When I started this blog in 2009 (shit I’ve been writing almost every weekday for two years) I had two major concerns; I’d get bored and stop updating regularly or I’d run out of things to write about. Well it appears as through I actually enjoy writing (maybe I should start working on that novel I’ll never finish) so I haven’t had the urge to stop updating and as I learn more in life I’m finding a plethora of things to write about.
I’ve been meaning to do an introspection post where I write about any advantages I feel I’ve received since starting my blog. One advantage through writing on an almost daily basis is the extent of my vocabulary has increased quite a bit. Anybody reading this site can go through my older posts and see far fewer different words were used. The other advantage is an increase in my storehouse of knowledge.
One goal I had with this site is stating both my opinion and factual information. The engineering part of my brain requires I portray any information as accurately as possible. This leads to my using words that make no concrete confirmation such as probably and most likely. It has also lead me to look up the actual facts on subjects instead of going by information provided by most news outlets. Unlike Fox News, MSNBC, and NPR many bloggers like to dig up the actual source of information they’re talking about. For example if I talk about a piece of legislation I try to find the actual bill or law, read it, and post a link to it so others can read it. One of my pet peeves is when an article talks about a law but doesn’t mention either the bill number of reference name of the bill making the act of looking it up difficult.
Doing this fact checking has lead to an extensive increase in the amount of actual knowledge I have at hand. Instead of talking about gun laws I think are in place I can state authoritatively what gun laws are in place. Having factual information is great but it comes at a price, the loss of naivety. When you learn about the history behind laws you realize they weren’t passed with good intentions. One quick example is the fact most early gun laws were passed to prevent newly freed blacks from purchasing firearms. Another example that seems to be big these days is the extensive number of marriage laws which were originally passed to prevent blacks from marrying whites. Learning things like this really destroys any positive outlook you may have on government.
I’ve always had a libertarian outlook on life but as I’ve started researching political issues I must say I’ve moved further and further away from any belief that government is good. This position was more beaten into me than anything. Every law I research, every government action I looked into, and finding the real meaning behind words spoken by politicians has lead me to the realization that government is run almost exclusively by assholes.
With all of that said I really enjoy the fact that I’ve become a walking repository for information regarding guns. Much of what I’ve learned about firearms has only happened because I chose to write about them. I also like the fact that I usually know quite about about actual news events (I still know nothing about the latest celebrity news which I’m grateful for).
In summary I feel as though writing this blog has made me a much smarter person. When I was in elementary and high school I remember teachers telling us to write everyday. They always claimed that you would be a better person for it but alas in my youth I wasn’t smart enough to take their advice. Now that I am actually going along with that idea I’ve learned those teachers were right. Cripes I can’t believe I’ve actually come to a conclusion which agrees with what I was taught in school. Most of the information I was taught there ended up being statist bullshit, but I guess real information was there to be had outside of shop class if one looked hard enough. Lesson learned.