Why campaigns against factory farms, zoos, etc. promote speciesism

Colin Wright wroe:The reason that people who promote SICs (Single Issue Campaigns) don't understand why they are counter-productive is because those people think that the problems that they need to address are that humans commit atrocities against nonhumans in factory farms, zoos, labs, etc. etc. ad nauseam.

That's not the problem we need to address at all. The only way to fix all the problems with factory farms, zoos, labs, etc. is to eliminate the root of the problem. The root of the problem is speciesism.

So in order to eliminate the factory farms, zoos, labs, and all the other atrocities, including domestication in general, the only thing we REALLY need to do is... eliminate speciesism. Nothing else will help.

But, since all SICs are BY THEIR NATURE speciesist... engaging in them creates and fosters a state of speciesism in the people who do so. And since people who are willingly engaging in speciesism can't understand why speciesism is the problem, they are not making the connection why SICs are counter-productive (this is like the "racist" who thinks they are not racists simply because they know that ____ are inferior to their ethnicity).

Most people who engage in SICs claim that all we need to prove that SICs are productive is hard numbers as to who did what from SICs. But that's the error - hard numbers don't show whether the speciesist paradigm has changed in any significant way. Especially since there are MANY non-Vegans who call themselves Vegan because they are speciesist and don't really understand the term Vegan in the first place.

"Hard numbers" won't have any bearing on the issue. What will have a bearing on this issue is when we see more people exclusively educating others about Veganism and less people engaging in SICs. In essence, less speciesism and more Veganism.

That's not EVER going to happen from people engaging in SICs. SICs are the problem, they can't be the solution.

Edit: If you're going to try to argue against this, I suggest you use rational arguments that address the point made in the OP, not just Appeal To Emotion and other fallacies. Thanks.

Working for laws against rape and torture while promoting animal exploitation?

A friend wrote: “”The other thing to think about is this: if my child were in a foreign prison where torture was standard of course I would work day and night to get her out. If others did not care if she ever got out but were working on laws to prevent her from being raped and tortured while in there I would not waste one precious moment of my time fighting against those working for better conditions while she was in there. How would she feel about me if she were being raped and tortured and found out I worked in opposition to those trying to pass laws against these things? To see it from the victims's eyes is key. Spend time working for freedom. Don't waste time working against others”

Here are my thoughts:
What if you knew that the efforts of those that claimed to work for better conditions, would reduce the chances of your child to ever get out? What if they made the public feel more comfortable of the situation, because that they in fact were sending the message that it is okay for your child to be exploited and confined in the prison, but that it should be done in “another way” that also will increase the profit of the industry.


What if those persons claimed to work for justice, but in fact were teaching the public that “happy exploitation” is all fine, and it is moral to partake of products that come from persons that are exploited and imprisoned? After all, as long as they “are treated well” - everything is all fine?


What if “working against others” is actually an effort in working against the promotion of Welfarism and speciesism?
What if “working against others” is working against the big Animal organizations cooperating with industry to legitimize and reform animal exploitaiton, so that the industry can make more profit; and non-vegans can become more comfortable in exploiting nonhumans?
What if the efforts of those supporting Welfarism is in fact a major block for freedom for the nonhuman animals?


More reading: http://bloganders.blogspot.no/2014/05/abolitionist-veganism-articles.html

Why do people attack Gary Francione instead of discussing his ideas?

In a discussion on Facebook:
Why does everything has to be black-and-white when it comes to people and their actions?
For example, Gary has a really good theory, but I don't agree with all of his personal interactions on his Facebook-page. Just because you don't like some things a person do, you don't need to take the extreme that you have hate, dislike or have "no respect" for a person.
You could just believe that he is doing the best he can do help the animals, but that he gets some overwhelmed and stressed by all attacks and responses that he gets, and sometimes fails to communicate properly with people.

Single issue campaigns reinforce Welfarism (I refer to my previous post). No surprise that many people engaged in these campaigns are not vegans. That's why some people call people engaging in single issue campaigns for Welfarists. It is not an insult, just a description.

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Jenny Trigg And I have read through all the comments here, and think Colin has been incredibly patient. If Professor Gary L Francione took this much time, he would not have been able to reply to as many people as he has... In other words I understand why Gary is so short sometimes with some people who do not seem able to learn.
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Rhonda Anderson I personally don't know if I like GF or not, because I do not know him on a personal basis, but because I believe animal rights is equally as important as any other rights, I decided to read his essays and books, and take them into consideration. Everything I thought after reading and understanding what was said made complete sense. Veganism IS animal rights, and its crystal clear that if we all teach veganism rather than unwittingly perpetuating speciesism through supporting welfare actions, the sooner the animals will be actually be considered and treated as equals deserving of justice.

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Anna Adey It's not about you. It's never personal, it's about discussing theories and ideas to become better informed to help the animals. If you take things personally and refute philosophies because the person saying them bruised your ego, and you let that cloud your judgement of doing what's right for the movement, you are a part of the problem

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Anna: I have never once, nor would I, insist that everyone must accept Francione's, or anyones viewpoints. I believe it's important to discuss ideas within a movement and not have every debate dwindle into personal attacks. Assuming that everyone in this thread is vegan, I think we are all familiar with people that 'jump in' and troll threads every time a certain buzzword is used and instead of starting with a clean slate and actually discussing the issue at hand respectfully, resorting to ad homs and strawmen arguments, using often-repeated cliches such as 'you're all or nothing/black and white thinking/to each its own/you're all in a cult/don't be divisive'

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Anna: And by the way, my message before about small/average/great minds was not about you. I was referring to your complaint that Francione dare be critical of Melanie Joy and others. He is critical of their theories, not them personally! We should all be critical of *all* of their theories, you can't simply trust that every one has the animals best interests at heart.

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Answer to a persons post:
I don't believe Gary loves the 'inner fighting'. Why would he love that? Maybe he is just opposing single issue campaigns and other "Animal welfare" groups because that he believes that they are harmful to the animals??
He just like most Abolitionists are many times frustrating of hearing the same objections and excuses for Welfarism over and over again. Especially when it turns into ad hominem-attacks or other angry verbal attacks.

People who are blocking other people from promoting certain views on their pages maybe should be understanding of why an administrator blocks people from Abolitionist Approach when it clearly says in the guidelines that one is not allowed to promote a Welfarist agenda on that page. Maybe they just want people to be able to learn without other people who lack knowledge of why Welfarism is harmful comes with distorted views of their position.

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A person wrote: " I saw a post that a friend was commenting on in my newsfeed, in which Francione was bashing Vegan Outreach. I came and made a comment to Francione that I had just participated in one event and that it was nice because they were showing "Earthlings" and that a lot of people were stopping and interested. I also told Francione that he should get down from his high chair and stop criticizing everyone and that he was the worst thing that happened to the vegan movement because he is constantly causing seperation between vegans,"

I just want to point out that I am not attacking you or anyone else. Just trying to discuss this kindly.
To publicly call a person that "he is the worst thing that happened to the vegan movement" then it is both offending to the person receiving it and is against the guidelines of their page.
You shouldn't be surprised that an administrator who probably got offended would block you for writing that. If they would allow all that sort of stuff than the Abolitionist Approach-website wouldn't be a place where people can come to learn about Abolitionist veganism. This is what they want.
I don't agree with all of the personal interactions on that page. I think it sometimes can be to rough and that people should express themselves in another way. I am not condoning anyone's behaviour. I am just trying to give a broader perspective, instead of a perspective that sorts of say: "That this is the worst person in the world." It is much better to realize that no person is perfect, and that Gary is likely doing his best out of his own limitations.

I am not defending anyone. I would have been very offended if someone said that to me, misrepresenting my position and claiming that I am "causing separation between vegans" just because that I am publicly opposing single issue campaigns, "Animal welfare reform" and other Welfarism.


I am just saying that you can't judge someone for blocking other people for expressing things that you don't want to hear, when you are blocking people who are expressing things that you don't want to hear. Who does that make sense?
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A person said: " He can't take a criticism that's why "

I think that it is true on a personal level that his personal interaction is not always the best with people who criticize him.
And this is also true for very many vegans regardless of whether they are Abolitionists or Welfarists.

But when it comes to handling the arguments against the Abolitionist Approach-theory, he does a good job answering the objections - see e.g. this book (ask your library): http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/books/the-animal-rights-debate-abolition-or-regulation/
And also see the podcast-section of his website.

Problems with 'Animal welfare'-movement that says you can exploit animals

I don't understand what you are saying. It is our moral responsibility to address everyone that is enslaving, hurting and killing animals; just like it is our moral responsibility to address everyone that is enslaving, hurting and killing humans.

 

The 'Welfarism'-paradigm is a huge hurdle and obstacle for non-vegans to go vegans. Most people believe in 'Welfarism' and continue to eat all kind of animal products, despite that they don't like the treatment of the animals that they eat. The more we can weaken the 'Welfarism'-paradigm, the easier it will be for people to understand the necessity of veganism.

 

All non-vegans are participating in animal exploitation and contributing to perpetuating the property-status of animals, and thus enabling all animal abuse, including the murder of animals for food. I recommend these books and the podcasts on the same website: http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/books/