Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   Jay Baker (mediaactivist@todon.eu)'s status on Saturday, 27-Jan-2024 01:52:11 JST Jay Baker

   For all the talk about humans' relationship with nature potentially causing more pandemics, there are greater - and more uncanny - links here. I've been a #vegan for almost 20yrs (#MeatFree for over 30yrs) and the cognitive dissonance, even at times aggressive denialism, demonstrated by folks - including "leftists" - over the years has been startling. When I had my tattoo done by a vegan artist using vegan inks, another artist nearby smugly claimed he'd prefer to slit an animal's throat and use its blood to tattoo people; I've witnessed supposedly radical people brag about animals being killed for meat, even raise the topic over dinner or wave the meat in vegans' faces, and on more than one occasion in the last few years had "anarchists" plan barbecues and mock vegans who wanted options. Peter Gelderloos is one of those "anarchists" who has spent considerable time writing on this topic, using laughably tired old ill-informed arguments to attempt to justify killing animals for meat and dairy products...

   • Embed this notice
     Jay Baker (mediaactivist@todon.eu)'s status on Saturday, 27-Jan-2024 01:54:47 JST Jay Baker

     in reply to

     And all this is very illuminating because these choice convenient acceptances of hierarchies set the stage for a failed pandemic response, didn't it? Mocking people for wearing masks or taking other precautions so that they can have their "cool" and supposedly radical meetings and related social events. And what I've come to realise is that even the supposed staunchest of leftists - including anarchists, - are all for not being bigots or prejudiced pricks, absolutely all for using words, so long as a refusal to cause harm does not require more than these words; so long as they do not require an actual change in behaviour. Speciesism and ableism are linked in this way. Consuming non-animal products or masking up require a little bit of effort. It's punk af. You'll soon spot the poseurs - the ones who just can't be bothered. The ones who suddenly make justifications for hierarchy of one group over another. #SorryNotSorry #CognitiveDissonance #vegan #anarchist #veganism #anarchism #veganarchism #veganarchist #speciesism #CovidIsNotOver #Covid19

   • Embed this notice
     Colin H. (glaswolf@mastodon.scot)'s status on Saturday, 27-Jan-2024 02:33:12 JST Colin H.

     in reply to

     @MediaActivist A few years ago I saw TV interview with a psychologist (and vegan) regarding the hostility vegans often faced. He said (paraphrased) that it was a known phenomenon that when people are confronted (even passively) with a situation where their actions don't fit their own values (i.e. their cognitive dissonance), they will often respond aggressively as a sort of internal defence mechanism.

   • Embed this notice
     Jay Baker (mediaactivist@todon.eu)'s status on Tuesday, 06-Feb-2024 08:42:10 JST Jay Baker

     in reply to

     Whoah. I wasn't able to catch all reactions to this as some respondents already had to be muted/blocked a while ago. But apparently some of them pretty much proved my point with aggressive, tone-policing reactions to simple facts that veganism is about embracing the core anarchist principle of anti-hierarchy and therefore rejecting animal products *as far as is possible and practicable* as individuals. Those of us who have done so for even a while will certainly laugh at what are familiar, repetitive "arguments" that, yes, Peter Gelderloos embarrassingly peddled, that happened to read like the defensive shouty spitting of some Stalinist macho labour union boss, with, at worst, literal written attempts to justify killing in his own fucking words and, at best, the same tired old ill-informed non-scientific claims that were thrown around back in the fucking Nineties to try and avoid any behavioural changes by attempting to justify the continuation of hierarchical exploitation, and oh yes the very same types that push ableism in the pandemic -- and don't let any petty poseurs try to persuade you otherwise. They'll do anything to avoid backing up words with deeds. #veganarchist #veganarchism #vegan #anarchist #veganism #anarchism #AntiSpeciesism

   • Embed this notice
     Jay Baker (mediaactivist@todon.eu)'s status on Tuesday, 06-Feb-2024 09:11:09 JST Jay Baker

     in reply to

     The Nineties, by the way, presented remarks like "we are natural carnivores," "what about molars," "lions eat meat," "what about canines," "plants feel pain," "they'd die in the wild," "don't you miss meat," "you won't get protein," "I love animals, but..." I'd expect more from folks these days. Lines like this were so ridiculed that they were literally turned into fucking #VeganBingo cards for posterity. People like Peter Gelderloos turned them into little essays. Which is quite cringe. #veganarchist #veganarchism #vegan #anarchist #veganism #anarchism