Isn't it interesting that when any of these effete, coastal liberals visit real people in the American heartland (including their own regions where some real people also reside) they find them to be decent, friendly, tolerant people who are nothing like the hateful cartoons painted by the sneering leftists who degrade our national discussion? In contrast, the leftist wannabe elitists who infest our coastal and university town enclaves turn out to be every bit as unpleasant, hateful and drippingly sanctimonious as their lawn signs proclaim.
In fairness to Ben, this is at least the second of his articles when he goes off apparently looking to skewer his cartoons of Americans as benighted rubes and ends up being treated decently and enjoying the experience.
Which requires him showing that he was walking into the assignment having pre-judged, and he did that without being heavy-handed . . . and then showed himself finding the pre-judgement ill-founded. The film and article were very well done as a result.
Thanks, Jennifer. That we all wanted to see more shows how well Ben did the little bit that appeared. Good sign for a journalist, that the reader wants the rest of the story.
I agree. The last one Ben did to make fun of good, solid people in the Midwest I hated because of the dripping condescension. This video I found to be more enjoyable, without condescension and really a light-hearted look at massive cultural differences with a hint of self-deprecation. I think he hit the right tone personally.
I'm sad you didn't see that I wasn't saying Ben had ill motives. I think he was skewering the pretensions of the coastal elites and showing that when a gay city dweller goes to the hinterland their stereotypes that he will share the fate of Matthew Shepard - another "hate crime" fable and urban legend - are pure fantasy fueled by their own prejudice and hatred.
Mathew Shepard was killed by his former lover over unpaid loans for drugs. Poor Matt got high on his own supply, and couldn't pay his man what he owed. This has Tiger King written all over it.
Distorting the truth has a long history in the Legacy Media. I know of it going back to Norman Maclean—who wrote A River Runs Through It—everyone misconstrues the murder of Norman's brother Paul as being at the hands of mountain hicks in Montana .. despite the fact that Paul—a popular sports writer in Chicago—was hit by the mob in Chicago whilst writing a hard hitting series covering sports betting & game fixing.
I didn't see that, Hotspur. He may be the ‘effete’ liberal as described by some, but he’s enjoying himself and it appears the people he’s talking to and hanging around with are enjoying him as well.
It's not a liberal characteristic, it's a human characteristic. Plenty of conservatives hold unfounded assumptions about liberals, too, then meet actual liberals who aren't soyboys or screeching harpies.
Nobody's immune from pre-judging or from being pre-judged. We should all be wary of it, and we should all celebrate those who leave their bubbles to meet "the enemy."
I think that’s actually what we used to call bigotry.
Many Americans do still hunt and most wild game is far healthier than the mass produced and processed foods from commercial farms. Hunting takes experience and strict understanding of gun safety also most hunters are more attuned to the health of Mother Nature than city ppl who’ve never ventured into real wilderness. They are unfairly represented as illiterate, violent monsters in too many hollyweird productions.
Even this guy seems to have a serious aversion to killing living things (which I can appreciate) but I wonder if he’s strictly vegan.
Right after the 2007 housing bubble catastrophe a lot of ppl out where we live we grateful for the ability to hunt white tail deer. They are an excellent source of nutrition and just bagging a couple can really ease food costs for the winter. We live in nondescript rural
I didn't read much disdain. Came across as funny in the sense that these relatively mundane events were a complete eye-opener for the author. I read it as him making fun of his own ignorance. Which, I suppose could be read as condescension?
You found the key - "not trying to tell everyone else how to live theirs." So tired of being told what to think, say and do by these cretins. I visualize incremental escalation of response....
Every time. And three cheers to Ben for finding out for himself. Did y’all catch that “yes sir” from the 11 year old? The south isn’t the last bastion of racism, it’s the last bastion of civility.
The leftist wannabe elitism well expressed "guns and religion" love message by Hope & Change, and the "deplorables" political suicide note by Stronger Together (Hillary).
Coastal liberal elites don't have an exclusivity to unfair judgments from folks from other walks of life. Or, is it just we really do all need to pick a side? Seems a predictable and boring endeavor at best. No one else see the irony?
Apparently only you and one other. Meanwhile, we have the Witch of Chappaqua shrieking about "basket of deplorables," the Senile Imbecile braying idiotically about "white supremacist MAGA Republicans" and talking heads on the corporate fabulist media (think Maddow, Morning Joe, Anderson, Wallace and the usual gang of idiots) drawing caricatures of hard working Americans on a daily basis.
Yes, there are no real people living on the coasts.
"they find them to be decent, friendly, tolerant people who are nothing like the hateful cartoons painted by the sneering leftists who degrade our national discussion?"
- Sure. You can find some good ones. Even in AR. Not sure how they would be "off the clock," though, when not hanging out with a journalist.
Luckily we have the MAGA contingent to keep the national discussion civil and elevated, with absolutely no hatred and unpleasantness to others at all.
Of course wealth often correlates with race. That's how America works/was designed.
Yes, you certainly don't find such signs in poor southern or midwest mostlty lily white neighborhoods, that's for sure. ;)
I, too, think one should only have an opinion/view on topics if they live them experientally. So, I look forward to your next commentary on transgenders, CRT, Mexican immigration, universities, etc.
I grew up hunting in north Louisiana, southern Arkansas and north west Mississippi. My dad gave me my first single shot .410 at 11 years old and my first Olt duck call at around 12 or 13. We prepped and dressed our rice field and flooded timber duck blinds every year in early fall. Hunting was, and still is, a way of life across the country and especially the south. Hunting was always for food in our family. My mother and grandmother would make duck gumbo regularly or my father would filet duck breasts, season and fry them in an iron skillet.
Being in North Carolina for the past 25 years, I don't duck hunt anymore, but I do deer hunt regularly. I'll be going this week as a matter of fact. Even if I don't get a shot or even see a deer, its great to sit in my stand and be out in nature, to be still and take in all that is around me. Its good for my mind and my soul. Today I still hunt for food and try to kill around two each year to provide venison for the family and my friends until the following season. If I take more than two, I always donate it to North Carolina Hunters for the hungry which provides ground venison to needy families. Hunting is a wonderful tradition and its great to see it being passed down to upcoming generations.
I wonder if these nitwits understand that the meat they eat all comes from animals that were killed. In many - or most - cases, animals that lived far bleaker and more awful lives than the animals that are killed for food by hunters? My gf remembers that, as a little girl in Jamaica, she regularly witnessed chickens and goats being killed and prepared for food on the family farm and simply accepted it as part of life. Animals also humanely kept But then, again our globalist masters decree that we eat too much meat, it is bad for the planet and that, instead, we must eat insects. Which, of course, sends me into a reverie of choking dear Klaus by shoving scorpions down his fat gullet.
And the word "we" does not apply to our overlords for they are the anointed ones. I have been waiting to see the menus what the beautiful compassionate planet savers dined on at COP28 and what they ate and drank as they came and went spewing tons of the dreaded carbon along the way. The climateers practice hypocrisy as well as their university counterparts
Most folks don't realize that nature needs a balance. Kill too many insects it is bad. Kill too many bees, that is bad. Same for all of wildlife. Only thing that doesn't fit the mold is humans. Especially woke ones!
Great point. Culling out the deer population is critical in North Carolina. We've seen years where deer were decimated by starvation and disease because not enough were taken out over several seasons.
Nuisance deer are a thing. Feral hogs, dogs and cats as well. Folks from the nearby metropolitan area seem to think we're a good place to release what often turn out to pricey pets. There is a kind woman in our community who is effectively rehoming many pups and kittens.
Spey and neuter your pets people. Learn, educate yourself about the breed of dog you intend to take in.
Deer can jump up to 8 feet if they can see enough clear space on the other side. My IA garden was designed with small fenced plots to discourage deer from trying to jump.
hmm yes. spay and neuter if you CHOOSE to do so.. I am a dog breeder. I breed health tested line bred dogs fit for purpose.. yes please if you are buying a dog study the breed.. realize that careful dog breeding is an art and a science. fight anti animal laws like MANDATORY spay/neuter and animal activists like the HSUS/ASPCA/PETA meanwhile eat what you kill or at least feed it to your dogs!! I wish I had an outlet for that kind of food..
I should have clarified if your animal is a pet and not if you utilize the animals in butlerial applications or for breeding. We breed regional specific curs for catching feral hogs.
Or hit by cars. I live in north Alabama and see dead deer on the side of the road regularly. One of my friends daughter’s hit one the other day. Thankfully, her car didn’t get too damaged. My neighbor hit one last year and it totaled his car. When our adult son and daughter were teenagers, I used to worry so much when they drove at night that they would hit a deer. My prayer life increased tremendously when they drove as teenagers!
Years ago,d when I working in Lake Tahoe, we were driving home late at night from a gig and hit a large deer. We put him in the back of the VW bus, drove back to our motel where the owner butchered the deer and we ate venison for a week. We were all city boys from L.A. and had never eaten venison.
Mountain lions have returned to the Midwest due to the huge deer population. People have been reporting sightings of them for decades, but the use of trail cam over the last 20 years has proven that they are here. And the population is getting big enough that they are sometimes seen without the use of trail cams.
We don’t live in the country. Our neighborhood is situated between two mountains so we have deer galore. We even have wild turkey’s and bobcats wandering around...not often. I came face to face with a small bobcat a few years ago while walking a trail. In my head, I was already planning my funeral 😃. I thought it would pounce on me but it took off running. I don’t think they attack people which learned after the fact.
About 400 human deaths are caused by deer collisions each year, along with some 50K+ injuries (with associated medical costs) and as much as $8 BILLION in property damage.
I live in New Hampshire on the NH-Vermont border. There are so many dead dear along the roadways we have state paid workers with trucks in both states whose job is to drive the roads and collect the carcasses. From May to October I rarely drive to work and not see some dead animal on the side of the road. A month ago I was about to cross the river from one town to another when a deer literally leaped into my slow moving car, its face smashing into the passenger side window and leaving a nice face mark. It bounced off, hit the pavement, and then got up and continued on its way crossing the street.
I focused on his point that woke humans are fit only to be Soylent Green. Brilliant. And perhaps the only antidote for those worshiping Palestinian barbarity.
..............To say nothing of those that were decimated by Kenworths, Cadillacs and all manner of vehicles in a fast growing state like NC. Every winter I pass several dead deer between our town and the next one six miles north. That is a sight that ruins my day every time, and the mental image stays with me. Hard to admit, but better a bullet than a bumper.
Just last week a family member in Iowa hit a deer with their car. Almost every person in my family, except me, has damaged their car hitting a deer. Hunting is important!
I live in a small (republican turned liberal/woke) suburb filled with grown trees…too many for one lot in some cases. Residents would rather have the more than average power outages than trim or cut their trees, some of which are intermingled with wires! I was concerned (not really!) what the neighbors would think when I had my dead and ugly tree cut down. It was a chance I needed to take and live with!
When we moved to North Carolina from California, seven years ago, the first thing my husband asked the home inspector was whether he could cut down a dead tree looming over the house. His voice literally dripped trepidation. In California, we had been denied a permit to take down an overgrown pepper tree that had taken over our fenced-in back yard.
The house inspector’s incredulous response: “It’s your property.” Done.
We are seeing many Cal and other wrong coast license plates in our county. I'm concerned that these folks might be leaving the messes they've created only to continue the blue lunacy here.
Us, too. We moved to leave that mess behind, but have met a number of ex-pats eager to take North Carolina down the same fetid path. We just don’t get it!
I get this. I have to get a permit to take down trees between the sidewalk and road in my town in CA. The city overplanted them in the fist place. Ridiculous.
Imagine this. We were stationed in Belem Brazil on the Amazon Delta. The streets were lined with Hayden Mango trees. They flowered and fruited all at the same time in the late spring. Now picture rotting fruit and the flies.
You have to find a balance. Newer suburbs with all the trees removed are awful IMO. Every two years, we have an arborist come inspect our trees and trim or remove the ones that need to go.
You can tell by looking. I have average-sized hands for the average sized man that I am.
If you're buying chicken breasts that breast should fit comfortably within in your extended fingers hand with the thumb pressed down parallel to your extended fingers.
In my case a roughly 5"×8" rectangle. Any breast larger smacks of growth hormones and health concerns for the subject consumer.
I saw a hilariously bad take the other day. Some vegan posted, "If you don't stop eating meat, society will collapse. And when society collapses, you won't be able to eat meat."
Oh, darlin' vegan, when society collapses, almost the only thing available to eat will be meat. Especially since most people no longer know how to grow vegetables for themselves.
They're truly hilarious. Btw - have you seen the garbage the put in vegan "cheese" or the so-called "Beyond Meat?" These people have no sense of self-awareness.
"Real people" kill animals, which means I'm fake. Who knew? Or a hypocrite. I don't eat animals, and I don't wear them. Vegan cuisine is actually quite good. I can't stand the left and acknowledge that a few of the hunters I know are solid, good people, including my contractor, who looks out for me, and shields me from over-charging or shoddy workmen - all the time. We used to argue about hunting. Now, we just like each other and agree completely on what's happening to our country. Animals were never part of an ideology for me. I never read Peter Singer. I grew up loving animals, the first sign of which, they tell me, was throwing an empty coke bottle at a bullfight on TV. I am fortunate enough to live in a beautiful town yet enjoy my own wildlife paradise in back --a gorgeous pond out of a Turner painting, deer, Canadas, mallards, blackies, jays, red-headed woodpeckers, my darling chipmunks, mourning doves, "the fox," a variety of hawks, blue herons, one of whom recently died in my driveway, breaking my heart, and egrets. I know and love these animals -- Goosie has been coming back to this spot, terrace, and me for 18 years, and I've seen them suffer. So that is my profession. In my fake way, I'm proud of it.
I'm not a vegan by any means, but I appreciate your love for the creatures around you. The hunters I know--there are many--also love animals, and none will kill an animal without eating or donating the meat. When my nephew was 8, he killed a squirrel with a sling shot. His parents made him clean and eat it. Good lesson. And, according to the kid, good squirrel.
my big questions for vegans.. why do you make "fake meat" and do you own a carnivore pet? ( yes dogs are carnivores no matter what they tell you).. you may have not read Peter Singer but you obviously know about him and his movement Looks like animal watching is "your profession". but I would say that you dont "know these animals" other than to watch them do what they do which in 99% of the time they are killing other animals in order to eat. Why bother to tell us you are vegan? is there a reason? and yes vegans are "fake" as there is no way to get around the fact that animals are part of most products and even "vegan": foods are a part of killing animals. even cotton and linen kill animals..I also love animals and realize that they are a part of life and death.. and food..and yes vegans are hypocrites .. the joke goes. How do you know a person is a vegan? They tell you right away." Your life your choice but really who cares..
One thing our basic education system has failed ( by design? ) is to educate on how to be a solid citizen and the responsibility of being one. I remember the Obama campaign Ad about how the government could do things for a single woman. Who needs to be responsible when I have Mr. Government to take care of me.
What jumped out was that you were raised traditionally, along with those in this article. You always hear from Progressives that the people Ben writes about voting against their self-interest, but most in this article say that standing on your own without need of anyone's aid is the highest form of being a citizen. We all need help along the way, and the government can help with that, but in the end, the goal is to be self-sufficient while helping those around you.
I am okay with short term help or even long term help for a deserving few. I am not okay with the creation of an entire class of people permanently dependent on the government to survive.
That is the # 1 thing that makes progressives so fraudulent. They emote how much they love to help the less fortunate, but think that help is saying things, hashtags and voting for other people to do it rather than actually doing something in your community. Yes, there a few who do it but especially white single women under 30, this is them to a T.
I’m reminded of a passage on Barbara Kingsolver’s great novel “Demon Copperhead,” a modern remake of the classic David Copperfield. Demon, (nickname for the main character) is from Lee County, VA where folks are poor but can always hunt to eat. He meets a friend from the “big city” of Knoxville, who is always worrying about money. Demon doesn’t understand this until he goes to live in Knoxville while getting sober and he can’t hunt. Then he realizes that there are “country poor” and “city poor.” He decides being country poor is better because while you may not be able to afford fancy things, at least you can always eat.
I think this difference between urban poor and rural poor is something affluent people tend to miss. The elitists from cities tend to look down on all poor, and while the urban poor demands many things to survive, the rural poor doesn’t actually make that many demands from society, they can be very self-sufficient with little. So the condensation is unwarranted in either case, but particularly so in the case of the rural poor.
I appreciate your points, and agree they take pride in taking care of their own, but please do not insult them by assuming they’re poor. Many, probably, but many very much so NOT. 4 wheelers, land, duck blinds, specially trained pure bred labs... these people work for what they have and enjoy spending it in nature. They’re farmers, small biz owners, farm equipment dealers, doctors. They all exist in “rural south”. And I believe they still eat everything they kill. But please stop with the condescending attitude!
I am well aware. I was (1) talking about the assumption that many make that everyone who doesn’t live in a city is poor and (2) highlighting a difference between actual rural poor and actual urban poor especially in regards to hunting and food. I was not trying to say that the people in this particular video were poor, but simply saying that the people who ARE indeed lower-income in rural areas that hunt have an advantage to urban poor that many people miss. The elites think it’s “quaint” to enjoy hunting, but don’t realize that for many it’s a very real means of feeding one’s family.
The remark, again, was not to say that anyone in the video is poor or not,(surely I don’t know) but was making a connection between hunting and rural poor. For the rural poor, hunting is more than a quaint pastime.
I’m not sure how you took my comment as condescending, when it was specifically trying to not be— it was calling attention to condescending attitudes of others towards hunting.
I appreciate the clarification, but after re reading your initial comments it seemed initially you took rural for poor (and my bias is that when coastal elites call rural people poor, they mean stupid). I think it’s a common stereotype, so I was trying to correct it. As you said, how would you know if they’re poor or not, and I appreciate that!
I apologize for lack of clarity in my initial statement. I definitely did not mean rural people = stupid. That is an all too common stereotype. I was specifically thinking of actual rural poor, because I think in addition to (or perhaps because of) coastal elites believing rural poor = stupid this turns into greater virtue-signaling “pity” that anyone from rural areas, poor or not, does not need.
But you highlight another important stereotype that rural = poor, and I did not mean to imply that. I think many people assume that because they overall monetary compensation may be lower, that means people in rural areas are “poor” without realizing that cost of living is so much lower, so a good life can be attained for a lot less than in urban areas in addition to not realizing what you said initially about people having well-paying jobs and aren’t actually poor.
I do appreciate the pushback, as I do not want to be mistaken for saying something I did not mean to say. Many affluent people love to hunt, but for whatever reason, my mind went to the rural poor stereotype, because I find it odd that costal elites seem to pity actual rural poor MORE than urban poor, even though the rural poor by means of hunting and other cultural differences arguably have a significant advantage to the urban poor.
No apologies necessary! Your clarification was great, and as I said, I agree with your points and appreciate the nuances of the conversation. Sorry I came out in attack mode- I’m an Arkansas native and maybe just a little proud!:)
Some are broke. I don't know anyone who is poor out here. No one rents.
Everyone has the means by which they can harvest proteins. Many choose to raise beef in the form of bull calf which you can purchase for about $100 and neuter yourself. With just two acres of land sown with star grass In a year's time you have a year's worth of beef.
50 laying hens provide enough eggs to donate, trade with or whatever. The mean ones go into the stew. If for meat you isolate them in posh coops because if they free range they're tough to eat. Your insect and rodents are kept in check because chickens are voracious predators.
Here we are in a swampy environment and in a few minutes you can catch a meal for three of a variety of tasty panfish species or bass.
No one I know of lacks for a meal. Several Christian Churches gift produce and canned goods as well as eggs and such weekly. You seldom see long queues though during the DNC planneddemic there were.
I don't know about other communities but here it doesn't seem anyone goes hungry.
"Who knew that straight men...." I hate the ubiquity of this term "straight"....a weasel-word term created some decades ago by the advanced guard of gender meddlers to advance their relativist mental universe. What it presumes to designate is merely the sexuality of the great majority of men and women. Men and women who don't need any relativist label to identify them.
I prefer the term straight over the the use of "cis". I don't know a single person who uses "cis" and I see it as just another way young gay, trans etc. try to differentiate themselves because just being accepted as Gay, Lesbian Bi means they're no longer at the top of the attention-seeking hill.
Attention seeking, like never missing an opportunity to bring up sexuality in any scenario - such as Ru Paul and "gay voice" while writing about duck hunting down South.
Sorry but you're kind of missing my point. I'm not suggesting ANOTHER word would be better. I'm saying NO word is needed for people with normal sexuality. When I was young there was none of these relativist word games. There were homosexual people (nothing wrong with that) and there was everyone else. Ie 90%, of all known sexual activity; of boy meets girl; yin and yang. Virtually all of civilisation’s artistic expression of sexual love – until these crass times – concerned these ‘straight persons’. Tristan and Isolde, Paris and Helen of Troy, Miss Bennett and Mr Darcy, John boy Walton and Jenny – straight persons all.
Agree. No need for any labeling at all of anyone. Their appearance, their personality, their preferences, their beliefs, their opinions. Imagine not having to describe yourself in one word.
back in the day a good friend of mine who, (like myself) was constantly involved in repairing, renovating and improving his house, coined the term for us,"Home-sexual"! It fit perfectly!
So true. Could you imagine beginning every intro by announcing "Hi, I like oral sex?" Or whatever. It's a cartoonish obsession with sexuality that's weird, gross and boringly banal.
I hate the “cis” prefix but TBF “cis and “straight” aren’t synonymous exactly. Apparently “cis” means having the sexual orientation of the biological sex one is born with. Unnecessary and mildly offensive. Don’t call me “cis” sis!
"having the sexual orientation of the biological sex one is born with." Sounds like what makes a person gay - now, having a sexual orientation toward the OPPOSITE sex of the sex one was born with sounds more like what "straight" is referring to.... as for the etymology of the "cis" prefix I understand that it's from the Latin but it's only been tossed around relatively recently with gender - maybe I'm just old-school but I find it annoying...(mildly annoying)
Yes, and you gave someone a square deal, treated them fair and square and set down to a square meal. The meaning of the words did not change, but the values changed. Being straight or square still means being honest and trustworthy, but for hipsters since the '60s those are not desirable traits, it just means you are a sucker, not cool and with it.
Yes, you're right now I come think of it. It was originally a kind of 60s counter-culture put-down of supposedly non-hip people. Which kind of adds to my point.
I'm fine with straight too....as a word. But what I'm not fine with is Lefty relativist mind-games which try to mess with peoples' heads such as there is no such thing as just plain normal. Which has been the story of recent times about all sorts of things....about sex, about gender, about race and so on.
Okay, what is he “supposed” to say to indicate that he’s talking about men who aren’t attracted to other men? Heterosexual? Non-gay?
Even if a group is small, it’s still useful to have a term to describe the larger group they contrast with. Do you object to “Gentile” because most people aren’t Jewish?
I wouldn't have written about this 'Drag Race' thing because to me it's just another click-baity media fad about nothing much at all. The essence of my original comment is broader than just about sexuality. It's about the way in which the 'Progressive' mentality has advanced partly (amongst other ways) by messing with language in ways which undermine the idea that there is anything about people/society that is just normal. Relativism in other words. All this has advanced over the last few decades (mainly spilling out from the petri-dishes of up-itself Lefty academia) and it has done huge damage to the NORMS on which any civilisation depends.
There's normal and there's abnormal. Homosexuality is abnormal (because the great majority of people aren't homosexual). Abnormal things need special specific names; normal things do not. Unless - like Progressives - you are trying to undermine the idea that there ARE any norms.
Have you read the whole of this (now quite lengthy) comment thread that runs from my original comment? Because I just don't seem to have got across to you what I am talking about at all. It is a somewhat subtle point but not a totally inaccessible one.
I don't have a problem with the words "heterosexual" or "homosexual," though I know some gay people have an issue with "homosexual" because of the way it gets used by people who are opposed to homosexuality. ("Gay means 'happy,' and there's nothing happy about unnatural acts.")
Graham Cunningham - who can feel free to correct me if I'm misunderstanding him - doesn't seem to think there should be any words to more specifically describe what he thinks of as "normal," which I think is odd. Adjectives, IMO, are not "progressive relativism."
Cute article, but Ben is much more likely to be shot in the streets of any blue city than by a bunch of law-abiding southerners. What an ignorant comment his friend made, but it goes to show how the elites view the rest of the country.
I have come to enjoy reading and watching Ben's posts as he gives a taste of the different parts of American culture. In Steven Covey's seven habits, the first one is seek to understand, which helped me learn more about an event and skill I knew nothing about. More than the skill, I learned more about everyday people in Arkansas. This is Trump country, where progressive media always has to throw a few ist labels at them, but what Ben highlighted was a group of honest, decent, savvy, and educated people. Living and not believing progressive nonsense is a great trait to have. It's a blessing to call people in this article my fellow countrymen, including Ben. It's a great way to begin my day. Thanks, Free Press.
I read an article last week that he doesn't have pets and would not let his children have pets. That would make a lot of his supporters reconsider I think.
I doubt it. Remember? He refused to do the obligatory first dog thing. I've always thought the first dog thing was stupid and phony. Look at Biden's dog! I highly doubt the Obama were dog people, either. It was all about appearances. Same reason Obama hid his smoking habit.
I did not know it ever came up with him. And I agree some of them are pretty fake. But the article was pretty cute. It seems that is the Trump offspring biggest criticism of him. But people, myself included, are nuts about their pets and it gives us common ground.
I am not sure who the last statesman was TBH. But supposedly Ford was the first president to profit off of his presidency. Now we have outright grifters. But I think you underestimate the devotion of pet owners. Of course you would still have the cat people versus the dog people.
I have read some things lately that portray Nixon much better than the naysayers would have you believe. I always held JFK in pretty high regard but I was very young. The horse drawn casket is my first memory of seeingsomething on TV. True about cats and dogs. I am atypical right now as I have no barn cats but do have a lapdog after a lifetime of big dogs. Her name is Pixie and this is her world. I just get to feed her.
I do quite a bit of hunting and to this day I still say a short prayer to thank the animal for giving their life to feed my family. I am only prompted to do this when I have killed the animal myself - it does not work for me when the bounty is a steak from Food Lion. While it's true that I appropriated this habit from Native American customs - I do not think they originated or have copyrighted the practice.
I do the same (pray over my kill). A tradition passed down from my grandfather & father. Even though I’m not a religious man so to speak I think it’s respectful & honors mother nature.
I hope you are using the word "appropriated" somewhat tongue in cheek. The concept of appropriation is largely nonsense. Furthermore, I don't think NAs are the only ones who thought, "Maybe I ought to say a prayer in thanksgiving for this animal that I am going to eat."
My friend's daughter stopped taking the belly dancing classes that she was enjoying because she got it in her head that it was cultural appropriation. Sad.
So I love a couple of things about this. First that Doug Williams graciously invited Ben to join in a hunt. And second that Ben not only went along, but participated right down to getting involved in gutting the duck. I read a great book recently called Beaverland. The author clearly was not comfortable with hunting/trapping, but takes a deep dive into the topic to where she walks trap lines and participates in skinning etc. to the point where she at least develops an appreciation for a different POV.
I really enjoy your videos. What's striking to me is how fun and welcoming these hunters are, similar to the Black female entrepreneurs you interviewed a few months ago. It's interesting to see this compared to the miserable histrionics of the Palestinian protesters and Democratic Socialists you interviewed.
The cycle of life is something that is difficult to confront head on, yet how many of us do it? Good for you for confronting these issues.
My friend's farm recently killed twenty of their ducks, but also fed twenty families. All these ducks were outside and lived a decent existence at least. It was tough seeing them go.
I have a different take. I think that Ben was actually satirizing, in a subtle way, the pervasive disdain that urban elitist liberals have toward rural America. He showed that these are friendly, tolerant people (often more tolerant than the liberals who look down on them!). In our polarized nation, I appreciate when either ‘side’ makes an effort to get to know the other by joining in dialogue and sharing experiences. Bravo to Ben for at least showing up! PS. loved the shofar reference- gave me a chuckle.
So does this mean those of us not from the city and all of the DEI BS are now considered humans again? Maybe studying the need to cull herds or anything provides a better life for whatever it is. Heck, even on Air Force bases they are forced to cull deer in order to keep them healthy and not overrun all of the habitat and runways. It's really a nature thing combined with providing food for people.
Grew up around guns, hunters, hunted, and never knew a single person willing to shoot and kill something just for fun. It was serious and dangerous if you wee a fool. Never have understood the silly attitudes of people who don't know country folks or even try and meet and get to know them. They are the ones who keep America running and feed those pesky city dwellers.
Isn't it interesting that when any of these effete, coastal liberals visit real people in the American heartland (including their own regions where some real people also reside) they find them to be decent, friendly, tolerant people who are nothing like the hateful cartoons painted by the sneering leftists who degrade our national discussion? In contrast, the leftist wannabe elitists who infest our coastal and university town enclaves turn out to be every bit as unpleasant, hateful and drippingly sanctimonious as their lawn signs proclaim.
And Mr. Kawaller proudly shows his distain for them in return.
In fairness to Ben, this is at least the second of his articles when he goes off apparently looking to skewer his cartoons of Americans as benighted rubes and ends up being treated decently and enjoying the experience.
By the way, loved your "Hotspur" handle.
I agree. Seems to me the point of the article is Ben admitting that his prejudice was ill founded.
Which requires him showing that he was walking into the assignment having pre-judged, and he did that without being heavy-handed . . . and then showed himself finding the pre-judgement ill-founded. The film and article were very well done as a result.
My sentiments exactly!
Thanks, Jennifer. That we all wanted to see more shows how well Ben did the little bit that appeared. Good sign for a journalist, that the reader wants the rest of the story.
I agree. He was self effacing enough to make it work.
I disagree. I like Ben. I think he is mocking HIMSELF for being kind of a goof and other good people don’t care that he is a goof.
Shades Of Mike Rowe!
That's the vib I got.
Agree. He had a lot of fun with it knowing he was the oddball there -- and he did an excellent job! Kudos to him for skinning a duck.
I agree. The last one Ben did to make fun of good, solid people in the Midwest I hated because of the dripping condescension. This video I found to be more enjoyable, without condescension and really a light-hearted look at massive cultural differences with a hint of self-deprecation. I think he hit the right tone personally.
Yes, must not be condescending to the "real" Americans.
I’m not sure about your exact point but I personally don’t like condescension toward anyone.
I'm sad you were the first to comment. Ben went with genuine curiosity and a sense of humor, often self-deprecating. I look forward to his videos.
I'm sad you didn't see that I wasn't saying Ben had ill motives. I think he was skewering the pretensions of the coastal elites and showing that when a gay city dweller goes to the hinterland their stereotypes that he will share the fate of Matthew Shepard - another "hate crime" fable and urban legend - are pure fantasy fueled by their own prejudice and hatred.
Hate crime "fable"??? Which part of his murder at the hands of two evil cretins was fictitious?
It wasn't a hate crime. It was a drug robbery gone wrong, plus one of the killers was another homosexual prostitute he'd had sex with in the past.
The crime happened, and it was a tragedy. But it wasn't a homophobic hate crime until it became politically convenient to make it one.
Mathew Shepard was killed by his former lover over unpaid loans for drugs. Poor Matt got high on his own supply, and couldn't pay his man what he owed. This has Tiger King written all over it.
Distorting the truth has a long history in the Legacy Media. I know of it going back to Norman Maclean—who wrote A River Runs Through It—everyone misconstrues the murder of Norman's brother Paul as being at the hands of mountain hicks in Montana .. despite the fact that Paul—a popular sports writer in Chicago—was hit by the mob in Chicago whilst writing a hard hitting series covering sports betting & game fixing.
"Urban Legend" Lol.
~Looking to skewer and ends up having a good time.~
Well said, wish I had written it.
I didn't see that, Hotspur. He may be the ‘effete’ liberal as described by some, but he’s enjoying himself and it appears the people he’s talking to and hanging around with are enjoying him as well.
Lee Morris, yes. I saw fun and benevolence all around.
I believe Hotspur was saying that Ben has no affection for lefty elitist snobs.
I am never sure if he is mocking the people he is covering in these pieces...or just trying too hard to be funny.
And to Bruce's point above, another liberal characteristic is to hold unfounded assumptions about other people. I see it all the time.
It's not a liberal characteristic, it's a human characteristic. Plenty of conservatives hold unfounded assumptions about liberals, too, then meet actual liberals who aren't soyboys or screeching harpies.
Nobody's immune from pre-judging or from being pre-judged. We should all be wary of it, and we should all celebrate those who leave their bubbles to meet "the enemy."
It doesn't help that the media tend to show people as caricatures.
You’re right that both sides are kinda guilty but only one side commands a monopoly on media, education and government agencies.
Still, as the old saying goes, never judge a book by its cover...
Luckily, that is not a conservative characteristic at all.
I think that’s actually what we used to call bigotry.
Many Americans do still hunt and most wild game is far healthier than the mass produced and processed foods from commercial farms. Hunting takes experience and strict understanding of gun safety also most hunters are more attuned to the health of Mother Nature than city ppl who’ve never ventured into real wilderness. They are unfairly represented as illiterate, violent monsters in too many hollyweird productions.
Even this guy seems to have a serious aversion to killing living things (which I can appreciate) but I wonder if he’s strictly vegan.
Right after the 2007 housing bubble catastrophe a lot of ppl out where we live we grateful for the ability to hunt white tail deer. They are an excellent source of nutrition and just bagging a couple can really ease food costs for the winter. We live in nondescript rural
I didn't read much disdain. Came across as funny in the sense that these relatively mundane events were a complete eye-opener for the author. I read it as him making fun of his own ignorance. Which, I suppose could be read as condescension?
I don't think he is showing his disdain. He's showing the contrast via comedic video - and thats OK.
Not true.
My impression exactly. These were real people just living their lives, not trying to tell everyone else how to live theirs... and enjoying life.
You found the key - "not trying to tell everyone else how to live theirs." So tired of being told what to think, say and do by these cretins. I visualize incremental escalation of response....
Every time. And three cheers to Ben for finding out for himself. Did y’all catch that “yes sir” from the 11 year old? The south isn’t the last bastion of racism, it’s the last bastion of civility.
Well said, Bruce.
Bingo. Pay the man.
The leftist wannabe elitism well expressed "guns and religion" love message by Hope & Change, and the "deplorables" political suicide note by Stronger Together (Hillary).
I think Kawaller was making more fun of himself than the people he was talking to.
Spot on, Bruce. I could not have said that better.
I came here to say this. No need to repeat it, but well said.
I particularly loved watching his interview with the young boy who was as polite and accommodating as he could be. Kudos to his parents and community.
Coastal liberal elites don't have an exclusivity to unfair judgments from folks from other walks of life. Or, is it just we really do all need to pick a side? Seems a predictable and boring endeavor at best. No one else see the irony?
Apparently only you and one other. Meanwhile, we have the Witch of Chappaqua shrieking about "basket of deplorables," the Senile Imbecile braying idiotically about "white supremacist MAGA Republicans" and talking heads on the corporate fabulist media (think Maddow, Morning Joe, Anderson, Wallace and the usual gang of idiots) drawing caricatures of hard working Americans on a daily basis.
I thought the point of this publication was to *break* echo chambers. Hm? Maybe I'll go back to skipping the comment section.
Yes, there are no real people living on the coasts.
"they find them to be decent, friendly, tolerant people who are nothing like the hateful cartoons painted by the sneering leftists who degrade our national discussion?"
- Sure. You can find some good ones. Even in AR. Not sure how they would be "off the clock," though, when not hanging out with a journalist.
Luckily we have the MAGA contingent to keep the national discussion civil and elevated, with absolutely no hatred and unpleasantness to others at all.
What's with you and the lawn signs?
What's with you and the lawn signs?
They're hilarious. Especially in front of homes in our wealthiest most lily white precincts.
Of course wealth often correlates with race. That's how America works/was designed.
Yes, you certainly don't find such signs in poor southern or midwest mostlty lily white neighborhoods, that's for sure. ;)
I, too, think one should only have an opinion/view on topics if they live them experientally. So, I look forward to your next commentary on transgenders, CRT, Mexican immigration, universities, etc.
What do you think Wax's point was?
so unfortunately true!!!
I grew up hunting in north Louisiana, southern Arkansas and north west Mississippi. My dad gave me my first single shot .410 at 11 years old and my first Olt duck call at around 12 or 13. We prepped and dressed our rice field and flooded timber duck blinds every year in early fall. Hunting was, and still is, a way of life across the country and especially the south. Hunting was always for food in our family. My mother and grandmother would make duck gumbo regularly or my father would filet duck breasts, season and fry them in an iron skillet.
Being in North Carolina for the past 25 years, I don't duck hunt anymore, but I do deer hunt regularly. I'll be going this week as a matter of fact. Even if I don't get a shot or even see a deer, its great to sit in my stand and be out in nature, to be still and take in all that is around me. Its good for my mind and my soul. Today I still hunt for food and try to kill around two each year to provide venison for the family and my friends until the following season. If I take more than two, I always donate it to North Carolina Hunters for the hungry which provides ground venison to needy families. Hunting is a wonderful tradition and its great to see it being passed down to upcoming generations.
I wonder if these nitwits understand that the meat they eat all comes from animals that were killed. In many - or most - cases, animals that lived far bleaker and more awful lives than the animals that are killed for food by hunters? My gf remembers that, as a little girl in Jamaica, she regularly witnessed chickens and goats being killed and prepared for food on the family farm and simply accepted it as part of life. Animals also humanely kept But then, again our globalist masters decree that we eat too much meat, it is bad for the planet and that, instead, we must eat insects. Which, of course, sends me into a reverie of choking dear Klaus by shoving scorpions down his fat gullet.
And the word "we" does not apply to our overlords for they are the anointed ones. I have been waiting to see the menus what the beautiful compassionate planet savers dined on at COP28 and what they ate and drank as they came and went spewing tons of the dreaded carbon along the way. The climateers practice hypocrisy as well as their university counterparts
Most folks don't realize that nature needs a balance. Kill too many insects it is bad. Kill too many bees, that is bad. Same for all of wildlife. Only thing that doesn't fit the mold is humans. Especially woke ones!
Great point. Culling out the deer population is critical in North Carolina. We've seen years where deer were decimated by starvation and disease because not enough were taken out over several seasons.
Nuisance deer are a thing. Feral hogs, dogs and cats as well. Folks from the nearby metropolitan area seem to think we're a good place to release what often turn out to pricey pets. There is a kind woman in our community who is effectively rehoming many pups and kittens.
Spey and neuter your pets people. Learn, educate yourself about the breed of dog you intend to take in.
Yup. Your garden here in northern PRNJ needs a 6 ft fence or forget it.
Deer can jump up to 8 feet if they can see enough clear space on the other side. My IA garden was designed with small fenced plots to discourage deer from trying to jump.
hmm yes. spay and neuter if you CHOOSE to do so.. I am a dog breeder. I breed health tested line bred dogs fit for purpose.. yes please if you are buying a dog study the breed.. realize that careful dog breeding is an art and a science. fight anti animal laws like MANDATORY spay/neuter and animal activists like the HSUS/ASPCA/PETA meanwhile eat what you kill or at least feed it to your dogs!! I wish I had an outlet for that kind of food..
I should have clarified if your animal is a pet and not if you utilize the animals in butlerial applications or for breeding. We breed regional specific curs for catching feral hogs.
Or hit by cars. I live in north Alabama and see dead deer on the side of the road regularly. One of my friends daughter’s hit one the other day. Thankfully, her car didn’t get too damaged. My neighbor hit one last year and it totaled his car. When our adult son and daughter were teenagers, I used to worry so much when they drove at night that they would hit a deer. My prayer life increased tremendously when they drove as teenagers!
Years ago,d when I working in Lake Tahoe, we were driving home late at night from a gig and hit a large deer. We put him in the back of the VW bus, drove back to our motel where the owner butchered the deer and we ate venison for a week. We were all city boys from L.A. and had never eaten venison.
It is so good if properly cleaned.
🏆
Deer are a dangerous menace!
Bring back wolves and mountain lions!😉
Mountain lions have returned to the Midwest due to the huge deer population. People have been reporting sightings of them for decades, but the use of trail cam over the last 20 years has proven that they are here. And the population is getting big enough that they are sometimes seen without the use of trail cams.
Except that Wolves don't discriminate between deer and farm animals. CO passed a law about reintroducing wolves and the farmers hate it.
Another reason to have a truck if you live in the country
We don’t live in the country. Our neighborhood is situated between two mountains so we have deer galore. We even have wild turkey’s and bobcats wandering around...not often. I came face to face with a small bobcat a few years ago while walking a trail. In my head, I was already planning my funeral 😃. I thought it would pounce on me but it took off running. I don’t think they attack people which learned after the fact.
Mind the speed limits at night.
About 400 human deaths are caused by deer collisions each year, along with some 50K+ injuries (with associated medical costs) and as much as $8 BILLION in property damage.
But clueless people want to save Bambi!
I live in New Hampshire on the NH-Vermont border. There are so many dead dear along the roadways we have state paid workers with trucks in both states whose job is to drive the roads and collect the carcasses. From May to October I rarely drive to work and not see some dead animal on the side of the road. A month ago I was about to cross the river from one town to another when a deer literally leaped into my slow moving car, its face smashing into the passenger side window and leaving a nice face mark. It bounced off, hit the pavement, and then got up and continued on its way crossing the street.
I focused on his point that woke humans are fit only to be Soylent Green. Brilliant. And perhaps the only antidote for those worshiping Palestinian barbarity.
Soylent Hamas works for me . . .
But I'd rather starve than eat it!
Deer are a menace in VA. With no predators besides humans they’ve decided to run headlong into cars. A Malthusian attempt to curb their own numbers!
They're fleeing the blueing that's occurring in Virginia.
No one likes leftists.
Awesome comment.
..............To say nothing of those that were decimated by Kenworths, Cadillacs and all manner of vehicles in a fast growing state like NC. Every winter I pass several dead deer between our town and the next one six miles north. That is a sight that ruins my day every time, and the mental image stays with me. Hard to admit, but better a bullet than a bumper.
Just last week a family member in Iowa hit a deer with their car. Almost every person in my family, except me, has damaged their car hitting a deer. Hunting is important!
Some people would rather that Bambi die a long, slow death from starvation than be shot and eaten.
I live in a small (republican turned liberal/woke) suburb filled with grown trees…too many for one lot in some cases. Residents would rather have the more than average power outages than trim or cut their trees, some of which are intermingled with wires! I was concerned (not really!) what the neighbors would think when I had my dead and ugly tree cut down. It was a chance I needed to take and live with!
When we moved to North Carolina from California, seven years ago, the first thing my husband asked the home inspector was whether he could cut down a dead tree looming over the house. His voice literally dripped trepidation. In California, we had been denied a permit to take down an overgrown pepper tree that had taken over our fenced-in back yard.
The house inspector’s incredulous response: “It’s your property.” Done.
We LOVE it here.
We are seeing many Cal and other wrong coast license plates in our county. I'm concerned that these folks might be leaving the messes they've created only to continue the blue lunacy here.
Austin, Texas was always pretty liberal but what the newcomers have done to it in the last decade or so is reprehensible.
Us, too. We moved to leave that mess behind, but have met a number of ex-pats eager to take North Carolina down the same fetid path. We just don’t get it!
They are.
I get this. I have to get a permit to take down trees between the sidewalk and road in my town in CA. The city overplanted them in the fist place. Ridiculous.
Imagine this. We were stationed in Belem Brazil on the Amazon Delta. The streets were lined with Hayden Mango trees. They flowered and fruited all at the same time in the late spring. Now picture rotting fruit and the flies.
Urban planning in the third world.
The model for Gruesome's Commiefornia.
Thanks leftists.
You have to find a balance. Newer suburbs with all the trees removed are awful IMO. Every two years, we have an arborist come inspect our trees and trim or remove the ones that need to go.
The woke humans are moldy.
LoL. Some mold is useful
Can the same be said for the woke?
I know what we need! Another Humanities degree holder! Said no one, ever. Ok, a university administrator may have.
LoL.
Nature needs balance -- does that not apply to Homo sapiens??
Definitely easier to kill those chickens when they’re grown in a jar.
You can tell by looking. I have average-sized hands for the average sized man that I am.
If you're buying chicken breasts that breast should fit comfortably within in your extended fingers hand with the thumb pressed down parallel to your extended fingers.
In my case a roughly 5"×8" rectangle. Any breast larger smacks of growth hormones and health concerns for the subject consumer.
What the hell is a jar chicken?
OMG! Luckily at 70-something I have NEVER eaten at KFC. Ewww.
Oh, okay. I raise my own chickens, ducks and turkey's. It's been around 30 years since I've ate at KFC.
No they do not understand the food chain. That is why they are going to be eating lab grown meat and bugs.
I saw a hilariously bad take the other day. Some vegan posted, "If you don't stop eating meat, society will collapse. And when society collapses, you won't be able to eat meat."
Oh, darlin' vegan, when society collapses, almost the only thing available to eat will be meat. Especially since most people no longer know how to grow vegetables for themselves.
They're truly hilarious. Btw - have you seen the garbage the put in vegan "cheese" or the so-called "Beyond Meat?" These people have no sense of self-awareness.
While those globalist masters gather in Davos to eat wagu steaks and tell us peasants to eat bugs.
"Real people" kill animals, which means I'm fake. Who knew? Or a hypocrite. I don't eat animals, and I don't wear them. Vegan cuisine is actually quite good. I can't stand the left and acknowledge that a few of the hunters I know are solid, good people, including my contractor, who looks out for me, and shields me from over-charging or shoddy workmen - all the time. We used to argue about hunting. Now, we just like each other and agree completely on what's happening to our country. Animals were never part of an ideology for me. I never read Peter Singer. I grew up loving animals, the first sign of which, they tell me, was throwing an empty coke bottle at a bullfight on TV. I am fortunate enough to live in a beautiful town yet enjoy my own wildlife paradise in back --a gorgeous pond out of a Turner painting, deer, Canadas, mallards, blackies, jays, red-headed woodpeckers, my darling chipmunks, mourning doves, "the fox," a variety of hawks, blue herons, one of whom recently died in my driveway, breaking my heart, and egrets. I know and love these animals -- Goosie has been coming back to this spot, terrace, and me for 18 years, and I've seen them suffer. So that is my profession. In my fake way, I'm proud of it.
I'm not a vegan by any means, but I appreciate your love for the creatures around you. The hunters I know--there are many--also love animals, and none will kill an animal without eating or donating the meat. When my nephew was 8, he killed a squirrel with a sling shot. His parents made him clean and eat it. Good lesson. And, according to the kid, good squirrel.
brunswick stew.https://practicalselfreliance.com/traditional-brunswick-stew/
my big questions for vegans.. why do you make "fake meat" and do you own a carnivore pet? ( yes dogs are carnivores no matter what they tell you).. you may have not read Peter Singer but you obviously know about him and his movement Looks like animal watching is "your profession". but I would say that you dont "know these animals" other than to watch them do what they do which in 99% of the time they are killing other animals in order to eat. Why bother to tell us you are vegan? is there a reason? and yes vegans are "fake" as there is no way to get around the fact that animals are part of most products and even "vegan": foods are a part of killing animals. even cotton and linen kill animals..I also love animals and realize that they are a part of life and death.. and food..and yes vegans are hypocrites .. the joke goes. How do you know a person is a vegan? They tell you right away." Your life your choice but really who cares..
https://www.outdoorlife.com/deep-dives/waterfowl-crippling-rates-hunting/
And waterfowl hunting has a very high crippling rate.
Susan. remember. if you eat ..something dies
"Plants are living and just might feel
And they take so long to die." - Leslie Fish
Soon enough the "peasants with pitchforks" will descend on Davos with mayhem in their hearts......
Shot guns would be a better choice.
One thing our basic education system has failed ( by design? ) is to educate on how to be a solid citizen and the responsibility of being one. I remember the Obama campaign Ad about how the government could do things for a single woman. Who needs to be responsible when I have Mr. Government to take care of me.
What jumped out was that you were raised traditionally, along with those in this article. You always hear from Progressives that the people Ben writes about voting against their self-interest, but most in this article say that standing on your own without need of anyone's aid is the highest form of being a citizen. We all need help along the way, and the government can help with that, but in the end, the goal is to be self-sufficient while helping those around you.
Thought it was perfect when Ben asked the kid if "most of what you kill you eat". The kid says "all of it". Pure gold.
It’s a great video! That kid is super engaging.
The kid didn’t even hesitate.
I am okay with short term help or even long term help for a deserving few. I am not okay with the creation of an entire class of people permanently dependent on the government to survive.
That is the # 1 thing that makes progressives so fraudulent. They emote how much they love to help the less fortunate, but think that help is saying things, hashtags and voting for other people to do it rather than actually doing something in your community. Yes, there a few who do it but especially white single women under 30, this is them to a T.
I’m reminded of a passage on Barbara Kingsolver’s great novel “Demon Copperhead,” a modern remake of the classic David Copperfield. Demon, (nickname for the main character) is from Lee County, VA where folks are poor but can always hunt to eat. He meets a friend from the “big city” of Knoxville, who is always worrying about money. Demon doesn’t understand this until he goes to live in Knoxville while getting sober and he can’t hunt. Then he realizes that there are “country poor” and “city poor.” He decides being country poor is better because while you may not be able to afford fancy things, at least you can always eat.
I think this difference between urban poor and rural poor is something affluent people tend to miss. The elitists from cities tend to look down on all poor, and while the urban poor demands many things to survive, the rural poor doesn’t actually make that many demands from society, they can be very self-sufficient with little. So the condensation is unwarranted in either case, but particularly so in the case of the rural poor.
I appreciate your points, and agree they take pride in taking care of their own, but please do not insult them by assuming they’re poor. Many, probably, but many very much so NOT. 4 wheelers, land, duck blinds, specially trained pure bred labs... these people work for what they have and enjoy spending it in nature. They’re farmers, small biz owners, farm equipment dealers, doctors. They all exist in “rural south”. And I believe they still eat everything they kill. But please stop with the condescending attitude!
I am well aware. I was (1) talking about the assumption that many make that everyone who doesn’t live in a city is poor and (2) highlighting a difference between actual rural poor and actual urban poor especially in regards to hunting and food. I was not trying to say that the people in this particular video were poor, but simply saying that the people who ARE indeed lower-income in rural areas that hunt have an advantage to urban poor that many people miss. The elites think it’s “quaint” to enjoy hunting, but don’t realize that for many it’s a very real means of feeding one’s family.
The remark, again, was not to say that anyone in the video is poor or not,(surely I don’t know) but was making a connection between hunting and rural poor. For the rural poor, hunting is more than a quaint pastime.
I’m not sure how you took my comment as condescending, when it was specifically trying to not be— it was calling attention to condescending attitudes of others towards hunting.
I appreciate the clarification, but after re reading your initial comments it seemed initially you took rural for poor (and my bias is that when coastal elites call rural people poor, they mean stupid). I think it’s a common stereotype, so I was trying to correct it. As you said, how would you know if they’re poor or not, and I appreciate that!
I apologize for lack of clarity in my initial statement. I definitely did not mean rural people = stupid. That is an all too common stereotype. I was specifically thinking of actual rural poor, because I think in addition to (or perhaps because of) coastal elites believing rural poor = stupid this turns into greater virtue-signaling “pity” that anyone from rural areas, poor or not, does not need.
But you highlight another important stereotype that rural = poor, and I did not mean to imply that. I think many people assume that because they overall monetary compensation may be lower, that means people in rural areas are “poor” without realizing that cost of living is so much lower, so a good life can be attained for a lot less than in urban areas in addition to not realizing what you said initially about people having well-paying jobs and aren’t actually poor.
I do appreciate the pushback, as I do not want to be mistaken for saying something I did not mean to say. Many affluent people love to hunt, but for whatever reason, my mind went to the rural poor stereotype, because I find it odd that costal elites seem to pity actual rural poor MORE than urban poor, even though the rural poor by means of hunting and other cultural differences arguably have a significant advantage to the urban poor.
No apologies necessary! Your clarification was great, and as I said, I agree with your points and appreciate the nuances of the conversation. Sorry I came out in attack mode- I’m an Arkansas native and maybe just a little proud!:)
Some are broke. I don't know anyone who is poor out here. No one rents.
Everyone has the means by which they can harvest proteins. Many choose to raise beef in the form of bull calf which you can purchase for about $100 and neuter yourself. With just two acres of land sown with star grass In a year's time you have a year's worth of beef.
50 laying hens provide enough eggs to donate, trade with or whatever. The mean ones go into the stew. If for meat you isolate them in posh coops because if they free range they're tough to eat. Your insect and rodents are kept in check because chickens are voracious predators.
Here we are in a swampy environment and in a few minutes you can catch a meal for three of a variety of tasty panfish species or bass.
No one I know of lacks for a meal. Several Christian Churches gift produce and canned goods as well as eggs and such weekly. You seldom see long queues though during the DNC planneddemic there were.
I don't know about other communities but here it doesn't seem anyone goes hungry.
Where are you?
Where the crawdads grow large.
You can be "country poor" and still live a pretty darn good life. Don't tell the city folks, please.
Hahaha I’ll keep the secret.
Good point.
Hunting is necessary. There are more deer now than 200 years ago. They need more predators than the non-human species can offer.
"Who knew that straight men...." I hate the ubiquity of this term "straight"....a weasel-word term created some decades ago by the advanced guard of gender meddlers to advance their relativist mental universe. What it presumes to designate is merely the sexuality of the great majority of men and women. Men and women who don't need any relativist label to identify them.
I prefer the term straight over the the use of "cis". I don't know a single person who uses "cis" and I see it as just another way young gay, trans etc. try to differentiate themselves because just being accepted as Gay, Lesbian Bi means they're no longer at the top of the attention-seeking hill.
Attention seeking, like never missing an opportunity to bring up sexuality in any scenario - such as Ru Paul and "gay voice" while writing about duck hunting down South.
Sorry but you're kind of missing my point. I'm not suggesting ANOTHER word would be better. I'm saying NO word is needed for people with normal sexuality. When I was young there was none of these relativist word games. There were homosexual people (nothing wrong with that) and there was everyone else. Ie 90%, of all known sexual activity; of boy meets girl; yin and yang. Virtually all of civilisation’s artistic expression of sexual love – until these crass times – concerned these ‘straight persons’. Tristan and Isolde, Paris and Helen of Troy, Miss Bennett and Mr Darcy, John boy Walton and Jenny – straight persons all.
Agree. No need for any labeling at all of anyone. Their appearance, their personality, their preferences, their beliefs, their opinions. Imagine not having to describe yourself in one word.
back in the day a good friend of mine who, (like myself) was constantly involved in repairing, renovating and improving his house, coined the term for us,"Home-sexual"! It fit perfectly!
I love Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam 😊 I digress but Colin Firth played an amazing Mr Darcy in the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice.
Okay....that's different!
When I read "Miss Bennett and Mr. Darcy," I thought of that movie and thought I would provide a random comment 😀
Well it lightens the mood, I'll say that for it! Any more random comments, you go right ahead.
So true. Could you imagine beginning every intro by announcing "Hi, I like oral sex?" Or whatever. It's a cartoonish obsession with sexuality that's weird, gross and boringly banal.
I hate the “cis” prefix but TBF “cis and “straight” aren’t synonymous exactly. Apparently “cis” means having the sexual orientation of the biological sex one is born with. Unnecessary and mildly offensive. Don’t call me “cis” sis!
"having the sexual orientation of the biological sex one is born with." Sounds like what makes a person gay - now, having a sexual orientation toward the OPPOSITE sex of the sex one was born with sounds more like what "straight" is referring to.... as for the etymology of the "cis" prefix I understand that it's from the Latin but it's only been tossed around relatively recently with gender - maybe I'm just old-school but I find it annoying...(mildly annoying)
I don’t write these rules. And yes they are annoying.
I used "straight" regularly back in college days to describe anyone who didn't smoke pot or take drugs. I believe it predated gay vs straight.
Before that, "straight" meant trustworthy. Can I trust him, yes, he's straight. A straight-shooter; an honest person.
Yes, and you gave someone a square deal, treated them fair and square and set down to a square meal. The meaning of the words did not change, but the values changed. Being straight or square still means being honest and trustworthy, but for hipsters since the '60s those are not desirable traits, it just means you are a sucker, not cool and with it.
Square goes back to the 30s, and become common usage in the 40s. The Beats in the 50s expanded it's use and the hippies of the 60s adopted it.
Yes, you're right now I come think of it. It was originally a kind of 60s counter-culture put-down of supposedly non-hip people. Which kind of adds to my point.
This.
True but...straight also means, "get it straight." Straight dealing" "I'll give it to you straight." So I'm ok with that. .
I'm fine with straight too....as a word. But what I'm not fine with is Lefty relativist mind-games which try to mess with peoples' heads such as there is no such thing as just plain normal. Which has been the story of recent times about all sorts of things....about sex, about gender, about race and so on.
Intersectionality. Cisgender. Binary.....A new one every day. Nothing but stupid children making up stupid words. Agree. Don't use any of them.
The worst thing is that these stupid weasel words seep into even conservative journalism.
And they’ve conquered the corporate boardroom.
The corporatizing of language is a blight and the woke have weaponized it in an attempt to control speech and thought.
And acronyms. BIPOC is the one that gnaws at me most.
But don't you dare say "colored people....."
"What it presumes to designate" lol. Dude, this is how words work.
"Dude."
Well sure. If you want to sound like Jeff Spicoli......
Hey, all I want are some tasty waves and some cool buds.....
For some reason, everyone under 40 is fine to be called dude, but it seems to strike a nerve with older dudes.
A dive into the term "dude ranch" might be instructive.
Same with women and tattoos. Visceral.
Okay, what is he “supposed” to say to indicate that he’s talking about men who aren’t attracted to other men? Heterosexual? Non-gay?
Even if a group is small, it’s still useful to have a term to describe the larger group they contrast with. Do you object to “Gentile” because most people aren’t Jewish?
I wouldn't have written about this 'Drag Race' thing because to me it's just another click-baity media fad about nothing much at all. The essence of my original comment is broader than just about sexuality. It's about the way in which the 'Progressive' mentality has advanced partly (amongst other ways) by messing with language in ways which undermine the idea that there is anything about people/society that is just normal. Relativism in other words. All this has advanced over the last few decades (mainly spilling out from the petri-dishes of up-itself Lefty academia) and it has done huge damage to the NORMS on which any civilisation depends.
In the prescient words of WB Yeats:
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
You may think this doesn't matter but I do.
When people are distinguishing two groups, I don't think using an adjective to describe the larger group is a "progressive mentality" or "relativism."
There's normal and there's abnormal. Homosexuality is abnormal (because the great majority of people aren't homosexual). Abnormal things need special specific names; normal things do not. Unless - like Progressives - you are trying to undermine the idea that there ARE any norms.
Have you read the whole of this (now quite lengthy) comment thread that runs from my original comment? Because I just don't seem to have got across to you what I am talking about at all. It is a somewhat subtle point but not a totally inaccessible one.
I don't have a problem with the words "heterosexual" or "homosexual," though I know some gay people have an issue with "homosexual" because of the way it gets used by people who are opposed to homosexuality. ("Gay means 'happy,' and there's nothing happy about unnatural acts.")
Graham Cunningham - who can feel free to correct me if I'm misunderstanding him - doesn't seem to think there should be any words to more specifically describe what he thinks of as "normal," which I think is odd. Adjectives, IMO, are not "progressive relativism."
Ah, the moving goalposts of intersectionality!
you must be "cis". LOLOLOL.
Oh please…
Cute article, but Ben is much more likely to be shot in the streets of any blue city than by a bunch of law-abiding southerners. What an ignorant comment his friend made, but it goes to show how the elites view the rest of the country.
West Coast liberals say bigoted things about the South frequently. They don't consider it racist or prejudiced to hate the American South.
I consider it bigoted though.
Many Northeasterners are the same! Very bigoted against the South (and TX in particular!)
I have come to enjoy reading and watching Ben's posts as he gives a taste of the different parts of American culture. In Steven Covey's seven habits, the first one is seek to understand, which helped me learn more about an event and skill I knew nothing about. More than the skill, I learned more about everyday people in Arkansas. This is Trump country, where progressive media always has to throw a few ist labels at them, but what Ben highlighted was a group of honest, decent, savvy, and educated people. Living and not believing progressive nonsense is a great trait to have. It's a blessing to call people in this article my fellow countrymen, including Ben. It's a great way to begin my day. Thanks, Free Press.
Funny that the Trump of "Trump country" is a New Yorker who has probably never hunted any 4 legged animal.
I read an article last week that he doesn't have pets and would not let his children have pets. That would make a lot of his supporters reconsider I think.
I doubt it. Remember? He refused to do the obligatory first dog thing. I've always thought the first dog thing was stupid and phony. Look at Biden's dog! I highly doubt the Obama were dog people, either. It was all about appearances. Same reason Obama hid his smoking habit.
I did not know it ever came up with him. And I agree some of them are pretty fake. But the article was pretty cute. It seems that is the Trump offspring biggest criticism of him. But people, myself included, are nuts about their pets and it gives us common ground.
Trump not having pets seems about right....
I did a head snap.
I am not sure who the last statesman was TBH. But supposedly Ford was the first president to profit off of his presidency. Now we have outright grifters. But I think you underestimate the devotion of pet owners. Of course you would still have the cat people versus the dog people.
I have read some things lately that portray Nixon much better than the naysayers would have you believe. I always held JFK in pretty high regard but I was very young. The horse drawn casket is my first memory of seeingsomething on TV. True about cats and dogs. I am atypical right now as I have no barn cats but do have a lapdog after a lifetime of big dogs. Her name is Pixie and this is her world. I just get to feed her.
I do quite a bit of hunting and to this day I still say a short prayer to thank the animal for giving their life to feed my family. I am only prompted to do this when I have killed the animal myself - it does not work for me when the bounty is a steak from Food Lion. While it's true that I appropriated this habit from Native American customs - I do not think they originated or have copyrighted the practice.
I do the same (pray over my kill). A tradition passed down from my grandfather & father. Even though I’m not a religious man so to speak I think it’s respectful & honors mother nature.
You are more religious than you realize I think. To me you are the best kind.
I hope you are using the word "appropriated" somewhat tongue in cheek. The concept of appropriation is largely nonsense. Furthermore, I don't think NAs are the only ones who thought, "Maybe I ought to say a prayer in thanksgiving for this animal that I am going to eat."
My friend's daughter stopped taking the belly dancing classes that she was enjoying because she got it in her head that it was cultural appropriation. Sad.
That is sad.
So I love a couple of things about this. First that Doug Williams graciously invited Ben to join in a hunt. And second that Ben not only went along, but participated right down to getting involved in gutting the duck. I read a great book recently called Beaverland. The author clearly was not comfortable with hunting/trapping, but takes a deep dive into the topic to where she walks trap lines and participates in skinning etc. to the point where she at least develops an appreciation for a different POV.
Who would you rather spend a weekend with--hunters in Alabama, or NYC swells?
That’s it? Where is the rest of the article? I hope your editor did not reimburse your travel expenses!
I thought the same and then realized there was a video too 😁
I really enjoy your videos. What's striking to me is how fun and welcoming these hunters are, similar to the Black female entrepreneurs you interviewed a few months ago. It's interesting to see this compared to the miserable histrionics of the Palestinian protesters and Democratic Socialists you interviewed.
The cycle of life is something that is difficult to confront head on, yet how many of us do it? Good for you for confronting these issues.
My friend's farm recently killed twenty of their ducks, but also fed twenty families. All these ducks were outside and lived a decent existence at least. It was tough seeing them go.
There now, see; that didn't hurt, did it? I enjoy your features at TFP, and I'm glad you found life outside of LA and insane street demonstrations.
I have a different take. I think that Ben was actually satirizing, in a subtle way, the pervasive disdain that urban elitist liberals have toward rural America. He showed that these are friendly, tolerant people (often more tolerant than the liberals who look down on them!). In our polarized nation, I appreciate when either ‘side’ makes an effort to get to know the other by joining in dialogue and sharing experiences. Bravo to Ben for at least showing up! PS. loved the shofar reference- gave me a chuckle.
This.
This x2
It’s almost as if wildly conservative Arkansans are friendlier than woke socialists or pro Hamas protesters.
...it's our little secret
Ben just became my favorite redneck. The video is f’ing hilarious— as are his others.
So does this mean those of us not from the city and all of the DEI BS are now considered humans again? Maybe studying the need to cull herds or anything provides a better life for whatever it is. Heck, even on Air Force bases they are forced to cull deer in order to keep them healthy and not overrun all of the habitat and runways. It's really a nature thing combined with providing food for people.
Grew up around guns, hunters, hunted, and never knew a single person willing to shoot and kill something just for fun. It was serious and dangerous if you wee a fool. Never have understood the silly attitudes of people who don't know country folks or even try and meet and get to know them. They are the ones who keep America running and feed those pesky city dwellers.
My dad always said never point a gun at something you aren’t going to shoot.
Cities kind of prove your point about the ravages of lunacy resulting from cramming people together. Is there a bigger lunatic asylum than NYC?
Possible San Francisco— but only because the lunatics are crazier there if less in actual number.
Oh, I love NYC!!