America Is Backsliding Toward Its Most Polluted Era

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.

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".

This is an incredibly bad take. I can't think of a single hunter I've ran across that didn't talk about how peaceful, relaxing and enjoyable hunting is. I don't personally hunt, but all the big hunter personalities such as Joe Rogan, the Meateater crew, etc. constantly harp on the peacefulness of spending time in nature while hunting. My coworkers that hunt rarely talk/brag about what they shoot. Maybe they brag between themselves because the peacefulness and relaxation aspects are givens, everyone in the group understands that.

I only know one active hunter and boy does he brag - if only given the occasion. So maybe the people you mention are just being afraid to be judged for their true ideas? Because either way, you can always go in the nature, and so many people go at least here in Switzerland, and just... go in the nature, spend time in that peaceful environment, period. You don't need a gun and a dead squirrel to be peaceful.