There are various methods that people use to minimize the moral and political substance of the argument for animal rights. The vegan’s motive is painted as psychological: “You just love dogs and cats don’t you?” This argument tries to deflect away from the logic and appeal to consistency that ethical veganism is predicated upon.
Another method addresses itself to this appeal to consistency: “So, you must be perfect then?” Here’s a quick thought.
I don’t have to be consistent to level a criticism against an illogical or poorly reasoned argument: the reasoning remains valid (e.g. you are inconsistent if you believe both X and Y) even if I, myself, am a complete hypocrite. Nor do I have to be “perfect” (whatever that means), for the same reason.
This criticism is ad hominem, in other words, because it is directed at me, not the logic of my criticism of your reasoning. I’ll restate: You have to prove that my criticism of your reasoning is flawed, not that I am a bastard or whatever.
If you decry Cesar Millan for “being cruel” (in his methods), or for preaching theories that are “downright dangerous and aggressive,” as I recently read, and you eat animals, then you are a hypocrite.
Now, I’m directing this at those who move beyond the criticism that Millan’s methods are “outdated”, and don’t work. If you believe that Millan is abusive, which must mean that the dog shouldn’t be harmed in such and such ways because it is bad, then it is you who I label hypocritical. Shift your judgment inward: those cows, pigs, chickens, and fish whose bodies you eat suffer far more terrible harms then Millan causes. How do you justify it? You can’t because you are just making a stupid distinction: this animal is “important”, but not this one. In the end, it is analogous to arguing that hitting black people is okay, but doing the same to white people is bad.
When people yell at other people for being “mutt makers” and tell them that instead, they should go out and find a “purebred”, “papered” dog to breed their dog to.
Backyard breeders and “quality” breeders alike, each dog you bring into the world is equal to a dog going out the the world via lethal injection or gas chamber. “Mutts” are dogs who love and play and feel too - and they deserve a life as much as a dog who is registered with a random, money grubbing, organization. Get down off your sanctimonious soapbox and realize you’re part of the problem too. It’s my damn soapbox and you’re cluttering it with your inability to think through your words using reason.
To paraphrase Jen, can you imagine the public outcry and the response from law enforcement if this sign were held by an animal rights activist.
What is truly bizarre is that the implicit threat here would be nonsensical at an animal rights protest because naming a single incident where a human animal was attacked or killed by an AR activist is rather difficult. While citing case after case of right-wing violence against humans is as simple as confusing Sarah Palin (all you have to do is ask her about President Bush’s overarching and explicit principle determining his foreign policy for eight years and it is like watching a child being taught organic chemistry).
To celebrate my 24th birthday (yesterday!), I went to the gym and ran a 7 minute mile.
A 7 minute mile, without any training other than my daily bike-to-work routine.
That’s my fastest mile since, well, since ever. I couldn’t even run it that fast in high school. Maybe it’s not the fastest anyone’s ever run a mile, or even that fast, but for no training? C’mon, that’s pretty good.
This doesn’t have much to do with veganism, other than that it just reiterates that yes, you can be vegan and be healthy and athletic.
