I am so sick and tired of the holier-than-thou types who look down their noses at us. “Us” being the physically-active, close-to-the-land carnivores who choose to gather some of our own food the old fashioned way.
Wild-crafted free-range protein … you gotta problem with that?
In the West, a “Coca-Cola cowboy” is a poser, looks the part but wouldn’t know a heifer from a Hereford. “All hat and no cattle” is a similar description of this notorious breed. The first moniker is appropriate for many of our acquaintances; the second too rich in irony to address here and now.
You know the type: pontificating about how healthy a vegetarian diet is, or holding court on how “cruel” killing is, all the while wearing leather shoes. Or the soccer mom driving her Prius down the road liquefying bugs, vaporizing birds and flattening possums on the way to her Humane Society meeting. Or the patchouli-oiled dread-head railing on the superiority of his organic-natural-additive-and-poison free diet, then tossing back PBRs like it was happy hour on Judgment Day.
When I was in politics, it was easier to call bullsh*t. It was a battle to the death, so to speak, us versus them. Now, not so much … especially, as my lovely wife points out so often, when they’re neighbors/friends/etc.
It would be easier to tolerate their bulging-eyed rants if they actually believed their own mantra of “live and let live.” But I’ve yet to meet one who actually walks the talk. They don’t eat meat … but Chilean sea bass prepared by a celebrity chef is okay. “Nothing with a face” enters their own pie hole, but fresh calamari is to die for! Or the “vegetarian” who came to our Thanksgiving dinner and ate the stuffing that had cooked in the turkey, but not the turkey itself.
Or the worst offender, while never admitting it: It’s all good, as long as someone else does the dirty work and delivers my protein hermetically sealed in plastic, in a shape no longer resembling the original animal. Translation: you are scum, ideally suited to the task of chasing-killing-gutting … but I am above all that.
How do you deal with this? I’m not looking for guidance because I let the chips fall where they may depending on the stupidity of my opponent. But I am curious to know what you’ve done in these types of situations, and how it turned out.
Think about it. Even if you’ve never run into a bore like those above. What would you do?
I’m not asking how you would “convert” someone to your side, just how you would react and respond so that “our” side is accurately portrayed and our passion (hunting) is not further threatened with abolition using the “humane” argument. Or is that even possible? Or do you care?
I think it does, because as Benj. Franklin said “if we don’t all hang together we will most assuredly hang separately.”
What about you?
Scott Linden Outdoors 
Sometimes in the interest of getting along with a coleague I have chosen to play it light and loose and just allow them to live in their world and me in mine. On rare occaision that isnt enough for them as they want to assert themselves and their superior views. One such individual an employee chose to engage me with an audience mistaking my manners for weakness…..Mistake . She being a speciest felt that it was only appropriate to eat meat from the grocery store ” because that is what they are for” . My question to her was did she really bleive that the burger that she purchased was eager and wanted to be on a white foam tray covered with clear plastic over grazing. Blank looks and studdering followwed. My follow up question was did she care about wildlife on her property. Of course she did…..Do you plant food plots, plant trees , lease property and improve it to provide better habitat….more blank confused looks. So let me get this right you just stay indoors eating your burgers, thinking about what a bad person I must be while your wildlife and property starve for stewardship. You just sit there caring away , while I spend thousands of dollars and hours working at provideing habitat. I am so impressed by all that caring your doing you must be exhausted.Care away if you must but I prefer to do something. I havent heard her mention any anti hunting veiws in years.
Amen!
Hunting is about as organic as you can get.
Killing another living thing takes great responsibilty, and sympathy should be felt. Unforetunetly, too many idiot hunters exist and ruin peoples perception. People want to complain, they don`t want to listen to the good stories. Stories like fathers and sons becoming closer and forming a life long bond and hanging on to a way that we all once lived. People don`t think twice about a lion killing a baby deer. That`s called nature. People are too smart for their own good sometimes.
Some liberals do hunt, and some of us think. I enjoy you more when you leave politics out.
Bob, I have no problem with liberal thinking. I have a problem with hypocrites. Hypocrisy is not exclusive to one political philosophy, skin color, religion or income bracket.
When I was working I took part in the rehab of a State owned WMA. The plan called for severe thinning of the over grown forest and replanting the opened space to warm season grasses. Then it was discovered that there was a small population of an endangered butterfly in the area. BUT, shelter and food plants would respond and provide habitat for the butterfly if the canopy were removed.. The total cost of the project was $1.2 million. The state received it for free. I planted 120 acres to a WSG mix using an ATV and Seedslinger. I, personally, was skewered by a Vegan, not to my face, but in the pages of the NY Times. Never talked to him or the reporter about the project and the quoted words were all words I spoke but never in the order printed. I did nothing as I was a federal employee. At least my name was spelled correctly. To make matters worse, supporters of the project slid under rocks, even though they were doing the exact same project in other areas but on private lands.
The project scope was to create open grass lands for ground nesting birds. It received limited funding from the local QU group and we bought the seed from PF. It sure looked good a few years later.
So what do you say? Move aside and let men work to improve wildlife habitat.
Great Post. I completely disagree about “group think’ being along partisan lines. That’s nonsense. Rush Limbaugh calls his fans “ditto heads” and if that’s not group think, I do not know what is. Idiots and followers and lazy people come in all colors and flavors.
Convert or snappy retort?
“God and Darwin didn’t make junk, and they gave us canine teeth for a reason” covers a lot of ground.
That said, I always point out that NO ONE kills more wildlife than a vegetarian because they kill the POSSIBILITY of wildlife. Walk with me through a corn field or a soybean field and you will find not a single thing alive — no birds, no bugs, no snakes, no deer. The forest is alive, and so it the weed-choked field , but nothing much is alive in farm field where everything is plowed, sprayed, cut and turned over.
You want life, you protect land. You protect land by standing with hunters.
Patrick
I tell meat eaters that there are hunters and scavengers. Hunters kill their own meat Scavengers eat parts of someone else’s kill. As for veggie munchers the Ted Nugent quote “I love vegetarians. I eat a lot of them” seems to work well.
” If you not a liberal at at 20 years old you don’t have a heart, if your not a conservative at 30 years old you don’t have a brain”. Winston Churchill.
So THAT’S where it came from! Thanks Mike.
Recently Democrats have been described as those who act based on “feelings” and “group think”, and Republicans on rational thought and individual experience. Discussions with “group thinkers” who have been programmed mostly by college atmosphere have let this period define their thinking, and often don’t develop individual thought and politics until 35 or older. If they find a comfortable niche out of the real world they may never develop an individual politic.
Oregon has more than its’ share of these folks, and arguing and persuading are pointless, because there is often no thought structure underneath their position, just a belief that it’s wrong. Some cry and some get mad, having no tools to enter the discussion.
If someone has made an effort to experience a hunt or do some shooting, and decide it’s not for them, that’s fine, and I respect that. I’ve know women who loved to shoot, but were just too sensitive about killing birds to continue hunting, and that’s fine too. If it goes on to a belief should eliminating that choice for others, then you know you’re wasting your time and words.
Hi Bob,
I wish I knew who said it first: “If you’re not a liberal when you’re 20 years old you don’t have a heart. If you’re not a conservative at 30 years old you don’t have a brain.”
I have to laugh at how many people here in northeast Wisconsin believe that it’s cruel to kill an animal for food. They usually nake this statement while chowing on a 10-16 dollar specialty hamburger that they insist is made from animal that have died a natural death from old age. I usually explain to them that all the meat that they eat was from an animal that was killed specifically for someone to eat. I then explain to them that the only difference between them and ne is that they don;t have the stomach or balls to harvest their own meat and that they would rather pay someone else to do the dirty work. Needless to say I don’t have many liberal friends.
Roger, are you from the People’s Republic of Madison?
When I was young and single I met a beautiful girl in a downtown SLC bar. We had a great time playing darts and joking around. A week later we went on a first date. I knew I was in trouble when she ordered a vegan meal. I ordered quail with a raspberry glaze that was to this day the best I have eaten. She scorned me as I enjoyed my meal. I tried reasoning with her with why we harvest rooster pheasants while letting hens fly…I told her how there wouldn’t be any wildlife with sportsman’s money. She didn’t hear a word I said. I finished my quail and dropped her off early. I laughed thinking to myself … WOW! Me on a date with an animal rights activist vegitarian. God does have a sense of humor.
It’s been a long time, but thanks to you Bret, i actually recall a very similar college-days incident. I wonder whatever happened to Francine?
Funny thing Scott I don’t even remember her name.
I just shake my head and say “You have no full understanding of what you are talking about….so leave me alone” that usually takes care of it, or really pisses them off! Either way, I just keep on doing what I like! Enjoy yourself…life is short!
I’m betting you’ve learned the value of pissing certain people off much sooner than I did. That is part of enjoying life!