Remember
this: It’s easy for people to insinuate that you are a questionable liar. It is
the personalities, by their own hand of self-destruction, who have something to
hide. It’s called true nature.
Disclaimer:
There is no reference to names because this post is not directed at harming any
person or group. It’s an example of how followers in hunting, shooting, and
fishing can be betrayed by famous or well-known personalities in the hunting,
shooting, and fishing industry by verbal discourse or hidden agendas.
We
live in a time where there is more anger and little things are blown out of
proportion and making humor at other people’s expense is an outrage. Other
peoples expense….we all do it but everyone thinks they are not guilty. Can a
person making fun at other’s expense become enraged when it is reflected back
on them? Can a person find a snake in the grass in terms of their online life?
That was a good question.
Sometimes
people in their quest to question or point out the imbalanced strata of social
structures shoot first and ask questions later so to speak. Clarity on intent
would be the note of the day there but when people are unclear of the intent
behind it before you can explain they no longer want to hear your mewling. Is
this just to ponder? Do we want people to be perfect or our perfect idea? Do we
lead ourselves to betrayal and distrust? Has mistrust and betrayal been placed
unintentionally in a place it should never had been in the first place? Are
people in hunting media breeding betrayal and mistrust through their own
actions? What can be done about this?
I
have often watched people who become popular on media and found it fascinating.
Expectation wise they are consistent in their portrayal of the personas they
exude which is actually a true reflection in sections of who they are. Other
personas tend to be a façade eloquently built that is not the actual persona
but an underlying image to draw in followers for some fame or capital gain. The
problem here is not tasking a proper Public Relations team to separate your
personal life with a public personality. All too many times when a façade is
built, maintaining that façade become increasingly hard for the perpetrator. You
will also find this in charismatic leaders. Eventually you will see them crack
or spring a leak of their actual selves because they begin to have problems
with internal conflict or control based around being liked for what they are
not or at least more than what they are limited to. This personality might be
finding it hard to maintain the façade to control followers.
This
is the same for personalities in the hunting, fishing, and shooting areas. When
following such personalities you desire them as people to be consistent. You
perceive your interaction towards them to be one where you are supporting a
positive theme while not being aware of being used. When the personality
deviates away from previous behavior, thought or action the follower or viewer
may become disillusioned or betrayed by the display they are now viewing.
If
followers are supporting you based on a theme it may be a good idea to keep
with that theme. Overtly sharing oneself in a way that belittles cultures,
races, handicaps, objectifies groups, lends hate speech toward specific
groups, or sexual orientation is never
good. Also doing this as an exertion of anarchy only furthers the shattering of
the social image one has conceived for the viewing of other people.
With
this being said you have individuals that no matter how vulgar or ridiculous
they act toward other people or themselves, have constant followers that will
support them. Why? I think of Robert Downey Jr. or Brittany Spears, or Paula Deen as a good
example of a person that made mistakes then redeemed themselves. People like
watching train wrecks and chasing after the fire truck or ambulance. They will
stand with their phones while people are dying to get a picture.
What
about those followers leaving the scene of the person who has now crashed and
burned? How do the betrayed feel?
You
will find the sense of betrayal in relationships where contracts that are
obvious, unwritten or unspoken based on the subject matter. I once worked for
an employer that told me when dealing with consumers; if you insult one, that
customer will not return or say anything about being insulted. It’s this one
person that starts telling his ten friends about his/her bad experience and
then that in turns spreads to twenty more people and so on.
“The betrayed experience powerful sensations of violations; they feel used and damaged. Betrayal, however, elicits more than strong feelings. Psychologists offer clinical evidence attesting to the devastating effects of betrayal. Betrayal acts as an assault on the integrity of individuals, affecting the capacity to trust, undermining confidence in judgment, and contracting the possibilities of the world by increasing distrust and skepticism. Betrayal changes not only our sense of the world, but our sensibility toward the world.” (Jackson 72)
Yesterday
on social media I read comments where a known person started to make jokes
about different ethnic groups, dwarves, Christians, Catholics and the like. If
he were a comedian like say Dave Chappelle no one would have cared but his
theme was shooting. As his followers started to delete him he sat and counted
them and made light of it as if it were a joke that he might have offended
someone. I found this strange as a week before this same person decried that he
wanted people to click on the follow button. All groups were welcome and the
discussion was open. There this person was intentionally being insulting and not
explaining why and finding pleasure in the fact he was running people off.
After
viewing this comedy of errors, I thought to myself someone stop him before it
goes too far. Maybe he was drinking….? No one should drink and engage in social
media. It ends badly. He seemed pretty sober to me but then again I wasn't physically there.
This
was my main thought: if this person was advertising himself out as a master
shootist how can one of a variety of groups feel confident that when he gets
behind closed doors that he is not prejudice against them while he takes their
money?
On
betrayal I also thought of people who hunt in regards to online media that
target groups that follow them for nefarious reasons. An example is from
previous posts of the female hunter joining groups or friending people only to
find out they are using hunting as a blanket for victimizing other people. That
is an act of betrayal because they advertised themselves as professional
hunters but the person finds out they are just bored people on the internet
with indifferent lives while people hating.
If
you go to a garage to have a mechanic work on your car and find out he’s
stealing off your car to fix someone else’s because two weeks in your car
breaks down; would you not feel betrayed? And pissed?
The
idea that I submit to you is this. There are other places to dig. I do not
recall a law that said you cannot pan for gold in other places. As a consumer
of information you have a right to look for other options. You are not stuck
with a particular set of ‘friends’ on social media because you ‘appear’ to
share the same things. Sometimes sharing the same ideology in friendship does
not make you grow as a person. I have friends from all over and each is unique.
Put variety into your life and when it comes to well-known personalities that
are trying to keep you hooked while abusing you; just say good-bye to them.
There are other fish in the virtual sea. It’s something to think about indeed.
With
that I would say wanton follower beware. Things may not be as they seem. Just
remember the feeling of the hair standing on the back of your neck. It’s call
intuition.
Written
by: W Harley Bloodworth
~Courtesy
of the AOFH~
Literature Cited:
Jackson, Rodger L. “The Sense and Sensibility of
Betrayal: Discovering the Meaning of Treachery through Jane Austen.” Humanitas 13 (2000): 72-89.
