Hey Outdoor Bloggers: Can't we all just get along?

This picture is beautiful. But lets talk about something that isn't. But before we do, ok, ok, many of you are probably like, 'stick to hike and trip reports, no activism.' Look y'all, I get it... I really do. But this has bothered me all week.

This week, an outdoor blogging friend shared with me that they have been being attacked both on their blog and through the rest of the interwebs. Berated, humiliated, and publicly 'shamed' for lack of a better term. Another Instagram friend was pretty much tarred and feathered for posting a photo of a VERY known locale here in Arizona and was pretty hurt about it. I'm not identifying them out of concern and care for them. Yes, I care about people I haven't actually met, but love the wild. That much. Thankfully, I've not received any of this. Although frankly, I'd rather have received it than some of my friends. I'm just that way.

But y'all, this just ain't right. With all that is going on in the world right now, we all need to lean on each other. With terrorism, #brexit, gridlock in Washington, environmental crimes in our National Parks (this pales in comparison with terrorism, obviously) going on, can't we have our blogs, our tweets, our Instagram comments related to the outdoors be 100% supportive of one another.

Look, I get it. Most of us are passionate about what we do. And interestingly enough, shocker, but almost none of us are making any money from this other than maybe some gear to test or a couple hundred dollars a year from affiliate links. But the tie that binds ALL or at least that I hope does is that we ALL love the outdoors.

You could argue that these folks should develop thicker skin, 'shake it off', 'don't let it bother you'. 'Be tough'. And there is a part of me that gets that. I don't agree with it, but I can see alternate viewpoints as a 'rational' (mostly) adult. But, as I said above, there's enough bad in the world right now, so, please let's not let outdoor blogs, primarily unpaid labors of love, be one of them.

Now... If I post a picture, or write something that is just flat out factually wrong, or worse, unsafe (I've stated publicly that I don't like to wear a life preserver while kayaking, and kids, that's wrong...) let me know. But let's do it in a kind way, send someone a private email. Less blast, more compassion, more constructive and/or private criticism.

No one's advocating for constant kumbaya. But at the same time, let's lift each other up, because when it comes down to it, we all love the same thing. A lot.