Have you heard about this hunting controversy?
This University of Texas Tech student, Kendall Jones, caused quite a stir when she posted photos on Facebook. Apparently, Jones is a fan of hunting and took advantage of the opportunity to snag some exotic animals during a recent trip to Africa. There was immediate outrage by some animal activists and many others on social media. In fact, Facebook actually deleted several of her photos for supposedly violating the posting rules.
Now, the story got completely out of hand, including the start of a “Kill Kendall Jones” page, which Facebook rightly decided to remove.
In light of all the hoopla and buzz about Ms. Jones, another hunting photo emerged and also caused quite a stir. This one:
The photo is clearly of director Steven Spielberg posing with one of the animated robot dinosaurs used in his Jurassic Park movie. Jay Branscomb, who posted the photo, added the quote “Disgraceful photo of recreational hunter happily posing next to a Triceratops he just slaughtered. Please share so the world can name and shame this despicable man.”
To all the rational folks in the world, this is funny. But some people actually took it seriously. They thought he was serious and posted comments reflecting it. (You can read some of the better comments in this article.)
While it would be fun to sit here and have another chuckle at the expense of Facebook users that failed to realize there are no living dinosaurs today, I think the spoof shows a much wider problem.
People actually believe this stuff.
And the worst part is that social media has been littered with anti-GMO, anti-conventional farming, anti-animal agriculture, and anti-whatever else memes. Most of which, by the way, are completely falsified or made up. If someone will believe that a Triceratops was just brutally murdered by a movie director, we’re screwed. What do we think people who are sitting on the sidelines of the biotechnology controversies think when they see one of those ridiculous memes, pictures, or claims? “GMOs cause cancer” is snatched up like a little piece of information and at no point is that statement challenged.
Now, maybe it’s true that after a second glance, someone in this situation could figure out that the joke was on them. Haha. You were tricked. But that doesn’t usually happen with an anti-farming meme. The person sees it and there is no one to make them think twice about, to consider what they’re actually seeing, or to stop and think. It’s just another little seed that the anti’s have planted, which they’re hoping will eventually grow and spread.
The reality is, one we’ve known for quite a while, we have to be the educators. We have to step in and make people think. If all people ever know about farming is based off their social media friends, we’re in big trouble. We need to find new ways to reach people, especially those that are sitting on the sidelines of these issues and haven’t made up their mind. No, we’ll never reach the activists, but we have work to prevent the activists from getting to all those people in the middle first.
That’s why Ag-vocating is so important and that’s why I do it.
Excellent. You hit it head on and got it right. Shared and thank you
the problem is, as you say, that people DON'T stop and THINK.. the anti's (hunting, farming, breeding, animal keeping) use PURE EMOTION to tell their tales. When the emotions are turned ON… usually at full force, the brain turns OFF… and that's what they want. It works.
One of the important steps that came out of this, is that people are beginning to realize how much people *don't* know. The more that we realize that, the more we know how much more we have to do in public education.
When we have a young population who THINK that pork, beef and eggs come from "somewhere in the supermarket" and have no clue they come from live animals, then it should be apparent that we are in VERY deep trouble regarding the general public and their basic lack of knowledge about anything to do with any animals. We have a population where the majority of people are no longer in contact with nature and have NO clue as to how nature works. I just don't know the answer to this problem. How do you give people the actual experience to have a better understanding of nature? Of farming? Of any type of agriculture?
I imaging any time now that Wayne Pacelle. John Doppler Schiff> CANANFARM, Amy Katz, Terry Ward and other constant posters about the HSUS and it glorious self will be posting here telling Spielberg is a murderer.. LOL PT Barnum had it right… great article.. but very sad too