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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to wonder what people don't like about Chris Packham?

265 replies

MRex · 10/10/2021 16:14

Obviously people actually setting fire to his gates are plain lunatics: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-58861252. The article talks about all these other online threats, dead animals and other mischief however, which implies a fair number of individuals who expend time and energy going after him. He's just an environmentalist campaigner who wants a bit more wild space, a few beavers introduced, fewer birds shot... he isn't a man of great power. So what do these people fear so much?

OP posts:
Clymene · 10/10/2021 22:20

I really like him. I don't always agree with him but he is absolutely unstinting and unwavering in his views. He doesn't try to be popular.

I think a lot of the dislike is because people don't like neurodiverse people. Obviously people don't like to admit they are prejudiced against people with disabilities but all those kids who bully the autistic kids at school don't just vanish. The arsehole intolerant kids grow up into arsehole intolerant adults. I suspect some of them are on this thread.

Ilovegreentomatoes · 10/10/2021 22:22

If you like to watch defenceless animals being chased and ripped apart for fun you must have psychopathic tendencies anyway.

SilverTonguedDevil · 10/10/2021 22:23

Chris Packham: Asperger's and me is now on Together TV Channel 82 Freeview

Rossetti47 · 10/10/2021 22:25

I don’t like him. He’s got a sketchy energy.

Porcupineintherough · 10/10/2021 22:25

@Clymene

I really like him. I don't always agree with him but he is absolutely unstinting and unwavering in his views. He doesn't try to be popular.

I think a lot of the dislike is because people don't like neurodiverse people. Obviously people don't like to admit they are prejudiced against people with disabilities but all those kids who bully the autistic kids at school don't just vanish. The arsehole intolerant kids grow up into arsehole intolerant adults. I suspect some of them are on this thread.

Nicely put.
Carboncheque · 10/10/2021 22:26

He says things that people don’t like and his opinion is influential. He lives in a county that’s very hunting, shooting, fishing/farming. He points out inconvenient truths like the illegal killing of birds of prey by gamekeepers and the fact that the badger cull wouldn’t work.

www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/goshawk-raptor-queens-land-bird-grouse-shooting-goathland-estate-yorkshire-a9631021.html
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/tb-cows-cattle-badger-cull-gloucestershire-prorogue-vets-a9098366.html

Floralnomad · 10/10/2021 22:29

I agree with most of what he says but I just find him totally unlikeable , and it’s not that I have an issue with him because he’s neurodiverse as I have an adult son with HFA and a daughter with MH issues . Not that I’d set fire to his property .

SmellyOldOwls · 10/10/2021 22:30

The most shocking thing about all of this is that he's 60 Shock doesn't look anywhere near 60!

JackieWeaverHandforthCouncil · 10/10/2021 22:32

I'd rather live next to Packham than the vandals who attack his property and try and bully him to stop promoting his causes.
He is a good man.

This.

LST · 10/10/2021 22:33

He's brilliant and I agree with everything he stands for. Extremist my arse. I think we know who the arseholes are 🙄

SilverTonguedDevil · 10/10/2021 22:48

The TV program explains the kestrel story in detail, it wasn't malicious, essentially he wanted something to love and he really loved that kestrel.

stevalnamechanger · 10/10/2021 22:49

A lot of my farming friends don't like him as he is anti pigeon shooting on arable farms ... they destroy a LOT of crop

DoormatBob · 10/10/2021 22:59

Rural Cumbria here, everyone I know hates him. He's seen as using his platform at the BBC to push his causes and gather support from the majority city dwelling audiences which he can then push as support.

He goes around the world making TV programmes getting paid a lot of money and then wants to push anti-farming causes. Farming and country pursuits maintains a vast amount of the countryside and its incredibly hard work 365 days a year.

I guess he's seen as a countryside champagne socialist equivalent.

Scrowy · 10/10/2021 22:59

I have it on reasonably good authority that there was a spate of antisocial behaviour in the area that evening and that the vehicle that was set alight at his gates was not the only vehicle set alight/ serious criminal damage caused in the vicinity that night.

Perhaps he was deliberately targeted by a group of yobs out causing general destruction and thought they would have a pop at him too or perhaps he was just unlucky to get caught up in it.

For what it's worth the badger issue is much bigger than just bTB. If we allow predator numbers to go uncontrolled then it seriously harms wildlife in the area, once the prey animals have been reduced in number predators come after livestock. Farmers are fed up with being blamed for 'destroying the countryside' when for the last 20 years many farmers have been trying un-ruin it from a wildlife perspective and are having their efforts completely hampered by predators on the ground and in the sky.

Lapwings, curlews, hedgehogs, dormouse, voles etc have no chance of the countryside is overrun with fox, badger, mink, buzzards, sparrowhawks, gulls etc all look I'm for an easy meal.

It's frustrating when people like Packham come at the issue without really recognising the impact of their actions on the wider ecosystem.

ancientgran · 10/10/2021 23:06

@TeachesOfPeaches

I really like him. He's autistic so perhaps some people don't like how he comes across. I love that he is so close to his step daughter even though he was only with her mum for 10 years and they broke up a long time ago.
There was a programme about him and she was asking, pleading with him to go to her graduation. He just coldly said he wouldn't and apparently he didn't. I can't like him after that, he was so cold and OK maybe he didn't fancy it (I've sat through so many graduations and could do with never doing it again) but he's supposed to be close to her and sometimes we do things for other people. He just seems totally selfish to me.
Feelingoktoday · 10/10/2021 23:18

Anyone that upsets white middle class well educated males seems to be subjected to terrorist behaviour. Chris Packham, JKRawling, etc

CandidaAlbicans2 · 10/10/2021 23:20

@DecadentlyDecisive, corvids are not responsible for the lack of song birds. The reasons are the destruction of habitat, lack of chick food due to pesticide use, and non-native predators such as domestic cats. Corvids and song birds have evolved together and were fine until humans fucked things up.

ancientgran · 10/10/2021 23:21

@Cuddlyrottweiler

I like him. I think like many autistics, neurotypicals see his difference in the way he communicates and dislike him.

Obviously people who enjoy putting innocent animals through long, terrifying and painful deaths don't like him saying they're abhorrent, vile, wastes of oxygen wrong.

I also think people target people that are weaker than them rather than going for the actual people in power that are responsible for the shitshow our country is.

I'm not sure which is most offensive, autistics or neurotypicals. Like they always told us at work, labels are for things not people.
Neveragain990 · 10/10/2021 23:23

I love Chris Packham and couldn’t pass by and not post this. He is autistic and has eloquently represented autism in his brave and honest documentaries. How can you hate someone who promotes our planet?

Porcupineintherough · 10/10/2021 23:25

@Scrowy so much bullshit in your last post its hard to know where to start. Badgers are not to blame for the catastrophic loss of farmland birds, or hedgehogs or anything else for that matter. Predators in a healthy ecosystem do not need their numbers controlling by man - and if the ecosystem isnt healthy, that would also be down to us.

Carboncheque · 10/10/2021 23:34

It’s interesting that there’s a new bullshit reason for killing badgers now that the original justification for the badger cull has been exposed for the pile of crap it always was.

middleager · 10/10/2021 23:42

I respect him for sticking to his principles and for giving a voice to helpless animals, against the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable.

MrsPelligrinoPetrichor · 11/10/2021 00:07

@Orangejuicemarathoner

I agree his autism makes him a target to people who can't cope with any individual who's social behaviours are slightly different
I had no idea he was autistic.
SpringCrocus · 11/10/2021 00:12

@Megan2018 I'm someone living in the countryside. Have done for 50 years (I'm in my 60s, had a gap in my 20s )
I used to ride to hounds as a child (because I didn't know better, was in the Pony Club)

I'm a farmer.

I totally reject your assertion that "the majority" agree with you.

I'm #teamChris

Strokethefurrywall · 11/10/2021 00:14

I didn’t realise he was so disliked but then I’ve lived out of UK for nearly 15 years.

I bloody love Chris Packham, ever since I was a kid. Passionate about wildlife, biodiversity and a staunch activist against animal murder for sport. And the fact that he can eloquently express himself and stand firm in his views all these years means I like him even more!