Tag: Logic an Anti-Gunner’s Worst Nightmare

So the basis for this post is a story in the Sun. For those of you who are unaware the Sun is kind of the UK’s version of the National Inquirer. The story itself is so loaded and one sided that it opens with this:

PRETTY teenage sisters have turned themselves into angels of death – shooting dead DOZENS of wild animals then smiling for sick photos with the bodies.

Hey at least they aren’t trying to hide behind being “balanced.” I have no problem with bias so long as you don’t try to hide it. But I’m sure you’ve already seen this story and honestly this post isn’t about this story. This post is about violence through proxy.

There are a lot of people who are anti-hunting. They protest the fact that people take firearms into the woods and shoot wild animals. Most of these people claim such acts are barbaric and outside of civilized life. Of course at the lunch you can find these same people eating a burger or ham sandwich (if you’re a vegan or vegetarian you’re exempt from my calling of hypocrisy). Whenever I’m around one of these people I make sure I point such hypocrisy out. Usually they go on a rant about how animals raised on farms are killed in human ways without any sickening blood lust hunters have. Truth be told I’ve seen factory farm conditions which is where most meat used in restaurants originates from and I can tell you hunters are orders of magnitude far more humane than those large farms (you want animals raised on a farm and slaughtered humanely check out your local farmers, they’ll not only have better meat but for cheaper than the grocery store).

In reality these people just don’t like the idea of violence… when done in a personal manner. These are the same people they say you should just give a mugger what they want or flee from your domicile when an invader breaks in. In both cases they state you should call the police and let them deal with the problem. But what does calling the police amount to? Well ultimately you’re asking a large organization to send a nameless person to do violence on your behalf. If there is an invader in your home and you call the police there is a likely chance of a violent encounter occurring when the police arrive if the thug hasn’t already fled.

Buying your meat is the same thing. You are asking somebody else to kill and slaughter an animal for you so you can avoid getting your hands dirty. Hunters on the other hand are willing to take responsibility for their own meal gathering and person the necessary violence themselves. Honestly I believe they creates far more respect for the animals being consumed because a hunter knows the difficulties involved in a hunt.

The bottom line is these type of people are usually ones who proclaim themselves to be pacifists. Of course pacifists can only exist so long as there are other people available to use violence on their behalf. Police officers and military personnel are generally the people who fill such roles. Police and military personnel don’t carry guns because it’s a deterrent to crime, they carry them because they may need to use violence to defend their lives. Even in the UK police usually have some form of weapon be it a baton, Tazer, or pepper spray.

The main point here is simple, if you are anti-hunting but eat mean you’re a hypocrite. If you are anti-self-defense but call the police upon a thug entering your home you’re a hypocrite. Violence is violence regardless of who is doing it. By using violence by proxy you are showing an unwillingness to take responsibility for your own well being and a willingness to put other peoples’ lives in harms way to defend your own. I’d go so far to say you’re selfish and a total bastard by proclaiming your life is worth more than another’s since you are willing to throw them into harms way.

Violence exists, it can’t be avoided. You either are willing to realize that fact and live with it or unwilling to realize that fact and pretend it’s not true.