Social media shows half naked women, violence and all the other crap but blocks us from showing hunting and real food. I do not understand this and quite frankly it is censorship that has no place in our society. As far as I am concerned this is nothing more than people controlling a narrative and trying to block those of who want to promote hunting and all the benefits it brings. So why are we the ones being censored but yet we continue to see women being exploited and violence promoted everywhere you turn. We have a serious issue where young people are consumed by what they see on social media in unhealthy ways. Yet we cannot show the field to table experience.
Something needs to be done about this and the only way that will happen is for people to stand up for what is right. We need society to open their eyes and see they are being controlled by a minority that only wants us to see what they will allow us to see. I am not going to sit here and say that everything I believe is bad should be blocked as that would just make me a hypocrite. What I am saying is that when we allow some of the crap that is permitted on social media platforms but block something as holistic as hunting and the field to table experience, we truly have are priorities backwards.
I have a 14 year old daughter and I am terrified about here being exposed to a lot of what is out there. Teenagers these days are faced with so many challenges with self-doubt and confidence issues thanks to the fake portrayals of what they should be. We are seeing compounding mental health issues in more and more young people for this very reason. That is not what I want for my child and I would bet that is not what most of you want for yours either. How about we take more ownership for what we are putting out in the world and share real life experiences.
Chris and have striven, from the beginning, to show the raw experience. We are not going to hide the many failures we make along the way. It is not all about the click bait posts of us having success. To us that is just as unjustified as all the airbrushed and filtered photos that are all over these platforms. Life is hard and it takes work to get through it but in the end that is where the most reward comes from. Working hard and reaping the fruits of that labor. It is no different in the hunting space. There is a lot of hard work that goes into what we do but in the end the journey is worth it.
The other main factor that frustrates me is the fact I am often blocked from showing what the real aspect of hunting is. That being everything that is reality after the shot. This is truly where the work comes in. Taking the shot and getting an animal on the ground is not the hard part. After you get the animal down you now have to properly take care of it. Honor the animal and the sacrifice it is making for you. Yes, this is a blood sport but, in the end, it should be about how you will honor the animal by making the best of it in the feeding of your family and those you choose to share your bounty with.
Over the last few years, I have really tried to expand on my field to table experience. I do not want it to just be about backstrap, steaks, roasts and ground meat. There are so many different things you can do with the meat from the animals you take. Just as it is important to learn how to hunt an animal and how to take an ethical shot, so too is it just as important to learn how to preserve the meat and later prepare the meat for consumption. Frankly if you are not willing to do this then you are in it for the wrong reasons.
It is for these reasons that we enjoy sharing out content on the various platforms we use, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. However, it is hard to promote the hunting ethos we, and many others, believe in when being censored by those who want to control the narrative. They want us to believe that the industrial model of agriculture is not cruel, unhealthy or unsustainable. That we are evil for wanting to be close to the process and promote it through social media. We are wrong for wanting to not think of meat as anything more than a plastic wrapped slab of meat in the grocery store. Like that meat just appeared there and nothing had to die in the process. If you do not think this type of censorship is happening, I challenge you to do your own research. We are not the only ones out there who have experienced this. While there are new TikTok challenges being promoted every day that encourage people to commit violent acts or do stunts that could seriously injure themselves we as hunters are having something as pure as showing real food censored. We need to come together as a community and fight for our rights but we have to do it together. One voice advocating for the good of all.
