I identify as “selfie morality” the phenomenon of characterizing substantive disagreement or criticism as “oppression,” “aggression,” “bashing,” “hating,” “shaming,” or “bullying” without providing any substantive response to the criticism. Selfie morality is nothing but narcissism. And it is inherently speciesist. So, for example, when abolitionist vegans make a reasoned argument that the moral status of […]
There are two and only two choices: Choice 1: You stop eating, wearing, and otherwise using all nonhuman animals; Choice 2: You continue to participate directly in exploiting nonhuman animals. There is no third choice. You are either vegan or you are participating directly in animal exploitation. “But wait!” the welfarists cry, “Even if you […]
You all claim to reject “happy exploitation.” But John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, claims that you (and possibly others) were “stakeholders” in the actual creation of the Whole Foods “happy exploitation” standards. You can listen to Mackey speak here. Mackey claims that you worked with the meat industry to set the “happy” standards “a […]
They are angry that I am what they call an “absolutist” who maintains that we cannot justify *any* animal use. They are right. I am an absolutist in this regard–just as I am an “absolutist” with respect to rape, child molestation, and other violations of fundamental human rights. Indeed, I would not have it any […]
[Note: Click to enlarge images.] Mercy for Animals, an animal welfare organization, claims that “The Problem” is “Animals suffering miserably on factory farms.” Wrong. The problem is identifying the problem as “factory farms” and not animal use or exploitation–wherever it occurs and however supposedly “humane” or “compassionate” or “merciful” it is. Misidentifying the problem has […]
When I wrote “Rain Without Thunder: The Ideology of the Animal Rights Movement” in 1996, I argued that the animal rights movement was becoming a “new welfarist” movement. That is, the movement claimed to embrace animal rights and abolition but it promoted the idea of using traditional welfarist reform to get to abolition. I argued […]
In 2012, the European Union “ban” on conventional battery cages for laying hens came into effect. I wrote a blog post and discussed how, even though this supposed “ban” was not a ban on battery cages at all and required only that producers use “enriched” cages for laying hens, and even though conservative welfarists acknowledged […]
The Modern Animal Movement Rejects Veganism as a Moral Baseline The modern animal movement, which promotes welfare reform and single-issue campaigns, explicitly and uniformly rejects veganism as a moral baseline. There is not a single one of the large “animal advocacy” groups that promotes veganism as a moral imperative. All of the large groups sideline […]
This week, a radio show in Boston aired a recording in which a Municipal Court Judge in Ohio recently sentenced a woman accused of leaving her dog in a filthy house to spend eight hours in a garbage dump. People are commending what the judge did; after all, the defendant did not act “humanely.” She […]
A very typical message we get from many “animal advocates” is that we can’t say that veganism is a moral baseline. That is, we can’t say that veganism is a moral obligation and a moral imperative. We can only promote reducing suffering. People just won’t understand it or be able to process the vegan position. […]