i also totally got these uncomfortable vibes on the pitbull post from earlier
I also was uncomfortable with that aspect of what nrrrdcakkke was saying there when she compared joking about pitbulls to joking about a “black guy.” (Notice the three k’s in the name on purpose, btw…not sure why…she writes elsewhere in her blog that she wanted to have three and for some other sites she uses two because they won’t allow three k’s in a row in a username but tumblr does. Not implying she’s a Klan member, just saying I don’t understand why someone would do that on purpose when it’s not really necessary.)
I couldn’t really put my finger on why it made me uncomfortable exactly. I seriously doubt that she was intending to belittle POC, but maybe it just seemed patronizing, and it seemed to, in itself, perpetuate the stereotype that a “black guy” should be the target of racial slurs. In a sense, she was making her own argument against herself. I wanted to say something about it but I’m always cautious when approaching those things because, as a white male, I don’t want to go around acting patronizing myself by giving the impression that I think I’m going to fix black peoples’ problems by calling someone out. I admit that I don’t really know where I fit and I don’t want to overstep my bounds and offend even more people.
Still, in this case I do want to stick up for the animal rights angle here, because animals don’t have any voice of their own. Before I say anything else, let me get this straight: I would never compare any humans of any group to animals in an attempt to make members of that group seem like less than human. If I were to make a comparison like that, it is because I believe animals to be as deserving of moral consideration as human beings are, in the sense that they also feel pain, form communities, make friends, love their young, mourn their dead and lost, and are undeniably sentient—and because they are murdered unnecessarily by the billions every year, their bodies are treated as property, their reproductive systems are subjugated and manipulated, and they are denied the fundamental right to feed and nurture their own children.
If I ever compare humanity’s treatment of animals to society’s treatment of any oppressed human group, it is not because I think less of that oppressed group, but because I see the same underlying logic at work in both cases. The logic of oppression is the same no matter where it’s being applied. (Depending on whose view of prehistory you subscribe to, it could be argued that subjugation of women and minorities has its very root in the subjugation of animals (but that’s a topic for another time)). Anyway, it doesn’t make sense to me to fight that oppressor logic on one front (such as sexism or racism) while employing and defending it on another front when dealing with animals. The continued oppression of one group of sentient beings can only hinder the lifting of oppression from another because it allows the underlying problem to persist.
I refuse to believe that these causes are mutually exclusive, though many people seem to want to make them so. Fighting for animal rights does not take away from human rights or civil rights. In fact, if we think about the effect it would have on our ecosystem and our world in general if we stopped treating animals as mere property, it would actually improve human lives, especially in oppressed and poor areas: the world wouldn’t be as polluted, the life-sustaining oceans might recover from the toxins and overfishing that are currently destroying all life in them, super-viruses wouldn’t keep getting produced, we’d have a chance to salvage what’s left of the rainforests (lungs of the planet), there would be plenty of food for everyone because it wouldn’t be being fed to billions of livestock animals instead of hungry people, global warming and the wiping out of coastal/island communities would eventually slow down, land in starving countries could be used to feed the people who are starving there instead of the cattle that first worlders crave, etc. These are all effects of mass animal agriculture and all these things greatly effect human lives. Yeah I know it’s a long shot and highly unlikely any of this will come to pass, especially not in any kind of immediate way. But this is why I’m fond of the phrase, “animal rights are human rights.” All causes towards equality and ending oppression are good and valid. But never forget that humans are animals as well, and as long as we choose to treat every other animal as being mere objects for our subjugation, as long as we don’t recognize their innate and legitimate right to live their own lives for themselves free from oppression, we will likely continue to treat human animals the same way.
If you (the general you, I’m not attacking anyone personally) can’t agree with this, if you think animals aren’t also deserving of our moral consideration, it is only because you are too busy eating their dead, tortured and mutilated bodies to see that they are really no different from you; perhaps the biggest difference is they don’t have a voice to speak out against what we do to them. If you found yourself voiceless, is that how you would want someone to treat you?
Though I’m making considerable effort to be as fair as possible in what I’m saying, it’s a contentious issue and I’m sure plenty of people who read this will have something to say in response. I can’t promise I’ll respond myself, especially if you’re just pissed off or sending me messages trying to justify your own eating of meat, but I’ll certainly read them because I appreciate you reading what I’ve written here.
