That’s really good context and way to think about it
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Guy playing Grand Theft Auto (with upgrades) in the streets of Philadelphia is apparently not even news:
News? Its called a tuesday, not a newsday. #Murica
How’s his ban on murder going?
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Lol my favorite thing about that story is that in historical context David is the clear betting favorite in that engagement. One side sends in a heavily armored dude who probably has gigantism. The other side sends one of their better slingers. That slinger hard counters that spearman lol. He’s never going to catch the slinger and those rocks are absolutely lethal… probably significantly nastier than some of the smaller small arms rounds on a bullet for bullet basis. You heave 125g of rock at someone with that much leverage it’s going to ruin whatever it hits.
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Don’t think I had ever heard this take before some Malcolm Gladwell talk about a decade ago but is an interesting perspective
I’d read it where Gladwell got it probably, I’ve listened to like one episode of his podcast lifetime and it wasn’t that one (it was the one about golf courses which I actually also agree with entirely). But it’s a pretty obvious take if you know anything really about ancient warfare. Everyone likes to focus on swords because they’re very cool looking in movies, but in real life the standard ancient infantry kit was spear + shield + sling + his personal knife which was honestly used more as a tool than a weapon and both sides spent enormous amounts of time skirmishing with each other using slings, and this was the meta for thousands and thousands of years.
Slingers probably caused the majority of battle casualties in ancient warfare… so posing an elite slinger as an underdog rather than a worthy champion for an entire army is literally just ancient propaganda.
Mason had a passage on david vs goliath as the opening chapter of his history book.
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Lol that take was for sure stolen from Gladwell. Let’s be clear this isn’t some scorching hot history take, it’s super obvious with even a basic understanding of the tactics and organization of ancient militaries.
The sling was something most children learned to use very young for both hunting small game and protecting themselves from dangerous animals if it came to that. It was basically the default peasants weapon. It only fell out of use because other stuff that required less skill came along. It’s a lot less work to get good at throwing a javelin or even firing a bow than it is to get really solid with an old school sling.
I mean the practicality of it is hard to overstate once you can really use it. It’s basically a strap of fabric you have to carry around and as long as you have it you’re a credible threat to anything that wants to hurt you. The ammo is literally everywhere.
You saw the same thing happen to the bow (which requires an absurd amount of skill/practice to get great with even for the less insane options like lol longbows) when the musket arrived. It was just easier to use with a much higher skill floor.
I’m just impressed they could be so accurate with a sling at distance when hard enough for people to aim handguns at distance
Slings are nasty man. And if you’ve been supplementing your diet with small game since you were tball age with one… yeah it’s kind of a core motor skill I’d imagine. Now you take the best person with that weapon in an entire army and it’s pretty goddamn surgical I’m guessing.
Oh and imagine the rate of fire with tons and tons of practice. Probably at least 10 rounds a minute and absolutely lethal at surprisingly long distances.
Didn’t Mason put it in his gambling history book? Maybe I’m misremembering. I haven’t actually read it. I am going by someone else’s account.
Edit: my pony got hit by a slinger
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it’s every bit as bad as you think it’s gonna be
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Fixed Your Song.
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Yea jeez the lyrics are much darker when viewed in that lens.
People express shock lately at how much power law enforcement has in backwater towns with sheriffs, but this isn’t anything new, for instance, lynchings never really stopped. It’s happened in my neck of the woods before even, so I can imagine how much worse it is in the deep south - “black guy hanging from a tree? killed himself. nothing to see here. cant you see the rope?”
they don’t investigate or anything.
Shooting at my partner’s former high school football game last night. 16 year old dead. Sweet country we got here.
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