United Liberty
Still more tolerance from the left
Tue, 08/07/2012 - 1:20pm | posted by Tom Knighton
When one talks about the left, it’s important to note that the left is a large group and not everyone on the left is in lockstep on every issue. However, there are a large number of people on the left that have the ideological consistency of a turnip…and I apologize to any turnips that are insulted at the comparison.
The most recent example stems from Team USA shooter Corey Cogdell, an Olympic trap shooter who is in London right now representing the US. Cogdell, like a lot of competitive shooters, is also a hunter. Recently, she shared some photographs of animals she’s taken while in the field.
With me so far? Good, because a report over a Twitchy.com shows how “tolerant” some on the left can be with regard to hunting. Screenshots after screenshots of individuals wishing Cogdell would “shoot [herself] in the knees” and declaring her a “waste of oxygen and an embarassment to the human race.”
One particularly stood out to me:
What a f***ing waste! WTFIs wrong with ppl?cruel!! These ppl need to be shot deheaded and posted on a wall
Now, I can understand that not everyone shares my views of hunting. For the record, I am a hunter as well. I understand Cogdell’s love of hunting, I really do. The vast majority of hunters either eat the game they take, or they donate it to programs like Hunters For The Hungry which uses wild game to feed needy families. While I have little doubt that they exist, I don’t know a single hunter - trophy hunter or otherwise - that doesn’t eat what they kill.
That said, I find it funny how people who think “meat is murder” or something along those lines, and are typically the same people arguing how inhumane the death penalty is, would advocate the death and mutilation of a fellow human being. If killing is wrong at any level, why is it suddenly fine to kill another human? Please, someone, explain it to me.
Is this universal on the left? Hardly. I know many who are politically on the left but also enjoy hunting. At least one I know is a gun hunter primarily with little interest in putting up his high powered rifle for a bow.
However, it’s leftists like this that make it very hard to take anything this group says seriously. This isn’t all that different in my mind from the nutjobs who think we need to eliminate all human life on this planet so animals will finally be safe.
Some on the left really seem to need a hug.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I am a liberal/progressive, don’t hunt, don’t own a gun, and have pointed out the wing-nuts on the right side of politics. So here are my comments:
1. Corey Cogdell is not doing anything illegal and, in fact, is exercising her rights.
2. Unfortunately, so are the idiots who assault her on-line, though when threats are made, I favor some kind of legal check, like maybe a knock on their door by an investigator checking to make sure they are on their meds.
3. That said, while I don’t approve of hunting, I have far less approval of fools like those attaching Ms. Cogdell.
4. I also understand that to most of you, my approval is not of any interest to you. I’m good with that. You are exercising your legal rights and I do get that a lot of hunters do eat what they kill, though I was unaware of the donation program. Good for you on that.
5. I am also aware that I eat what someone else kills for me. My hands are hardly clean on that issue.
6. And just for the record, my reasons for objecting to the death penalty have less to do with inhumanity and more to do with not wanting the state to have the right to kill people, and that mistakes happen in court and people not guilty of these crimes sometimes get caught up and executed. That is an error that can not be corrected.
What these animal rights extremest do and say seldom lines up with the majority of liberals (at least those I have met or read). I add my voice to those who point out their hypocrisy and vile actions.
Phillip,
Fair enough on all counts. For what it’s worth, I agree with you on the death penalty. Completely.
I totally agree that people should not go to extreme by wishing her to be dead as her trophies. I understand that she is exercising her rights. Which rights, may I ask? Just because something is legal it doesn’t make it morally right automatically. If everybody would passively accept every man made law that exists, society would never change, and here I am referring change for better. Two wrongs won’t make it right!
The point they’re trying to make (of course they could be more civil about it) is that hunters like this Corey person should consider how THEY would like it if they were treated the way they treat other sentient beings: would THEY like to be shot and get their head mounted on a wall? It’s their total disregard for other species that such hyperbolic comments are meant to highlight. I really don’t think they mean them literally… But seriously, if that’s such an atrocious thing to SAY about a human animal, why is it an acceptable thing to DO to a non-human animal? It seems like the only way to instill a sense of compassion in these hunters would be to literally do the same thing to them… maybe THEN they would finally realize that what they’re doing is wrong, since they don’t seem to have any kind of inner sense of morality.
So non-human animals have the same rights as humans? Really?
Yes, they do. They have the right to live just like we do.
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”.
Mahatma Gandhi
Very well put!!!!!!
I agree.
While it is true and I am not aware of a right to hunt, I do support people hunting, I personally don’t do it, but I support it as long as the animals are not being hunted into extinction. If you are a vegitarian I respect your views against hunting even though I don’t agree with them. If you are a meat eater and are still against hunting, I think you are a hypocrite.
Post new comment