Once again it has been quite a while since I posted something on here, and I thought it was time for another one. Plus I have a few things to rant about. After all, isn’t that what blogs are for? 🙂
So lets get started…
It would seem that the people over at the ‘forum that shall remain nameless’ are continuing on their pro-welfarism quest. Now I can’t call their rants ‘anti-abolitionist’ because in her humble opinion, a regular contributor to the forum has decided that all vegans are abolitionist, even though she isn’t vegan herself.
This is strange, because if all vegans want to see an end to animal use, why don’t they just say that? Instead they bring out all sorts of reasons why they promote welfarism and vegetarianism, none of which seem to be valid.
The main one they seem to trumpet a lot is the ‘at least we are doing something…‘. Yes, I do agree they are doing something, and that is furthering the speciesist attitudes of society. This may give them a sense of achievement with their shallow victory, such as increased cage size for layer hens, or the more people choosing ‘happy meat’. Yet it does nothing to get people to question why they are using animal products in the first place, or that we are talking about Animal Rights here. Which is the rights of ALL sentient beings not to be exploited, used/abused or treated as property.
The next ‘justification’ that they bring out is ‘we won’t see it in our lifetime‘. If this is truly the case and you whole heartedly believe that, then please re-insert your head in the sand and get out of my way. I do believe that we WILL see a change within my lifetime. I refuse to believe anything else, because I am in this ‘for the animals’ not my own ego. Adopting this sort of defeatist attitude only serves those who want to continue with their exploitative behaviours. Why should “they” be worried about what we do when “we” publicly acknowledge that what we are doing is pointless ineffective and a waste of time?
Then comes the ‘going vegan is hard for the new convert‘. Once again, what a load of rubbish this one is. How hard is it to stand in a supermarket and read the ingredient list of the food items that you are buying? As far as I know, reading does not cause anyone any sort of physical pain. Whereas the layer hen whose eggs were an ingredient in something that you just ate, because reading the ingredient list is too hard, is kept in a cage endures pain and discomfort on a daily basis. Or what about the dairy cow that has had her calf forcibly taken away from her because something you just ate had milk in it.
Look at it another way, if you had a potentially life threatening allergy, take peanuts for example. You would be researching every additive and reading every single item that you purchase to ensure that none of them contain peanuts. Well the only difference with reading the ingredients of items when you are vegan is that it isn’t your life that is at risk, it is the lives of millions of other animals worldwide.
I also find it amusing that the moderator of the forum, who is also the de-facto matriarch, likes to go off on her little tangents throwing all sorts of insults and abuse at people willy nilly. Yet when called on it and told that it is offensive or insulting, her defence is “oh it was meant tongue in cheek“. To me this reeks of someone that isn’t willing to stand by what they say or just throws things out there to get a reaction from people.
And finally, to all those people that think I left that forum because I had a hissy fit one day. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I left because discussing anything that doesn’t conform to the thoughts of a select few is pounced on a ridiculed.
The thread that I commented on, which was heavily moderated was created by one of the moderators themselves as a blatant attack on abolitionism. I pointed this out saying that it breached the forum rules, and I was the one that was censored. Then they turn around and say that if you object to something, please email put it down in an email, which they can ignore….
Anyway, that’s about it for this one.
Time for a coffee, and to work out who I can upset next… 🙂
This article was written by the founder of VeganPolice.com.au, Cameron Blewett.
Cameron is a long term vegan (30+yrs), and is passionate about veganism, and helping people to understand more about it and giving other animals equal consideration.
You can find Cameron’s other rants on his website, CameronBlewett.blog
Congratulations…I love the way you write and the passion with which you write…look forward to reading more :- )))
It is now January 2011, some 8 months after you wrote this post, & nothing has changed. They are vicious & nasty people who cannot debate welfare except by attacking abolition. As for the ‘matriach’ it was sickening over Christmas that they were ‘all hail DH’.