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RajT88 ◴[] No.43643433[source]
I've observed this weird cognitive dissonance with outdoorsmen, since I am quite fond of fishing.

They tend to be a pretty hardcore MAGA bunch, but also don't like pollution because it messes up their sport. When you ask them about stuff like this (how can you support someone who pretty openly wants to mess up your pastime?), they get mad or change the subject.

I get it - people are complicated and can care about many things at once. Nobody likes it when someone is seemingly poking at their belief systems. Still - you'd think it'd give them some kind of pause.

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SkyPuncher ◴[] No.43643834[source]
At the risk of being dismissive of people's interests, I've increasingly come to view many hunters and fishers are largely driven by the ego. They don't care if they can hunt or fish in 20 years as long as they can brag to their friend group that they bagged the biggest fish or game. In fact, it'd be better if they no one could hunt/fish in the future because that means they'd hold the "record" indefinitely.

All those pesky rules and regulations are just getting in the way.

Go sit in a bar in hunting country during deer season. You won't hear people talking about how peaceful, relaxing, or enjoyable it was. You either hear (1) them bragging about how big of deer they got (2) how big the deer was that "got away".

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1. RajT88 ◴[] No.43644951[source]
I come from a family of hunters. We have those types, but we also have the types which just love the outdoors. Even the latter type has some manly-man schtick to their love of hunting, but it's partly about spending time with male friends and family. When someone ends up bagging a deer, the meat is shared around the family. Doesn't happen that often, but I look forward to it - I really love the gaminess of wild deer.

With fishing, I've observed a similar trend. There's plenty of people who just really love to geek out about fish (I am one of these), and keep detailed notes of the species they catch, where they caught them, the conditions, the baits/lures used, reading up on their ranges, behaviors, feeding habits, etc. There's other people who really love eating fresh fish, and they aren't into the process and community as much. There's a few ladies in my Chicago fishing group like this (one of whom is a high powered lawyer, as I understand it).

Some of the trophy fishermen want more rules and regulations, these tend to be the Musky fisherman who want their bodies of water to be mandated catch-and-release only.

The MAGA leaning fishermen seem like they can come in any of the above (and more) flavors. I'd be hard pressed to put a number on what % of fishermen I've run into are which types as well, regardless of their politics.