It seems you took the previous "dumbest comment of 2025" as a challenge.
1. Politics: There's a significant and relatively powerful sector of the US population that would ban all hunting if given the opportunity. People tend to only care about what directly affects them. The worst thing that could happen to hunting is for the general public to become oblivious to its existence. When the next crazy lefty takes office and tries to regulate us to death or sell off public land we're screwed without the media and the "influencers" who have the reach to influence the general population. Like it or not the future of hunting needs them. Unless you have a better idea? I can say with confidence that it's not the gatekeepers here.
2. Economics: The reason we enjoy the gear that we do at "reasonable" prices is solely because there is a market for these products that incentivizes companies like Exo Mtn to bring to market quality products. The scale of the customer base is why this gear is only expensive and not at unobtainable prices. You can think social media and these "influencers" for scaling a small niche market to something that can demand innovation at cost effective prices.
3. Morality: The fact that so many people here would condemn a man because the state has accused him of breaking their rules is incredibly disappointing. As of now I've seen no details on the offenses nor have I seen a conviction. Did I miss it? FWIW, I've never heard of the guy before today.
Couple things.
1. Hunting to the general public is non existent, with a majority having basically no idea about it. There’s a vocal minority that would love to see it gone, and when individuals who “represent” hunters in these type of mainstream social formats do stuff like this, it’s extra fuel on the fire. Whoever this guy is, is not moving the needle for anyone in relation to the general public, except for this potential black eye. Social media personalities are a dime a dozen, and there’s less than a handful that I would ever point to and say they are a good representation for our community. The list is almost endless at this point of influencers that have embarrassed the hunting community after preaching what it is to be a hunter. 30 second clips of a guy smoking a bear and fist pumping his friend are nothing but detrimental and that’s because hunting can’t be explained to the general public in a 30 second reel, or a 30 minute video. It has nuance, and means something a little different to each one of us.
I’m not sure why you brought politics into it, but as a point of clarification, the “crazy left” are the only ones in the past 20 years that have done anything to protect public lands. Republicans have been introducing land sale bills for the better part of 30 years at this point.
The future of hunting needs everyday hunters to be good stewards of the land, and represent themselves well with their local people in their local communities.
2. I’d rather hunting companies stay smaller than continue to expand. There’s not a single company that started small that has either grown or been bought that’s not worse off then they were, at least from a customer standpoint. Theres also been a mass introduction of complete garbage, fads, cons etc.
Outdoor activities in general have grown, camping, hiking, biking etc. Pinning the 8% growth of hunters over the last 20 years solely on “influencers” is a bit of a stretch.
Not to be disparaging, but hunting companies rarely “innovate” outside of very few instances, they are simply adopting technology, strategy, fabrics etc that technical outdoor gear providers have already adopted and used. Before they existed, mountain hunters used technical mountain clothing, mountain packs, mountain footwear etc.
3. No idea who this is, but generally you don’t catch game violations and beat them. You either get caught in the act, or clearly have the evidence that you did it. State wildlife agencies don’t really hand them out at this scale unless they have the evidence they need.
My opinion, social media and influencers are a net negative for the hunting community. Like mentioned earlier there are less than a handful that I would show their content to my non-hunting friends. Compare that to the thousands of hours of content that’s either a poor representation, or a glorified gear add.
Your mileage may very though.