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View Full Version : Do you REALLY know your causes?



AniaR
10-25-2012, 01:45 PM
I often tell people to investigate their "causes" and be sure they're actually saying and doing what's in line with your belief. A friend brought this to my attention. This well known FB and website Stop Shark Finning (https://www.facebook.com/StopSharkFinning) has posted that a restaurant in my city is serving shark fin soup. The only problem is that unlike all the other restaurants they list on their website- they have no actual proof. It's not on the menu, the owner has publicly apologized for serving it in the past and publicly stated they have stopped serving (for a while now) based on public outcry. There's no photos, just "hearsay" where I'm not exactly sure where it's coming from since everyone I talked to agrees they don't serve it. Instead of praising a restaurant for STOPPING this practice, they're been boycotted based on hearsay. THIS IS NOT TO SAY that in my opinion or experience the restaurant is telling the truth. Stop Shark Finning could very well be right. My point is, you should ALWAYS investigate your causes before you support them. I don't support punishing people based on hearsay. I do support raising awareness, changing laws, and preventing the issue from happening to begin with.
You can see the conversation on FB as it unfolds on the Stop Shark Finning page here:

https://www.facebook.com/StopSharkFinning/posts/491277200893971

They could very well be right, the restaurant could be serving it. But with no proof- what happens when we all jump on the band wagon and it turns out to be all just hearsay and gossip? I'm against shark finning obviously, but I'm also against misinformation and all for critical thinking.

I had a similar experience with Sea Shepard's FB page. While having a conversation about seal hunting in Canada's North I was seriously put off when the admin of the page started saying seriously racist things about the Inuit and also demonstrated they had no knowledge of food conditions in the North. To make such brazen a statement that Inuit should never be allowed to hunt seals without even investigating WHY they hunt seals, and then to make such racist remarks really got me thinking... they're clearly ignorant on that topic- what else are they ignorant about? There's recently been a viral screen shot of one of the people who's involved in the show stating that it's very staged. Does this mean I'm all for dolphin slaughter? Heck no. I'm just real tired of misinformation.