting classes that the State of PA requires. I choose to shoot competitively. I do it as an extension of the very basic classes/courses that are required by the State of PA. I do it because god forbid I have to shoot at another human being, I want to win that gun fight. I don’t want to be a statistic. I don’t want to be that cop who fumbles with a retention holster because he’s never had to fire under stress. I don’t want to be that cop who freezes in place because he’s never learn to get to cover and shoot from the move. And, the biggest reason I do it so that I don’t end up being that cop who sends round flying into a daycare because stressed shooting caused errant shots to go all over the place.
So, like I said before. It comes down to basics. Out of the holster fast. Shots on target fast. Being able to repeat those two actions and being able to do it faster.
If you want to get all digicamed up, grow a beard, and talk like the longest day. Have fun with that.
I put a lot of match video online. I’m not afraid to share the poor performances and I take pride in showing the good performances.
“Not ground in reality are the tactical athletes who dress up in plate carriers and helmets to run around clearing rooms and practice shooting from the back of a moving truck – oh yeah and on monday they put the tie back on and head into the office for a another week of selling car insurance. ”
What part of “unorganizated militia” do you not understand?
You are missing the entire point. and making the assumption that those same “tactical athletes” also dont compete.
The Air Force MP (Security Forces) story was a very bad example. They qualify twice a year on the M9 so if he wasn’t shooting on his own or taking classes then that result was to be expected.
I shoot in competitions as well, mostly for fun but I do see the training value that they provide. The problem with competitions is that there are rules and clearly defined routes and objectives. In the real world this isn’t always the case. Many times, during force on force training, competition shooters will get shot because they hesitate when encountering a threat. They are waiting for a range officer to give them commands or for the sound of a timer because that’s what they have been conditioned to do. They also struggle with knowing what is behind their targets and during shoot/don’t shoot scenarios because they are used to that controlled environment where they don’t have to worry about bystanders or other unexpected events that change the dynamic of the situation. I’m not trashing competition shooters, I just think there is so much more to shooting than what happens at an IPSC, IDPA, 3-gun, etc match. Taking classes from a legit, vetted and well qualified instructor can give you more tools to survive an elastic situation involving a deadly encounter in an unfamiliar environment, than just competition shooting can.
“Out of the holster fast. Shots on target fast. Being able to repeat those two actions and being able to do it faster.”
It’s not about being faster at anything, it’s about identifying the threat, delivering accurate shots on target and using your environment to give you an advantage by providing concealment and cover or a better shooting position. Being fast is accomplished by repetition and that can be done during static training by yourself. No need for competitions or advanced training. The fastest guy is usually the first guy to miss under stress.
16 years as a cop and the only valuable training you’ve had is during competitions? That’s sad and your leadership at your dept is to blame. It’s 2015, we’ve moved on from competitions being the only advanced training beyond what the police and military provide.
11. watch out for anyone who claims they spent time “in the sandbox”. you may assume they mean oversees, and they are referring to the one in their backyard.
12. Do not be distracted by their “girlfriend” in short shorts when you ask questions. “so what training have you had that qualifies you to instruct?” “look at her ass, how it jiggle when she shoot…these are not the droids you are looking for”
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=15x8owh&s=8#.VWud40Y3TEs
Right on every point. Jeff Cooper said “make the other SOB take cover”.
Yeah I recall that post and it is generally true when it applies to “mcdojo” instructors.
However, you are attempting to generalize most tactical instructors as mcdojos attempting to teach things that *YOU* feel aren’t “grounded in reality” when this simply isn’t true.
“you’re going to some class thinking you’re going to be seeking cover, doing a tac reload, and re engaging multiple body armor wearing advancing targets – you’re not grounded in reality.”
But that IS grounded in reality, given the purpose behind the 2nd amendment, which is for the people to have a means to challenge a hypothetical tyrannical force, no matter how far fetched such a scenario may be.
So while there is more to “training” than tacticool things, such as combat medicine as somebody brought up, drawing and firing accurately from concealed carry, etc, competition based shooting isn’t everything either. There is more to the 2nd amendment dynamic than just shooting at static targets on time.
FPS Yeager much?
I usually don’t like him. So hes making a thing out of being a libertarian now… On one hand I more or less agree, so good. On the other hand he’s half baked as a libertarian, not leadership grade. Just didnt address the civil rights side of the gay cake controversy. So him ranting about it seems, eh, like an affectation.
I personally look at politics like Religion.
The natural progression is towards an admission of shattered beliefs.
In my youth, I was very liberal. A romantic. Everything should be free and people should be well socialized. Then I started working…paying taxes. And I was conservative. After paying more taxes, I was libertarian. Now I am an Anarchist. I believe all government is flawed, evil, and the crutch of exploitation.
Like. You go from being really religious, to being a holiday Christian, to being a Deist, to ultimately atheism.
Eventually you realize it is all a big lie. William S. Burroughs stated that a psychotic is someone who just realized what’s really going on.
Hauntingly true
De-facto politics went that way for me. I was always an atheist and a libertarian philosophically. For a while I thought the GOP was the best of what was available, and that that was good enough. Then I got tired of them, don’t suppose any further explanation is needed for that, and found out there was such a thing as the Libertarian Party. Then I figured out that I don’t care for the LP either since they’re like an organ of the two-party system, despite being nominally a third party and trying to break it apart. It was a progression towards realizing the shopping trip for a political party was never going to work out.
Anyway, just to take my comment from before more full circle: His libertarianism being affectation, here we’ve got the the AYTM (angry youtube mercenary) making a loud, single-butt-cheeked show of being a libertarian. It’s not a big deal, you know, there’s always goofballs associated with causes, but neither is it something I’m happy about or impressed with him for doing. It’s more like groan-inspiring.