MLB Pitcher Fires Back at Critics of Hunting Photo with Son: 'I Am Teaching Him a Very Important Life Lesson'
On social media this weekend, hunting enthusiast and Toronto Blue Jays relief pitcher Erik Swanson posted a photo of himself with his young son behind a line of dead Canada geese.
Predictably, woke liberals howled with disapproval, but Swanson did not let their overwrought outrage deter him.
“I am teaching him a very important life lesson,” the 30-year-old pitcher wrote of his son as part of a lengthier post on Monday.
The phony controversy began when Swanson shared the photo of his goose haul in Roseau, Minnesota, on Instagram.
“Starting the off-season outdoors!” he wrote.
View this post on Instagram
Monday on X, the Toronto-focused news and culture site “blogTO” fanned the flames of woke indignation.
“Toronto Blue Jays pitcher poses with pile of dead Canada geese he shot with his kid,” the account said in a snarky post.
Toronto Blue Jays pitcher poses with pile of dead Canada geese he shot with his kid ⚾️ https://t.co/iJHg2ZJAL7 #Toronto #BlueJays #Pitcher #Sports #MLB
— blogTO (@blogTO) October 16, 2023
In the comments section, a few X users made their objections known.
“Why would you photograph that and share it on social media? Like that guy who filmed himself kicking a dog. Are you secretly hoping someone says ‘this guy gets his kicks out of hurting animals; best intervene now as it’s only a matter of time before he starts hurting humans’?” one deranged person said.
Why would you photograph that and share it on social media?
Like that guy who filmed himself kicking a dog.
Are you secretly hoping someone says “this guy gets his kicks out of hurting animals; best intervene now as it’s only a matter of time before he starts hurting humans”?
— Gareth Hollis Music Lincolnshire Singer/Songwriter (@GarethHollis1) October 17, 2023
Another user — less hysterical but equally absurd — objected to Swanson’s parenting.
“I honestly feel this is wrong encouraging their kids to hunt like this,” the person posted.
I honestly feel this is wrong encouraging their kids to hunt like this
— Kevin Lucero (@KevinLu88647533) October 16, 2023
“Awful,” another said.
Awful
— Monica (@Monica587857651) October 16, 2023
On a more encouraging note, most of the comments expressed support for Swanson.
For his part, the pitcher refused to back down.
“I am an avid hunter/fisherman and I will always be. For the people who are asking me why I have my son with me, I am teaching him a very important life lesson… the beef, venison, poultry, fish, fruits and vegetables all come from somewhere, not just the grocery store,” he said in response to the blogTO post.
I am an avid hunter/fisherman and I will always be. For the people who are asking me why I have my son with me, I am teaching him a very important life lesson… the beef, venison, poultry, fish, fruits and vegetables all come from somewhere, not just the grocery store. https://t.co/siEF1PI7Bc
— Erik Swanson (@Erik_Swanson03) October 17, 2023
Objections to hunting make so little sense that one hardly knows where to begin addressing them.
For the entire history of our species, human beings have survived in part by killing and eating animals. Only modern liberals think their food comes from GrubHub.
Furthermore, the apparent moral problem of carnivorousness is nothing new. It has even occurred to some great young minds who subsequently dismissed it.
As a teenager, for instance, Benjamin Franklin adopted a strict vegetarian diet. When once tempted with a fish dinner, however, he relented. “If you eat one another, I don’t see why we mayn’t eat you,” Franklin wrote of the fish in his legendary autobiography.
Hunting aside, one also senses that woke outrage against Swanson stemmed from liberals’ objections to anything involving children and guns.
Here I am reminded of the collective “gasp” with which, years ago, a Los Angeles movie audience greeted one particular scene in the 2000 American Revolution film “The Patriot,” starring Mel Gibson.
When a British officer murdered one of his sons and took another prisoner, Gibson’s character handed rifles to two of his younger sons and led them in pursuit of the Redcoats.
According to the Drudge Report, “A loud ‘gasp’ was heard in the screening room as the camera zoomed in for a closeup of the kids.”
Thus, long before they called themselves “woke,” liberals expressed indignation over images that connected children to guns in any way.
Liberals do this not because they love children more than others do but because they hate guns more than anything. More specifically, they hate your guns. Their own private security does not trouble them in the least.
In short, liberals’ outrage over Swanson’s photo amounts to little more than a modern version of the screening room gasp.
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