It can’t all be beer and skittles. I’ve told you this before, as I’m sure you remember — well, at least some of you remember it. The point here, class, is that sometimes we need to talk about serious things and things that may not be so much fun, or at least not as much fun as drinking beer and playing skittles.
(Playing skittles was evidently a thing back in jolly old England around the mid-1800s or so. If I’ve got it right, skittles is something akin to modern-day bowling, and it was played in a street or an alley, often accompanied by beer drinking. Sounds kind of fun to me, but I digress.)
What I would like to talk to you about today is the ongoing phenomenon of how we talk to each other and what we say to each other in the wonderful world of the internet and social media. We are talking about how we behave on social media, and specifically when addressing each other in the world of hunting, fishing and wildlife management. Just to be blunt about it, what I see these days on social media with hunters, anglers and other sportsmen addressing each other, and those in the various fish and game departments, can be pretty dismal.
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First, I think it needs to be said that this is nothing new and has been going on for some time (more is the pity). I’m sure it is old news to you that the platform of the Book of Faces, Instagram or whatever social media form you usually follow is a perfect place for those who would hurl outrageous threats (yes, threats), insults and wild accusations about anything in the outdoors world, knowing you will never have to face that person.
That, in a nutshell, is the main problem with social media in general: Those who would engage in this kind of behavior can say what they want to people they don’t know, without any thought of ever having to face that person.
Need some examples? OK. You don’t have to look very far on any hunting-related page on Facebook to see some sort of fracas about baiting for deer or other wildlife, whether your state should allow the use of crossbows (hard to believe we are still fighting about that one), or maybe if there should be a restriction on antler size for buck deer.
Now those issues are not new, and there are plenty of hunters on both (or three) sides of these topics. My point is this: We have to be able to talk about these things in a polite and civilized manner and not immediately go to name calling and finger pointing.
A classic exchange would go something like this. A hunter on a deer hunting page on Facebook makes a comment about something such as baiting for deer. Very quickly, there will be comments agreeing and disagreeing with him, and those who disagree may not be very cordial from the start. There are usually shots taken at the person’s hunting ability, because he is baiting, and the usual insults about how he must be a lazy hunter because he won’t “just get out and hunt” and resorts to hunting over bait.
As we have said here many times before, if baiting for wildlife is legal in your state or area and you want to use it, then do so. If you don’t want to bait, then don’t. What we cannot have is the troubling lack of unity among hunters over these issues.
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As I am sure you know, the topic of baiting is not the only thing on the menu for hunters to argue about on social media. As noted earlier, the legal use of a crossbow still draws the ire of some in the archery world, and I admit I don’t totally understand this. If a crossbow is legal in your state and you abide by the seasons and bag limits on deer, does it really matter if the arrow (or bolt) that takes that deer comes from a crossbow, a compound bow, a recurve or a long bow? I say no. And even worse, do we need to get on social media and hurl all kinds of insults at those who seem to disagree with us? I don’t think so.
Another trend I see in the wonderful internet quagmire is hunters and fishermen are becoming more disrespectful to the officials, biologists, and officers in the various fish and game and wildlife management agencies.
Friends, could you think about for just one minute how hard a job some of these departments have? I was at a gathering just the other day of some local people at a community center. Being in a farming and deer-rich area, it wasn’t long before I heard complaints about the deer. In this area it is usually something like there are too many deer and they are a real pest with the gardens and crops and tearing up cars on the roadways. All of this is true, no doubt, but I couldn’t help but think how if the deer herd takes a downward cycle, there will be complaints about what the DNR is (or isn’t) doing to get the deer numbers back up.
Maybe you see my point. In some ways, no matter what your state fish and game department does, by some people’s accounts, they will be wrong. Try to think about this sometimes. Managing the deer and the turkeys and the bears and the smallmouth bass is not an exact science.
As hunters and fishermen, leave the snarky comments behind. We are all bigger than that.
“Guns & Cornbread” is written by Larry Case, who lives in Fayette County, W.Va. You can write to him at larryocase3@gmail.com.