Thread by @bzdug

I have to watch the 3 hour "Bulletproof Mind" training by self-proclaimed "killology" expert, David Grossman as part of my research for a story.

Figure I'll make it interesting by threading up this man's brainworms for anyone who's interested.

For a primer, check out this short doc by @DoNotResistFilm put out by @fieldofvision in 2017

And for a deeper dive, listen to the @bastardspod episode on Grossman. I'll be referencing research from the host @IwriteOK in several of these tweets.

iheart.com/podcast/105-be…

Grossman is first given a fawning introduction listing his history as a Lt. Col. Army Ranger, along with a plug for his books "On Killing" and "On Combat".

Grossman has in fact no combat experience. He's done nothing but write books and engage with training dummies.

Here we go...

Grossman opens by re-reciting his academic and publishing background.

Says he was "nominated for a Pulitzer", so that's a yikes from me towards the Pulitzer Nominating Jury.

"We've been at war for 14 years... Some of us don't remember 'peacetime military'.

A 'peacetime military' is like a football team that never played a game year after year."

LOL?

"A lot of nonsense, a lot of wishful thinking accumulates over peacetime."

I don't think I can stop to quote everything sus that comes out of this dude's mouth.

I'll keep quotes to the real Holy Shit moments from now on, and just summarize the beats of his presentation.

He rattles off all of the armed forces branches and states he's done training for (all of them).

Then tees off the actual talk by asking "What the hell are we doing in this war?"

Time to "predict future behavior based on past behavior"

He's now speculating on where terrorists are going to strike next (this is 2015).

"The minute they get a nuke. They're gonna use it."

What the fuck is the point of this law enforcement training again? Am I crazy for thinking it's crazy that he's opening by talking about this?

Pakistan, Iran, North Korea all get called out by Grossman. They're like the honey badgers of nukes, don't give AF.

"They're gonna pop it off on some rinky dink little boat a half mile off the shore of San Diego".

Grossman discusses the different fallout patterns of nukes deployed on the west coast, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Great Lakes.

Again, if I were a police officer, how would this information be useful?

I just got whiplash when Grossman zips from "we've never been less ready" for nukes to "They're gonna use Ebola, it's just a matter of time!"

That quickly pivots to the need to shut down the border.

I am only 8 minutes into this.

Fuck.

"The day will come when we try to stop every living creature that comes across that border."

Dude, the day is here where every other country is going to stop us from leaving due to our #COVIDIOCY

Grossman is speculating that "bio-terrorists" will come to America, and deploy a strategy of deliberately giving prostitutes Ebola and AIDS.

I've had bad experiences with threads not posting, and losing a bunch of work. So I'm going to publish this now and keep adding as I go.

I'm pretty sure this is going to take at least 5 hours, and dinner's in an hour. So feel free to check in and out.

While I wrote that last tweet, I let the video keep playing and tuned it out for a bit. Then I heard "a school bus was wiped out in Israel in 1970", he's onto school massacres now as terrorist tactics apparently.

"When you hear about the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th school bus full of dead kids, you'll know it's an act of war"

Ugh. I'm never going to make it.

He trained Turksih police, mentions that Turkey, Algeria, Iraq have all seen suicide bombings in schools. The implication being that we need to be vigilant for WHEN this happens (no room for IF's in Grossman's rhetoric)

Hitler gets some props from Grossman for not using chemical weapons on the battlefield "at his worst", though chided for using them on "their own girls in their own schools"

As I recall, Hitler used chemical weapons on another group of people, but that doesn't get a mention.

He trained Indonesian police, who gave him a "nice little award".

Then he shares a story about three girls beheaded on their way to school by Islamic extremists. The atrocities he lists go on...

He declares that the lessons they've all learned is that armed teachers and parents 24/7 is "the only solution."

He's going on about all the Islamic terrorist attacks on schools for a while.

Thank goodness for "Cocaine" mode on YouTube.

At 14m we are shifting focus to Russia, but Grossman does lead with a terrorist school hostage story the Beslan School Siege.

The EHRC ruled that the failure was due to Russian response, but not for the same reasons as Grossman.

Grossman laments Russian strategy, and tells his audience that "ARMED PEOPLE EVERYWHERE" would have stopped this tragedy.

I can't devote too much attention to this Beslan tragedy, but the criticisms of the Russian government by the actual victims don't align with Grossman's at all. From what I can tell, the Russian troops had the Warrior Mindset that Dave aims to foster.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beslan_sc…

Now he tells the officers at this Air Force Base that schools around military bases will be targets for Islamic terrorists.

He's talked about school massacres for 10 of the last 20min.

Just as quickly as he switched over to school attacks, Grossman has moved on to the next threat on his list...

I have to break to make dinner. It's "Taco Tuesday", and I should be happy about that, but I'm quite sad about everything I've watched so far.

And we're back...

I'm skipping all the burning school parts. Getting to the meat now:

"The local police are the Delta Force, they are the Green Berets. Our strength is that we have given the responsibility and the tools right down to the lowest level."

"It's their job to go in like thunder."

This "go in like thunder" line has been hit three times in the last 90 seconds.

Grossman claims a green beret spoke to him a month after 9/11. "While we're in Afghanistan, you tell all those cops you teach, 'Don't let those bastards come kill my kids.'"

I'm starting to wonder if this fearmongering about terrorists hitting schools ever ends.

Grossman claims every single person in the Armed Forces has re-enlisted for the previous 10 years (since 2005). That just can't be right.

He goes on to say the last time that happened was the American Revolution. Uhhhh, k.

Grossman talks about his AF combat controller son. After his son's 3rd tour, he came home for the birth of his baby. Grossman jokes to his son "It's good to be [home] when the baby's born, even better to be there when it's conceived."

Probably a sore subject for some soldiers.

Grossman hits a key thesis point that connects terrorism to local police:

"We've kept [the terrorists] off our back for 13 years. They're doing to us what they did to Russia. Waiting for us to get sick of the war and go home, and then it's their turn."

A detour to attack all Arab nations for rejecting democracy, and this line romanticizing Iraq:

"There's 10,000 pissants in the media who will never give our military credit... but it's obvious we brought the sweet winds of liberty to a distant land."

Grossman takes a moment to recommend this book by John Giduck, and then spends a solid minute defending Giduck from online "goofballs" who keep trying to discredit him.

Here's one of the "goofball" websites.

johngiduckterroratbeslan.blogspot.com

More goofballs:
web.archive.org/web/2012072805…

Here's a summary and the first 3 pages.

(Now back to our regularly scheduled programming)

"Our enemy's evil. Our cause is just. Our sacrifice is for a noble and worthy purpose."

Those phrases have been peppered into this speech at least three times now. Two in pretty quick succession.

Two more times while I typed out this tweet, actually.

Everyone's pumped, time for the next pivot point:

"As a fire fighter studies fire, we study violence."

Then points out the other difference, which is that they don't fight fire with fire, but police fight violence with "superior violence."

Grossman writes on his paper that 50-80 LEOs are killed on duty annually, but then goes off on a rant about how if we had 1970s medical tech, and no body armor, the number would be way higher.

Then says 200-450 suicides annually, and all these numbers are the tip of the iceberg

He's lamenting how many officers quit and then commit suicide, or are lost to PTSD, depression, and "other dynamics".

Here comes another thesis point:
"The weak link is the mind, yes?"

Yes, Dave. Yes.

This part all kicked off with Grossman referencing a study of soldiers at Normandy beach, which he's come back to. He says the study claims that 98% of the soldiers became "psychiatric casualties."

What about that 2%? Grossman has a theory.

The animal metaphor is off and running.

"What does a wolf call a sheep that stands up to him?
Lunch!

What does a wolf call a bunch of sheep that stand up? A buffet!"

I beg to differ:

"Have you resolved in your heart that you are fully prepared to snuff out a human life?

If you can't make that decision, you're in the wrong job."

"You're a predator. And the sheep don't like having predators around."

I'm not transcribing anymore of this weird farm. He's talking about the Uber Sheep that I think is supposed to be the ACLU or something.

He flat out says that if you have a "propensity for violence", but also some empathy, then you are the prime candidate for being a cop.

A "warrior" in Grossman's words.

He's now hit the title of the presentation, the "Bulletproof Mindset", and tells everyone to watch "American Sniper" as their first assignment.

I'd recommend just reading some articles that came out about a year after this presentation.

theintercept.com/2016/05/25/ame…

Grossman says that this scene in American Sniper wasn't in Kyle's book, it's lifted from Grossman's blog with his permission.

Time for the first break, but when we return Grossman will talk about holocaust survivors and POWs who walk out of death camps and "upstairs, they're just fine!"

Wonder if he's gonna tell us they had BulletProof™ Minds.

I bet they had BulletProof™ Minds.

Now Grossman is explaining the scale between sheep and sheep dogs.

Denial vs Acceptance of the need to kill.

Grossman sees his job as helping officers accept violence mentally.

Telling a story of hanging out with his grandson, who says "Grandpa, there's scary things in the night."

Grossman replied with a laugh, "Yeah, it's us!"

[Gestures to the room full of cops]

Now he's showing off a kids book that he has since published.

It's fine.

If you aren't armed at all times, and completely psychologically prepared to kill someone, then you're living in denial according to Grossman.

Now more amping up the emotions, telling everyone to go back and *reeeeally* watch 9/11 footage and soak it all in.

He wants cops to get that "Never Again" rage high, and sustain it indefinitely.

Everybody's heard about Post Traumatic Stress, Grossman's here to tell you about Post Traumatic Growth.

Anyone want to volunteer to suggest that re-framing to the victims of police violence?

Now PTG is a real thing that appears to be getting discussed, especially within veteran's care services.

But Grossman is dangling it in front of officers essentially saying "Hey, killing people is traumatic, but it may make you a better person!"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-trau…

Grossman isn't quoting any Scientific literature, he opts instead for Romans 5:3 "we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience"

Tangent into suicides and homicides committed by ex-military. He thinks the suicide rates are hyped up, and is doing a lot of weird math to minimize the amount of homicides.

4 yrs after the talk I'm watching and I'd say the suicides are real.

washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

Grossman really hates Hollywood and media propaganda he calls "the pity party" that boo-hoos how *terrible* war is.

Again, this man has never been in active combat.

He's telling the crowd that only 8% of vets actually experience PTSD, and that 30-40% of those counted in the Lyin' Media only experienced "some symptoms." He just calls those folks "normal".

Here's data from the VA, and Grossman's scrawlings.

Attacking what I imagine is the straw man argument that "PTSD is for life", again angry at "pity party" propaganda. Says that psychologists tell him all the time they've successfully treated people with it, but he uses the word "cure", and thinks he's exposing some big lie.

He says the "PTSD is for life" line only gets used for anti-war poltiics, and by cynical, grifter psychiatrists who want to just milk vets for money indefinitely.

The other narrative to fight against is the "macho man/woman" propaganda. I'm very confused if this isn't that, but I'm less than half way through.

Hoooo boy.

He is not diminishing anyone's "warrior path" that does involve PTSD, but he closes the mental portion of this talk with "Beware the Pity Party" and then mentions resiliency for the 1000th time in the last 84minutes.

Moving onto physically preparing the body for violence.

Sleep Deprivation is "the weak link in our chain".

He claims it is the greatest predictor of ethical violations, police violence, suicide, and PTSD.

Grossman admits that he lost little brother and a nephew to suicide. This quickly turns into admonishing parents for letting kids use cellphones and laptops before bed.

Where's this going? If you guessed video games, congrats!

"Video games are responsible for 15% of all divorces in America!"

He talks about how time dilates when you're gaming, and then you stay up late gaming, which is true.

He compares it to drinking or gambling.

This part of the lecture sounds like he's chiding a grandson.

This sleep deprivation⛓️video game goes on for a full 10 minutes.

Now he's talking about naps. I know I could use one.

Ya'll, the sleep deprivation stuff goes on for 20 more minutes.

I get it, but honestly he just kind of winds up the same points over and over and over again.

Now onto what happens to their bodies under the stress of combat.

All of this is from his book "On Combat", and courses available through grossmanacademy.com

He's going through the effects of elevated heart rate, adrenaline, oxygen.

So far this is the least ideologically tinged portion of the presentation. I even found an article that analyzed this book's utility for peace workers navigating combat zones.

beyondintractability.org/bksum/grossman…

So let's see where this goes...

Grossman talks about the great fuckin' cops and firefighters have after a high-stress day on the job.

"There's not a whole lot of perks that come with this life. You find one, relax and enjoy it."

I'm just moving the fuck on from that...

Now he's extolling the virtues of his "calm down" trick:

Get the agitated person to drink a bottle of water.

He "doesn't do counseling or therapy", he just knows that this water trick works.

Now he's going into more "black" conditions on his combat chart. Auditory exclusion, tunnel vision.

All very mechanical and accurate tmk.

But we're due for a turn...

"YOU CAN'T LEARN THIS STUFF IN PEACETIME!"

Ok, this is pretty "huge" as he says, but I think we disagree on the connotation of "huge".

The military has been applying sports psychology since 2001. I have no idea where this is about to go.

Time for Grossman to plug another of his book: Warrior Mindset, which he says was primarily written by Michael Asken, PhD.

Another quick plug that Grossman swears by.
amazon.com/Secrets-Mental…

Now time to learn about "Stress Inoculation".

The tool that Grossman wants to talk about is "Simunition", and he plugs a book by the creator.

store.buildingshooters.com/products/train…

NYPD started using paint bullets for training, and look at these awesome results!

Half as many bullets were used to shoot citizens 3x more!

If this guy really wants people playing video games less, maybe don't say "Game Over" after telling a story about a cop killing someone.

Just a bit of rhetorical advice.

He has never experienced "the real thing".

I just don't get how he can claim earlier that "YOU CAN'T LEARN THIS STUFF IN PEACETIME", but he's apparently an authority w/o having any combat experience.

All of his own stories of anything remotely stressful are from training.

You know damn well if this guy had even one story about being in combat, it'd be somewhere in this fucking beast of a lecture.

Getting into the real shit now.

This is how many of the greatest generation pissed or shit themselves.

No shame. Just is.

"Battle craps" is a term, apparently.

This is my favorite part of the presentation.

Ok, moving into the 2 1/2 hour mark. One hour left...

I have to pick this back up tomorrow.

Whoa, one more quote to save.

"When the moment of truth comes, don't worry. We've made killing a conditioned response, you'll be fine."

Time to go have some nightmares.

I promise I'm going to finish, but I have paying website clients to attend to first.

In the meantime, why not check out the leaked copy @UR_Ninja released of a marked up manual used by an officer who took Grossman's #BulletproofMindset course unicornriot.ninja/2018/bulletpro…

Picking back up only 52 minutes to go...

"What's to stop [police] from using their skills on their own people?" Grossman asks.

Discipline and conformity.

Not a great answer.

Now for a brief history of military haircuts... which concludes with:

"It doesn't matter what their hair looks like, what matters is submission to authority!"

Then back to haircuts for a minute.

This part is clearly filler. He's just hammering "whatever standard is, enforce it! that's the safeguard. don't let go of that safeguard. but enforce it! that's the safeguard." and this does seem to be primarily directed toward grooming habits.

He's "saving the best for last".

He believes, based on his anecdotes, that everyone's first response to someone dying is "that could have been me!"

Then he hits his chest and flashes the crazy eyes.

Good preface to throw in as he starts to physical reactions now is that a a lot of Grossman's assertions about human behavior are based on cherry-picked data and conversations he's claimed to have had.

He also appears takes good science and repurpose it.

Perfect example of why this is good to hold in your mind:

"I am convinced that 'slow motion time' is real."

"I have had hundreds & hundreds of people tell me they have seen a bullet in combat."

Half of all trained seasoned cops have memory gaps.
Hmmm.

I have no idea how many people have made it this far down the thread, but apologies for disappearing.

I just want to assure you that the tweets have only stopped because of how many damn tangents I am going on to really understand the studies that Grossman relies on.

I just got my hands on an online training he did for a LE conference this week.

So that means I get to watch the current incarnation of Grossman's 3 hour presentation and see what updates he's made....

@threadreaderapp unroll