16/06/2024
Facing our current challenges our first instinct is to fight. Anger and fear are natural human responses to injustice. With Western Australia being overwhelmed by misplaced ecology, stress overload from a cost of living crisis caused by excessive (and wrongheaded) spending, and our elected representatives constantly choosing shady politics over people; every Western Australian is affected. Who are we fighting? Where do we even begin? We don't want to fight. We want to help.
Western Australians need to understand they are being misled. With the media firmly in the incumbent camp (or pocket ...shhh!), sensationalising every convenient incident (or inconveniently incidents from a year ago and not much more than an unpermitted renovation) no one else is going to tell the public the truth.
How can people know if we don't tell them and in a way they can understand? It might be a while since you talked to people outside of shooting about issues affecting us. Now more than ever we need to not be the guy that 'kept to himself'.
We don't want to 'nudge' (the cute name for mass manipulation) or persuade. That's the government and their cronies' trick, though lately they can't even be bothered with that. We just want to show our neighbours and communities the truth. Though far from an expert I have had a lot to learn recently and there are some things we can do to make communicating easier.
We should be able to say the truth and them see it because it's obvious. Never happens. Yes it's unfair, and when we win (not fighting but helping), and they change their minds, you won't even get an apology. When we change our minds we barely remember when we were wrong. That's just an annoying quirk of human brains. If you can just get someone to entertain that the proposed plans might not be that well thought out, take the win.
People can't just be shown the truth and immediately accept the obvious. What's obvious to us is due to a lifetime of culture and experience. If it could be obvious to others they would already be on our side. Whenever som**hing we say disagrees with som**hing they 'know', they're going to just shut down or shoot back.
If that happens in a conversation get back to territory upon which you agree, before any more ventures into the unknown. Same thing when their eyes glaze over.
Don't use insults or slurs (co**ie, fudd, sheep), people close up just hearing these even when they are not currently being applied to them. If you do think those things about someone you are attempting to educate, don't. Go away and don't come back till you can give them the right to their beliefs, however wrong they are. People know when you don't respect them, so you'll be wasting your time.
Don't position someone to lose face. Just like not expecting an apology, (though you have every justification) you can't rub it in that 'their guy' was a fail. Nobody predicted the total lack of balance or even pretence of due process. Most governments have some representation of opposition to reflect a balanced society. It keeps them from getting too carried away in any direction. For our purposes we need to forget about that guy and his paltry $250K pension that he needs four consultancies (negotiated when exactly?) to supplement. As you can see, it is very hard to resist, but we have the advantage in that nobody elected the current premier so he's not so much 'their guy'.
Without face saving options we double down, even when we know we're wrong. Negotiation training offers a true scenario where a perp painted himself into a corner. With a crowd heckling the police the negotiator saw that the hunkered down shooter would lose face if he was to come quietly. So he made a deal that if the kid would come out he could make a real show of resisting arrest. As they turned the corner the young man settled in the squad car, grinning at his community chanting his name. Yes he was a criminal and destined for prison, but the negotiator isn't there to punish and condemn, he just has to resolve the situation.
Offering conclusions like 'the government is making it too hard and expensive for anyone but them to have and use fi****ms, for the benefit of no-one, harming our environment and neglecting important issues that are hurting us' is true, but someone not used to thinking it won't be able to hear it. People do better with questions, coming up with their own conclusions.
By showing a video of a huge mob of feral pigs or donkeys etc and speculating 'that was last weekend in WA, if it's that bad now, what's their plan for after they disarm everyone?', you can get people thinking.They search their own mind for answers. They suggest poison. WA is so big we already use a lot of poison, once it's out there we have no control or understanding of where it ends up. Often enough in people's pets, with no antidote. They suggest professional shooters, you can speculate the cost to shires (ratepayers) and landholders when those professionals are the only game in town.
You can gently point out that misplaced ecology costs Australia billions, not to mention the immeasurable cost to native flora and fauna, even the soil is affected. In WA it is going to cost at least hundreds of millions of dollars to remove fi****ms from the people currently managing ferals mostly for free.
It might be prudent to spend some of those tax dollars researching the actual impact of fi****ms removal on Western Australia instead of just charging off on the UN checklist. With the rising cost of living a lot of shooters just can't get out there, it may turn out that it makes far more sense to subsidise ammunition. Build a factory and create some jobs!
At least we'd use it, unlike the $400 million dollar Bullsbrook facility that costs $13 million a year just to exist. Bit like signing off on the State of Emergency reviewing zero evidence to support it (not even as an arse covering formality), didn't research that either did you? Ah there I go again.
To summarise;
DO talk to people about the serious consequences of WA fi****ms reform that will affect everyone.
DON'T talk to anyone if you can't respect their right to be wrong.
DON'T insult them or their 'guy', team or other affiliation.
DON'T cause them to double down or lose face. Give them a way out.
DO show them real evidence of the feral problem in WA. Make it recent; we can leave lying and exaggeration to the other side.
DO ask thought provoking questions. Not Yes/No questions where they don't have to think.
The fact is we are up against experts who know how to play on people's emotions. The misinformed are not our enemy. They watch the news and end up more anxious and less educated than if they just watched M.A.S.H reruns. We don't want to fight amongst ourselves, we can help others to see the truth and prove we are just people too. It's worth a shot.
Also, if anyone has those recent photos and videos to share, that would be much appreciated.
