You still haven't answered the question though:
If you became aware that a person was using his resources to do things that were conflicting with your values (ie torturing innocent puppies for fun, or anything that you really believe in), would you continue to financially support him at that point?
One of the beautiful things about having a child is you get to, once again, see the world through the eye's of a child. This is sometimes a marvelous experience and sometimes a horrific one.
You are using some of the most inflammatory rhetoric possible to get your point across, it's way beyond hyperbole when you are basically associating Lynn Thompson's actions with that of someone that would torture
puppies.
This is childish. Does it mean
you are being childish? I'm not making a value judgment but it seems to be a really childish thing to say. The only way it could have been any worse is if you added a bunch of exclamation points after it. You know!!!!!!! Example: "What if Lynn tortures PUPPIES!!!!!! What about it then? HUH?"
When any person who simply doesn't hate Lynn Thompson for being Lynn Thompson reads things like this or about the allegation that Lynn was teaching criminals how to use knives against bullet-resistant vests with his advertising, one would hope they would go out and actually buy something from Cold Steel. At least I do.
And this is perfectly fine. What you've seen or know about him thus far hasn't offended you to the point where you shun his product. You admit that if it came to it, you would avoid financially supporting him. Some of us have already been offended to that point and there's nothing wrong with that.
Yes! Some of you have been offended to the point where you don't want to buy a CS product.
Yes! Some of you have been offended to that point and, yes! There is nothing wrong with that!
You then take your righteous indignation from the "offense," either real or perceived, and you go into a thread and basically compare the guy with cop killers and puppy torturers and this is meaningful, honest discourse to you?
I've learned quite a few things on forums over the years. One of the most valuable things I have learned about debating people on a forum, especially very vocal people that have more time to type than they have facts, proof or anything remotely resembling reality in their corner is this: A thread of this length reaches a point where the people who oppose you keep coming back and they won't admit they don't have a leg to stand on and they're just slamming someone or
whatever. The important thing is this, just because you have the tenacity to continue coming back and offering up more nonsense like cruelty to animal comparisons doesn't mean you won the debate or even came close to winning the debate.
None of you have won the debate. You hate Lynn Thompson and/or Cold Steel and I think that's plain to see. That is also your right.
This is what we know:
1. Lynn Thompson was "in-your-face" and aggressive with the G.I. Tanto and the advertising with it. But he didn't lie.
2. Lynn Thompson was accused of teaching criminals how to defeat bullet-resistant vests with his advertising in the 1980s. This is absurd, "reaching" and simply stupid. A desperate grasping at straws that happened when Lynn calling a felon a felon apparently didn't bother most people.
3. Oblique comparisons to puppy torturing puts the idea in some people's heads - this is a very slick tactic. If you didn't mean it that way - it doesn't matter, it's still an age old way to demonize the opposition.
4. The Bob Lum portion of the assault is interesting, we are admonished to phone Bob Lum. The truth of the matter is, you don't know what any of the agreements were, you don't know anything because you were not there, were you?
5. So, why would you believe Lum over Thompson, anyway? Because Lynn calls a felon a felon, because Lynn is put in the same basket as animal torturers however peripherally, because Lynn is accused of teaching criminals how to be more efficient cop-killers with his 1980s Tanto advertisements.
THAT IS THE WAY THIS WORKS. If you don't really have a valid point, start slinging everything you can in an attempt to get the upper hand. You know, slinging as much mud as possible and wait and see if some of it sticks.
Well, it hasn't stuck, only in the minds of those that were predisposed to despise Cold Steel anyway.
6. The one guy who weighed in on the Lum and overall business practices of Cold Steel/Lynn Thompson, one A.G. Russell, flew away on a whisp of genie smoke after Anthony Lombardo had an exchange with him virtual vis-a-vis about Mike Stewart and Blackjack Knives.
Why? Because this is not a thread about hating Mike Stewart and Blackjack Knives! This is a thread about hating Lynn Thompson and Cold Steel! That's why.
That thing where A.G.R. "weighed in" and then never came back is
shameful but it sure was exciting for a moment, wasn't it, until A.G.R. wasn't the center of the universe as you thought he was...either, eh?
Finally, we know this:
7. Cold Steel's DVD Demonstration-meets-Butchershop might hurt knife ownership.
The way to change is not to lump him in with the likes of a Dahmer who nails puppies to trees or with cop killers or any of that, but to address the reality but that's not nearly as exciting, is it? Children poke at a hornet's nest instead of leaving it alone.
