Hashgtag activism is destroying the social fabric of this country. It’s time we stop paying attention to the blue checkmark crowd and pay attention to actual facts.
Greetings again friends!
I hope this finds you well. I’ve been doing a lot of work on getting my podcast up and ready to go for publishing and distribution. The intro episode is now live and can be found on Google Play, Spotify, and iTunes. Just search Ag State of Mind… or you can go to the website here. Thanks to everyone who has helped me along the way, especially Mary Jo Irmen, Clay Conry, Tim Hammerich, and Chris Williams. I really appreciate all of the support and advice!!!
So you may have heard about Ellen Degeneres’ monologue urging her viewers and followers to eat less meat. In this just over 1 minute video, I don’t hear her cite a single fact as to why we should be doing this. She doesn’t share one bit of relative scientific information as to why we should eliminate animal protein from our diets. She simply states that she was “strolling through the ‘Gram and saw a lot of people talking eating less meat.”
I don’t know about you, but I’m getting a little tired of celebrities and the blue check mark crowd trying to influence my daily decisions. Don’t get me wrong, I think Ellen is hilarious. Keri used to watch her show daily while she was at home by herself in the last days of her pregnancy with the twins. She used to record the episodes that she enjoyed and then we would watch them together when I got home at night. They were hilarious and often times inspiring.
However, Ellen has transitioned herself into the world of hashtag activism. This drives me absolutely nuts. I would respect and maybe admire Ellen if she would have sat there on tv and shared facts of why we should be eating less meat. If she would have cited scientific studies that showed the negative effects of meat on both our health and the environment. I would disagree with her, but I would respect her position. She didn’t do that.
As a society, we have, unfortunately, been lazy with how we get our facts and our information. We rely on social media, bloggers, and other secondary sources for our infomation. Rarely do we go to the source of the information to form an opinion for ourselves. This is a dangerous place for our society to be.
Former Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas once said, “Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions.”
I understand that Ellen is within her rights to say whatever she likes. But the first amendment goes both ways. No one has to listen to her. We should seek out the facts for ourselves and strive to make the best decisions for ourselves and our families.
As a first amendment absolutist, I am excited that some journalists are taking a stand for beef. Blogger, rancher, and beef industry advocate Amanda Radke made a post yesterday asking to come on Ellen’s show and talk about the health and environmental benefits that eating meat has to offer.
Amanda, who is no stranger to standing up for our cause as ranchers, hits hard with facts supporting her argument. A wonderful piece of journalism!! I encourage you all to go and read the full post.
So regardless of our stance on the environment, health, or animal welfare, we need to make sure that our views are supported by both logic and evidence. We need to seek out these facts for ourselves and not rely others to give us their spin. Social media and blogs are great places to be introduced to topics, but we have to make sure we are doing our own due diligence in researching topics on our own.
Thanks for taking the time to read today. I found some greatnews yesterday that I am very excited to share with you all at the beginning of the week. In the meantime, please subscribe to this blog. On the sidebar, be sure to click to follow on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Also, reminder to share this page with your friends. My goal is for there to be someone in every state of this great country to be reading and listening to my material. I appreciate those of you who have shared and supported and hope that number continues to grow!!!
Until the next time
Jason