TR 327 - To Fight or Not to Fight

On the eve of Trump's arrest, this seems to be everybody's question.

Luke Throop

Mar 20, 2023

Stay calm.

Whether you plan to protest, to fight, or to just stay home, that is my advice. Stay calm. Breathe. Think. Observe your surroundings. Observe your heart rate. Observe your enemies. Observe your intentions.

Have you ever been punched in the face, for real? I have. I’ve been punched in the face plenty of times. I used to relish the sting and boiling rage that came with it. As an angry young man I used to seek the opportunity to fight with my fists. I went looking for it. I wanted to get punched in the face, because that moment changes everything.

Mike Tyson famously said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.”

Let me ask you: Have you ever punched someone else in the face, for real? I have. Many times. The crisp smack of fist against face is invigorating. It’s a sort of primal empowerment. I remember, as an angry young man, how good it felt to just deck someone who had it coming. “Shut your damn mouth,” I’d think—and that was the last thought. After you punch someone in the face, everything changes.

There is no more “thinking” about it. Now it’s kinetic. Whether you get punched in the face, or you punch someone else in the face, what comes next is chaos. It’s a street fight. It’s survival of the fittest—or the luckiest—and everything else is pure instinct. And training, don’t forget training. Fortunately for me, I’d been training in martial arts, boxing, and hand to hand combat since I was a young boy. Most of my enemies hadn’t.

Laying on the ground, squirming in the blood and the dust, I bet they wish they had.

Interestingly enough, as I was fighting my way through the early years of life, my take on fighting changed over time. The last time I punched someone in the face I was in my mid-thirties. The first time I ever pulled a punch I was in my late thirties. Now I’m in my forties, and when I think about punching someone in the face I think about the consequences. I think about seeing someone bleeding on the ground. I think about the adrenaline, running from the cops, hoping it doesn’t catch up with me.

Whereas I used to feel exhilarated by the fact that I could kill someone with my bare hands—a potential outcome of any conflict, even if it was unintentional—now I think about my family. I think about the people I’ve hurt over the years, all of whom I felt fully justified in thrashing at that particular moment in time. But now?

Now I wonder if there was a better way.

One time, when I was in the infantry, I got busted for brawling at the local bar on base. It wasn’t the first time the MPs had to wrestle me down and smack me around a little to get me to snap out of go mode. But this time, it happened to be the last. The commanding officer gave me an ultimatum: “Luke, you’re either going to the brig, or you’re going to the chaplain’s retreat—because son, you need to get right with God.”

Well, that was a no brainer. I’d rather go “get right with God” than spend a month in the brig contemplating my transgressions. This was a pivotal point in my life. Though it certainly wasn’t the last time I got in a fight, it was the last time I got caught—er, um, it was the last time I punched someone in the face just for the hell of it. The thrill of the fight just wasn’t the same when I was facing time in the slammer.

Fast forward a couple of decades and my warrior spirit was once again roused and ready to fight, this time to fight for my country, which I had sworn to defend against enemies both foreign and domestic. Enemies foreign and domestic. At this point in life, though I had never wanted to touch politics with a ten-foot pole, I realized that in order to fight the forces that were attacking and destroying the country from within I would have to engage in politics—and bare-knuckle politics at that.

My first engagement was the Tea Party movement. My weapon was my word. I had built a presentation called “Losing Liberty: Discussing Obamacare with a Disabled Vet” and spoke in parks and gymnasiums and various meetings. I spoke next to politicians and activists who were in the fight, doing everything they could to be the change and help our country correct course and get back on track.

You know what happened? Obama got re-elected. That was 2012. He said he was going to “fundamentally transform America” and it appeared he was set to be successful. While the Left was drunk on “hope and change,” the majority of so-called “conservatives” were too apathetic to resist. I was disgusted and discouraged. Couldn’t people see what was going on? One controversy after another was unfolding, the Tea Party was being targeted by a weaponized IRS, the DOJ was secretly snatching the phone records of journalists, and Obama was using executive orders to bypass Congress on gun control and environmental issues.

Benghazi. The emails. The Fast and the Furious. The PRISM surveillance system.

All of these scandals and more were front and center for years. They were investigated by the government and then nothing happen. There was no equal justice under the law. Where the hell were all the red-blooded liberty loving Americans during all of this? Why were there no protests? Why was there no accountability?

As the story goes, it was all of this that fed into the election of Donald Trump in 2016. The conservative’s story was that Trump was the people’s choice and he had been elected to drain the swamp. The liberal’s story was that Trump had colluded with Russia to steal the election from Hillary Clinton. Fast forward through four years of clown-shows and sham investigations and we arrive at the 2020 election.

Trump was breaking records and winning in a landslide. Then they turned out the lights and stopped counting. The next day, Biden became the most popular president ever elected. Despite the messy events of J6, and much to the chagrin of everyone who wanted to Make America Great Again, Mike Pence and the rest of the Republican establishment presided over a “mostly peaceful” transition of power.

Which brings us to the current madness:

America is on the edge, is it not?

…and then there’s this:

I see uncertainty swirling through the circles of conversation I’m privy to. Do patriots heed the call to protest? Is this just a set up? What should a patriot do?

To be blunt, that’s up to you. I was at the state capitol protesting the last rigged election. I protested with the People’s Convoy in Washington DC. To be clear, on both occasions there was a distinct sense that a fight may break out at any moment—and I was ready for it. I’m not afraid to get punched in the face, and I do like to fight, but thankfully neither event saw any sort of violence. There were also no real results.

To this day, the shenanigans and political corruption continues.

Do you care? What are you going to do about it? Better yet:

What have you done about it so far?

If there is a huge difference between what you may be willing to do, what you think you should do, and what you have actually done, why is that? What are the reasons that kept your impulse in check? Is it common sense and reason? Is it fear of getting arrested or punched in the face? Is it a hesitation to embrace the discomfort of risking everything (mostly your reputation) for making a stand? If you’ve mostly been on the sidelines and cheering for freedom from a distance, is this time any different?

To be honest, it pisses me off that we are even talking about this. It’s ridiculous—that’s how I feel. Is it a set up? Maybe. Will it be another false flag? Maybe. Will it be another big fat dud? Maybe. Will anything actually change? I highly doubt it.

One thing I feel 100% certain about, is that this is all just political circus—and thus it is a complete and utter waste of time. Don’t take your eye off the ball.

The cabal keeps marching on.

This is going to be an interesting week. I wanted to address this situation, not because I care, but because many of the people that I care about care. How will this all play out? We’ll just have to wait and see. Should you protest or not protest? Search your heart. Wait for peace. Do not be afraid. If you feel called to get involved, stay calm, make a plan, and buddy up—but for me personally, this isn’t the fight I’m looking for.

Stay wise friends.

PS…. You might want to brush up: