Your Opinion Versus Your Experience

Every time someone comments on modern e-collars, and I ask what make and model of e-collar that person owns (and please post a picture), that commentator disappears.

Every. Time.

Imagine writing about tree work, and someone sails into the comments demonizing chainsaws (so dangerous, so loud!) and asking why we need them when Americans once used only axes and handsaws.  

Would it be unreasonable to ask whether that person owned a chainsaw, ever used a chainsaw, and could they post a picture of their make and model?  Could they post a picture of the 80-foot oak tree they felled and sectioned for firewood using only an ax?

Imagine writing about cooking, and someone sails into the comments demonizing microwaves (radiation!) and asking why we need them when our grandparents cooked without them. Would it be unreasonable to ask whether they had ever used a microwave, and could they post a picture of the make and model of microwave, and something that they heated up (and for how long)?

Imagine writing about travel, and someone sails into the comments demonizing cars and airplanes (too fast, too polluting, too dangerous!) and asking why we need them when the whole world once traveled only by horse and train. Would it be unreasonable to ask whether they had ever been in a car or airplane, and could they post a picture of the make and model and tell us where they started from, and where they were going?

To be clear, I am not asking anyone to use any tool to do anything.

That said, if my tree guy shows up with five people only wielding axes, I might enquire if he owns a chainsaw.  If he says he is opposed to them, I might enquire whether he intended to charge me by the hour.

Similarly, if a dog trainer shows up to train a dog and owns no leashes, but quotes Bob Dylan (“dogs run free, so why can’t we?”), I might have a few questions.  

A dog trainer that does not own a full set of tools is like a house painter without a sprayer, or a boat builder without a chisel and mallet. 

Even if the painter rarely uses a sprayer, and the boatbuilder goes months without touching mallet and chisel, the failure to even own the basic tools tells me quite a lot.