While watching YouTube recently, I came across a video by James Yeager, a brilliant military and personal defense tactician who is socially deeply misguided, in which he demonstrates which amateur radio transceivers he owns and how he carries them. Apparently, at least based on the stream of comments to the video, he does not have an amateur radio license.

Some of us in the amateur radio community who saw the video chimed in that he needed to get his license, and we were all immediately set upon by a cacophony of ugly protests. It’s safe to say, based on my experience, that the vast majority of Yeager’s following is right wing NRA-types. Here are but a few shining examples…

1. “Guess what? I transmitted on a ham radio and nothing happened.”
2. “I’ve listened to ham radio and it’s pretty worthless.”
3. “In a SHTF/WROL scenario, who cares about a license?”

1. First, claiming that if a consequence didn’t happen once, it won’t happen again is the way teenagers think. Guess what? I drove drunk and nothing happened. I flew an airplane without a license and nothing happened. I fucked a Haitian whore and nothing happened.

2. If you think something regulated by the government is “worthless” or you otherwise don’t like it, you can do with it as you please?

3. The good news is that the end-of-the-world (SHTF/WROL = Shit Hits the Fan/Without Rule of Law) these preppers are so eager to see is never going to happen, so in reality, their ham radios will be doing the same thing as their tactical vests and canned food: nothing.

So what is the bottom line for them, then? Entitlement. If they want something, they should have it, whether they have earned it or not.