You have heard me rant about how anti-hunters use our own content against us by taking a picture or video and directing the narrative of that content to push their agenda. Perfect example a hunter posts a picture of a Fawn sleeping next his 3D target which was laying on the ground and tells us how he didn’t go close because he didn’t want the mother to abandon the fawn. He then tells us how later on the doe came back to get the fawn.. Great little Story right? This innocent picture and story was then stolen on FB and re-posted with a new narrative of how hunters orphaned this poor fawn and how she mistook this target as her mom ….
Of course the re-post went viral not the original post and partly because once it got popular hunters called her out on her post and with good intentions tried to disprove her logic…. That one: there are zero hunting seasons going on during times when fawns are dropping and that the post was made by a hunter with a very different story. I love the passion, I love the willingness to fight for what you believe in. However, what these good intentioned hunters failed to realize is that they were playing into her trap and helping her push her agenda. Facebook and basically all Social Media works like this (over simplified): if you have let’s say a 100 friends and you make a post only 2 of those friends see it until someone comments then the next group of your friends can see it . Plus now the first group of those who commented and liked the post have also open the door for some of their friends to see it. With every like with every comment Facebook opens the door for more to see it and it keeps growing and growing (like a pyramid) that’s how it goes viral.. So even though your intentions are good just like the guy who made the original post all it’s doing is helping her do what she wants and that’s to push her agenda with lies and content that causes “rubber necking”.
Incidents like this are happening all over the the internet and not just on social media but main stream media as well. The opposition is taking what we do and twisting the narrative to suit their agenda. So what do we do? Well for this specific situation first and foremost resist the urge to lash out or set the record straight on the anti-hunters post. I would then send a message to the original poster if possible to let them know and ask them to petition FB to have it removed, I would report the post as fake news and if you feel like you want to do something more write up and intelligent response and message directly all those who commented that are seemingly middle ground EX: “I saw that you commented on the picture with the fawn this is a sham designed to evoke an emotional response out of you but the simple fact that its not true this is the real story…”
Its hard for me to cover all situations that you are gonna face out there but the best practices are to not comment or react to these types of posts on social media resist the urge to argue your side. Instead think of ways you can shut them up without playing into the trap (like some of the stuff I mentioned above). I know at face valve it sounds like I’m telling you not to stand up for you believe in or be quiet and stand in the shadows while they publicly bash us…. I not saying don’t stand up for hunting all I’m saying is be smart and don’t play into their BS…. Take away their power and don’t play into their plan. When you argue on posts all you do is help that post go viral and all the people are looking at the post see is two opposites arguing and studies show that most will side with the original poster because people are to lazy to look into the truth themselves …
If you want to be proactive educate yourself as much as possible about how the North American Conservation model is run and what hunters do for wildlife restorations etc. ( there is nothing worst then only knowing have the story and trying to convince someone its gospel) Then start talking to non-hunting middle ground when appropriate about it. Educate them so when they see this type of propaganda they know that its bullshit…..
Listen to my podcast I did with Sam Ayers on the subject
THE REAL STORY
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