Comments on: Challenging the double standard on violence

By: Scipio Americanus

Scipio Americanus — Thu, 28 Nov 2013 03:27:18 +0000

Hah. That one’s never come up, but I can’t imagine the reaction if it had and I mentioned it to someone…

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Thu, 28 Nov 2013 01:42:15 +0000

I can imagine the funny looks and awkward silence coming out after you said you needed to put down a beloved pet — and there was no reason to let good meat go to waste.

By: Scipio Americanus

Scipio Americanus — Thu, 28 Nov 2013 01:10:48 +0000

Faze hits the nail on the head. Unfortunately, I've had to learn this the hard way. Discussing military history or violent movie events (even ones that make me blanch) is okay, but as soon as I mentioned hunting or having had to personally put down a beloved pet, out came the funny looks and awkward silence.

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Wed, 27 Nov 2013 23:01:01 +0000

An even more ironic version of Poul Anderson's "The Man Who Came Early".

By: David Foster

David Foster — Wed, 27 Nov 2013 22:45:28 +0000

I think an interesting and amusing story could be written about a modern-day blue-state type, probably a professor or a non-profit type, who talks about the superiority of tribal peoples to Western civilization, and, via some sort of time-travel phenomenon, finds himself transported to an American Indian tribe circa 1830. The story is told from the viewpoint of the tribe’s chief, who has to figure out what to do with this guy. He can’t hunt, can’t and won’t fight — maybe he could be a storyteller? But we already have one of those, and besides, his storytelling is so damn boring. What on earth is this man good for?

By: Marissa

Marissa — Wed, 27 Nov 2013 21:49:27 +0000

And yet, something tells me were it a present-day red-skinned native of the North American continent who had his hunting hobby (because they don’t need it to survive anymore) outed then the precious steak-eater wouldn’t have batted an eye. I can just see the ladies sidling up next to him too.

By: Faze

Faze — Wed, 27 Nov 2013 00:31:04 +0000

Fans of Game of Thrones, Dexter, Breaking Bad and other TV serials affiliate in part through the experience of watching the portrayal of transgressive violence. Tolerating and tacitly approving the shared transgression makes them collectively “guilty” in the eyes of what they imagine to be their enemies: the blue-noses, the conservatives, the censorious. They imagine themselves as part of a vast “in crowd”. It is a status play.

This same group would perceive a self-professed interest in hunting to be a major status gaffe, consigning one to what they would consider the lowest rung of humanity: rural working class white males, with potential Republican sympathies. Criticizing hunters and hunting is a crude but common affiliation tactic among this group. But doing it to the hunter’s face — even the people who agreed with the anti-hunting guy in the anecdote probably considered him an asshole.