I’ve been wondering the case of Teresa Youngblut and Felix Bauckholt. A hotel employee called the cops on them because they were “dressed in tactical clothing and protective gear, while also being armed”. Does this pass the threshold of “too weird” in New England? Or maybe it was New England forbearance that let them get away with it for as long as they did? Or maybe it’s possible to be weird in New England, as long as one has the right kind of vibe.
I am not familiar with the details of that case, unfortunately. And rural New England gun culture is a big and complicated subject. But yeah, if you walk around in public with, say, an AR-15 and a plate carrier vest, plenty of people are going to notice. What they do about it, that’s another question. Generally speaking, you don’t want to interact too directly with the sort of people who walk around wearing body armor in a town with a population of 1,000. They are, not to put too fine a point it, armed. And they have badly deficient risk assessment. The correct response to people with bad epistemics and AR-15s is the same as the correct response to bull moose in rutting season: keep your distance, avoid loud noises, and minimize direct confrontation.
As for less dangerous sorts of weird, well, I’m speaking in anthropological generalities. New England still has all the same kinds of people you’d find anywhere else. You can find amazing people and idiots and jerks and loudmouthed racists. What changes in different cultures is the proportions of these people, and the broad cultural “overlays” of what’s valued, what’s seen as tacky, and what’s taken for granted. If you’re the only black person in a rural New England town, you will absolutely interact with your local racists sooner or later. There is no place on earth where you can escape people being people. Even if you live in a culture where your economy is based on (say) elaborate competitive gifts to other villages, there’s still going to be an old man grumbling about “kids these days” and their sloppy work ethic preparing gifts. Humans are going to human, wherever they are.
But the whole New England thing of rescuing strangers’ cars from ditches without a second thought, but often taking 5-20 years to really warm up to new arrivals? It’s almost hilariously real. But it doesn’t change fundamental human nature, it only remixes it.
I’ve been wondering the case of Teresa Youngblut and Felix Bauckholt. A hotel employee called the cops on them because they were “dressed in tactical clothing and protective gear, while also being armed”. Does this pass the threshold of “too weird” in New England? Or maybe it was New England forbearance that let them get away with it for as long as they did? Or maybe it’s possible to be weird in New England, as long as one has the right kind of vibe.
I am not familiar with the details of that case, unfortunately. And rural New England gun culture is a big and complicated subject. But yeah, if you walk around in public with, say, an AR-15 and a plate carrier vest, plenty of people are going to notice. What they do about it, that’s another question. Generally speaking, you don’t want to interact too directly with the sort of people who walk around wearing body armor in a town with a population of 1,000. They are, not to put too fine a point it, armed. And they have badly deficient risk assessment. The correct response to people with bad epistemics and AR-15s is the same as the correct response to bull moose in rutting season: keep your distance, avoid loud noises, and minimize direct confrontation.
As for less dangerous sorts of weird, well, I’m speaking in anthropological generalities. New England still has all the same kinds of people you’d find anywhere else. You can find amazing people and idiots and jerks and loudmouthed racists. What changes in different cultures is the proportions of these people, and the broad cultural “overlays” of what’s valued, what’s seen as tacky, and what’s taken for granted. If you’re the only black person in a rural New England town, you will absolutely interact with your local racists sooner or later. There is no place on earth where you can escape people being people. Even if you live in a culture where your economy is based on (say) elaborate competitive gifts to other villages, there’s still going to be an old man grumbling about “kids these days” and their sloppy work ethic preparing gifts. Humans are going to human, wherever they are.
But the whole New England thing of rescuing strangers’ cars from ditches without a second thought, but often taking 5-20 years to really warm up to new arrivals? It’s almost hilariously real. But it doesn’t change fundamental human nature, it only remixes it.