Breaking the Echo Chamber: Combating Misinformation and Toxic Behaviors in the Hunting and Shooting Community

[Yoder]

A lot of this feels generational.

Hope every year it "ages out" but it seems to be a cycle...ignorance particularly.

A deer camp I was part of last year was mostly black guys. We hunted in a more rural area of michigan. Stopped at about the only open bar for a beer and warm dinner one of the nights. Didnt take long for the racist side of things to come out from the locals. Mind you this area is primarily hunting as its only draw during the time, like a lot of cities in non-metro areas of michigan.

Doesn't surprise me that the crowd that cant get past racism or bigotry, similarly cant have logical or factual discussions about any hunting related topics.

Same guys usually who think 6.5 creedmoor isnt "enough gun" for white tails.

Race aside, we've got people still blaming the "out of control wolf population" for deer harvest being down in this state...yet our numbers on deer show population higher than its ever been..

Nothing will stop some and their desire to shoot some wolves here though. Coyotes must get boring.

Hunting groups in my area (or state) seem to be very vocal about the wrong things..

We're not going to ever have logical conversations about the minutia of calibers or other complex items, when we cant get past the core basics and facts.

I didn't realize we were all a bunch of racists. WTF?

 

[AleksanderSuave]

I didn't realize we were all a bunch of racists. WTF?

It was an example, no need to get dramatic.

 

[Yoder]

It was an example, no need to get dramatic.

Sorry, I just don't think the majority of hunters are racists bigots. I personally don't know any.

 

[NMJM]

Sorry, I just don't think the majority of hunters are racists bigots. I personally don't know any.

I totally agree. All groups of people have their assholes, criminals and racists but it is a very small number. From what I have seen it is much smaller in the hunting community.

 

[Drenalin]

…look at Europe after WW1 - it’s well documented that kids grew up being lied to, who grew into entire armies willing to ANYTHING asked of them.

It didn’t happen all at once…that’s important to remember. And I’m not arguing with you. Slippery slopes are real.

 

[2buffalo]

I didn't realize we were all a bunch of racists. WTF?

He has TDS. It's a very upsetting day for him.

 

[fwafwow]

I just asked chat GPT a soft ball question on a subject I am professionally skilled at, the outline of what it gave was ok, but it spit out some explanations that are common, but deeply flawed. Things that lead people to make inappropriate decisions and I frequently have to educate people about. If a peer gave me the same answer, I would not waste my time listening to them on that topic. So, if it fails at what I know, why would I trust it in any way with what I don't know?

It is a language model, the current versions are incompetent. There is certainly potential there, but potential is not capability. One day I do believe there will be capability, but at present it is the Dunning-Kruger effect on steroids with a veneer of legitimacy.

We had an AI speaker at a company-sponsored event last year. As the one responsible for moderating Q&A from the audience, including to come up with some on my own if the audience didn't ask, or they sucked, I did some prep with 4 or 5 of the AI programs. I asked a handful of questions on topics for which I represent being "in the know". (Or for when I've stayed at a Holiday Inn Express.)

I was surprised at the answers. None of the programs were consistent - either with respect to uniform answers across the AI programs, or as one being more right than the others. Some of the answers were completely wrong (and I'm talking on objective questions - not opinions), which didn't surprise me. But I was surprised that when a question could generate a nuanced answer, sometimes I got that nuance. But again, if ChatGPT gave a nuanced response to one question, it didn't on another - yet Gemini may have done the opposite.