I’m A Liberal Who Loves Hunting. Allow Me To Change Your Mind

[Hoas]

I’m a liberal who loves hunting. Allow me to change your mind

When I killed my first mule deer, I felt deep reverence for the animal. It showed me hunting can be more honest and sustainable than eating factory-farmed meat

www.theguardian.com

"Murderer! You’re a murderer!”
That is what my French mother shouts down the phone line – right after I tell her I had grouse for dinner.

“Grouse?” she gasps.

“Yes,” I say, using my nonchalant voice. “We went hunting and shot two of them. Plump ones. I braised them in a mushroom broth and served them with stewed apples and potato mash.”

She shrieks.

“I can’t believe you killed an animal!”

“Mom! Didn’t you just make lamb tagine?”

Pause.

“Yes, I cooked a Moroccan tagine with raisins, green olives and a lot of cinnamon,” she replies defensively. “I made it with lamb I bought at the farmers’ market. What’s your point?”

“My point is,” I say, “where do you think that lamb came from? Did it magically appear on your plate?”

It was not a conversation I was going to win, not even with a French woman living in the land of duck foie gras, cured pork sausage and snails – all of which was killed far less humanely than the grouse on my plate.

That is what I was trying to tell Mom: hunting may be morally complex, but it is a far more honest and sustainable way to consume meat than the factory-farmed products most people eat.

I am not arguing for everyone to go out and hunt their dinner – that would be absurd. But the reflexive disdain for hunters on much of the left feels misplaced.

Let me explain.

 

[leslie hetrick]

and who has been trying to take your firearms?

 

[sgt_zim]

I’m a liberal who loves hunting. Allow me to change your mind

When I killed my first mule deer, I felt deep reverence for the animal. It showed me hunting can be more honest and sustainable than eating factory-farmed meat

www.theguardian.com

"Murderer! You’re a murderer!”
That is what my French mother shouts down the phone line – right after I tell her I had grouse for dinner.

“Grouse?” she gasps.

“Yes,” I say, using my nonchalant voice. “We went hunting and shot two of them. Plump ones. I braised them in a mushroom broth and served them with stewed apples and potato mash.”

She shrieks.

“I can’t believe you killed an animal!”

“Mom! Didn’t you just make lamb tagine?”

Pause.

“Yes, I cooked a Moroccan tagine with raisins, green olives and a lot of cinnamon,” she replies defensively. “I made it with lamb I bought at the farmers’ market. What’s your point?”

“My point is,” I say, “where do you think that lamb came from? Did it magically appear on your plate?”

It was not a conversation I was going to win, not even with a French woman living in the land of duck foie gras, cured pork sausage and snails – all of which was killed far less humanely than the grouse on my plate.

That is what I was trying to tell Mom: hunting may be morally complex, but it is a far more honest and sustainable way to consume meat than the factory-farmed products most people eat.

I am not arguing for everyone to go out and hunt their dinner – that would be absurd. But the reflexive disdain for hunters on much of the left feels misplaced.

Let me explain.

View attachment 711272

Maybe with time, she'll become as introspective and self-aware about guns as she is hunting.

The NRA only looks right wing because the shooting sports hold no purchase with progressives, going back to the Jim Crow south starting in the late 19th century. Gun control laws have always been a means to keeping undesirables relatively defenseless, whether that was blacks in the south; or Italians, Russians, and Jews in early 20th century NYC. Maybe she'll discover that one day.

 

[towserthemouser]

Sorry, not changing my mind (about liberals, not hunting).

 

[coreydb]

I was young at the time, but I remember when the NRA presented President Kennedy with an award for his pro second amendment work. My, how times have changed.

 

[baxterb]

She doesn’t seem to understand the very people she identifies with. The reflexive disdain she mentions is a core part of the leftist identity - by definition there is no thinking involved.

And, ever notice every piece of meat folks like this cook is some overwrought, fancy, Escoffier-esque ordeal? No one ever says, “I tossed it on the grill. Was a little tough, but I got through it.” It’s always, “I baked it to perfection in an oven heated with wood I sustainably cut (while crying), using Himalayan pink salt harvested by a young woman earning a living wage, a bone broth reduction, rosemary from my artist-neighbor’s organic garden, and a cranberry compote I made last week with my therapist.”

It smacks of elitism and is not representative of real life. The most accurate description of left/right I have seen is Jonathan Haidt’s moral foundations. It seems very accurate to me and describes much better why liberals will have an issue with hunting, although it doesn’t tall about hunting at all.

 

[leslie hetrick]

what he said.

 

[rookhawk]

I was young at the time, but I remember when the NRA presented President Kennedy with an award for his pro second amendment work. My, how times have changed.

NRA also backed congressman Al Gore Jr. and Senator Harry Reid.

 

[festuscat]

I’m an18th Century liberal, I suppose…

 

[fourfive8]

Yep and BHO pandered stupid, gullible voters by running a political campaign ad showing him out hunting birds with a shotgun… riiight…

 

[Newboomer]

Yep and BHO pandered stupid, gullible voters by running a political campaign ad showing him out hunting birds with a shotgun… riiight…

Yep and BHO pandered stupid, gullible voters by running a political campaign ad showing him out hunting birds with a shotgun… riiight…

Not hunting. Posing.

 

[steve white]

I was young at the time, but I remember when the NRA presented President Kennedy with an award for his pro second amendment work. My, how times have changed.

The times have changed, and so has the Demolitioncrat Party.

 

[MarkB]

I'm Canadian. First things that hits my brain when someone says they are Liberal is rage, disgust and sadness. Look what the Liberals have and are doing to Canada. Worse dumb Liberal Canadians keep voting for more.

MB

 

[Ontario Hunter]

All this right/left with blinders on tight is bullshit. Gets very old. Just an excuse to avoid thinking for oneself or outside the box. Not surprising in a country where 90% of the population can't change oil or thread a needle. Pathetic.

 

[RLD]

Having read the article I found this bit particularly well written:

Which is why I do not know any group – aside from Native tribes and biologists – more attuned to the health of elk herds, the decline of pronghorns, or the migration patterns of Canada geese than hunters.

Yes, hunters kill animals. But Mowry, the Montana biologist, also points out hunters “are largely responsible for some of the most successful wildlife restorations in the country”.

How? They fight for public land access – and helped win a political battle earlier this year. They campaign for clean water, wildlife corridors and the removal of barbed-wire fences that kill mule deer and antelope. They report poachers. They fill out wildlife surveys that provide essential data to state officials. Some groups lobby against encroaching development; others build education programs. Many donate meat to food banks. They mentor newcomers, volunteer their time and skills, and open their tables to others.

In other words, hunters do not just understand interconnectedness – they live it.

In a over-polarized world I think we need to cherish and encourage opportunities to find things that bring us together rather than pull us apart and salute this woman's efforts to do so.

If hunting or outdoors interests can be a bridge between snarling camps I am all for it.

Beats the hell out of the third grade name calling that many people on the internet think is political engagement or discussion.

 

[baxterb]

The article itself is rife with the left/right dichotomy. She had the opportunity not to position it as such, but chose otherwise.

She says herself that maga types (what is a maga-type anyway? The fact she does not define it indicates your [and her] pre-conceived notions are the same) not in her social circle. Lives in a blue dot in a red state, etc.

She could have just defended hunting in an elegant way, but chose not to. I don’t need to hear that pointing out things as they are is being divisive.

 

[Velo Dog]

Now at age 72, it still amazes me that any Hunter, Fisher or especially just even a Gun Owner, would vote for the USA Anti Hunting, Anti Fishing, Anti Gun Ownership Political Party.

 

[mrpoindexter]

Yep and BHO pandered stupid, gullible voters by running a political campaign ad showing him out hunting birds with a shotgun… riiight…

Not hunting. Posing.

I would have LOVED to be there and tell them he would not be able to do his photo shoot for 30 days because he would have to go through a background check and then wait for the cooling off period before he could get his gun to take a photo with it.

 

[Tundra Tiger]

Were I to take the most optimistic viewpoint about her journey as a hunter I would believe she is on a continuum and not nearly far enough along yet; I would hope that in a few years an article like this might come across as "more mature" as her exposure to firearms becomes more expansive, because she totally lost me with: "Still, I feel deep ambivalence about firearms. Gun culture unsettles me, and the proliferation of semi-automatic weapons in particular terrifies me."

I am happy she sees the value of game meat and providing for oneself. But from where I'm at she's still at the "dipping her toe in the water" stage. Who knows? Maybe this helps someone in a similar position as her take another baby step forward? But it fails to convince me of anything tied to liberals and hunting/guns. Frankly as a liberal I know she supports a whole lot of positions I find offensive, even if she can summon up the nerve to kill a deer.

And Tim Walz? The only thing he is dedicated about is that he's a dedicated twatwaffle.

 

[Hornedfrogbbq]

Does she wear or use leather in shoes or belts or car seats? Is killing a wild animal any different than a farm raised cow (or chicken as you point out)?