America is being persecuted by a Chinese high-altitude reconnaissance balloon. The official story is that it is “impossible” to shoot down such a balloon. During WWII, the Japanese used to send explosive-laden balloons over to America. Sheriff Warren Hyde, a Utahan, encountered one such balloon at low-altitude—he seized it and held on for about an hour while the balloon pulled him over barbed wire; it reached about 30ft at one point. Eventually, he tied it down—the sheriff’s photos feature him on top of a loyal steed; he looks every inch the embodiment of the West, of the cowboy.
Now today, you will see much chatter from NPCs that says “it is impossible to shoot down the balloon” because it is made from some super-fabric and even if it’s holed in multiple places the gas it’s filled with will not escape at that altitude and you can’t really fire a missile at it because it and and and and. Now, you might post Sheriff Hyde’s story at them and say, “Sort it out, clowns.” And then they’ll cry at you, “But that balloon was at low altitude and it was made from different material and you’re just an ignorant conservative who doesn’t understand, look read these articles from Air Force Today…”
The point about Sheriff Hyde is not that Hyde’s balloon was almost on the ground and all the other technical details—the point is that Hyde was willing to give it a go (as one man with his horse). He could have easily said to himself, from the horse, “It’s obviously impossible for me, a single sheriff with no aeronautical knowledge, to down a military balloon packed with high explosives. Nothing doing.” He didn’t. Contemporary Americans, in a much better position, refuse to even try—and then miss the point amid nerdy technical excuses (and other interpretations). That’s the point about Hyde: he just automatically saw if he could do it, whereas Americans today say “what can you do?” and shrug.