Francione Or Bust

Do As I Say. Not As I Do
Do As I Say. Not As I Do

Sadly for the animals and veganism in general, there seems to be a growing number of people being hoodwinked into the teachings of the exalted one.

Before becoming ordained into that ministry, you must adhere to six principles.

Thankfully, much like the Seven Commandments in Orwell’s Animal Farm, there are unwritten escape clauses to these Principles.

Principle One

Abolitionists maintain that all sentient beings, human or nonhuman, have one right—the basic right not to be treated as the property of others.

Escape clause
If that nonhuman animal is a “rescue”, you are morally obliged to own them, keep them in captivity, use as props on Skype chats, and so on, because you are doing this in their best interests. Supposedly…

Principle Two

Abolitionists maintain that our recognition of this one basic right means that we must abolish, and not merely regulate, institutionalized animal exploitation, and that abolitionists should not support welfare reform campaigns or single-issue campaigns.

Escape clause
Though, we won’t do anything to abolish the legal concept of owning nonhuman animals that we class as “rescues”, lest it mean that we can no longer use them as props or to prove how much of an animal person we are. Single issue campaigns such as “kill list” promotion is perfectly acceptable as it allows the rest of us to “rescue” more nonhuman animals.

Principle Three

Abolitionists maintain that veganism is a moral baseline and that creative, nonviolent vegan education must be the cornerstone of rational animal rights advocacy.

Escape clause
Lying, bullying, sexism, racism, classism, etc are perfectly acceptable and not immoral acts, as veganism is the moral baseline.

Principle Four

The Abolitionist Approach links the moral status of nonhumans with sentience alone and not with any other cognitive characteristic; all sentient beings are equal for the purpose of not being used exclusively as a resource.

Escape clause
Excluding using ‘rescued’ nonhuman animals as ‘props’, ‘proof’ of how much of an ‘animal person’ one is – the more nonhuman animals you can ‘rescue’ the better you are.

Principle Five

Abolitionists reject all forms of human discrimination, including racism, sexism, heterosexism, ageism, ableism, and classism—just as they reject speciesism.

Escape clause
Apart from when you are trying to ‘educate’ nonbelievers, or disgrace those who have been excommunicated from ‘the order’, in which case you can call them stupid, morally schizophrenic and any other term your vocabulary will allow. Let’s also not forget that referring to other animals as non-human is the ultimate in speciesism.

Principle Six

Abolitionists recognize the principle of nonviolence as a core principle of the animal rights movement.

Escape clause.
Non violence only means ‘physical violence’. It is perfectly acceptable to lie, bully, harass, otherise or treat non believers in any way you feel like, so long as it isn’t ‘physical’.
Should your words cause someone distress, ending any comment with “ahimsa”, or “the world is vegan. if you want it” negates any aggressive impact it may have.

What are your thoughts?