with these shackles on, you won't come to harm.

alexandraerin:

This newer half: The Struggle.

avocado-on-a-plate:

alexandraerin:

avocado-on-a-plate:

(Worth the read, I promise)

Every single day, people in this town, pull on this lever, because there is a sign that says to do so.

They don’t know why they do it. They just do. As they have for centuries.

They are perfectly capable of not pulling the lever, and it has no benefit to their day. It is simply routine.

Finally. One day. A very curious someone decided to investigate what this lever does, for obviously it serves a purpose.

To their horror, they find people being placed on a conveyor belt, that with each pull of the lever, moves people into a large furnace.

The person who discovered it, starts crying at the horror they witness, who could allow for such atrocities to take place? And why has no one stood up to it before?

They tell people what’s going on, they beg and plead and cry at their feet, “You’re killing them! They are all going to die!”

But the people either:

1. Refuse to acknowledge this person’s claim, and go about doing what they’ve always done without second guessing it.

2. Acknowledge it, and become angered with the person who has made them aware.

3. Acknowledge it, and tell the person that it doesn’t matter, they have to do it.

Their constant pleas, to stop the slaughter, and the apathy of the masses who despite education, continue to do so.

Can you imagine the burden of that knowledge? How much you’d FIGHT to have people realize what they’re doing? How you’d NEVER give up?

Now you know the struggle vegans go through every. single. day.

Stop telling us “I don’t care”. “Stop forcing veganism down my throat.”

We will never remain silent . Until all are aware. Until we don’t have to wake up with a broken heart, as you silently kill our friends.

Dang, that’s really deep and powerful and moving.

But one question.

If you have this great big struggle about people being killed for no benefit to anyone, why do you waste so much time talking about animals being killed for delicious and nutritious food? THERE ARE PEOPLE ON A CONVEYOR BELT DYING IN A FURNACE, YOU DICK! DO SOMETHING!

It was deep, powerful, and moving, but you completely missed the point. The people in the scenario weren’t talking about animals. The ‘curious someone’ who discovered the truth about the lever went around, desperately trying to tell people about the furnace. And the towns people ignored them, because not pulling the lever would change and interfere with their daily lives.

It was an analogy. And a damn good one at that.

The moral of the story is that once you now the truth, do something about it. Don’t ignore suffering just because it might change your life. Animals are suffering for you to continue your meat diet.

The “curious someone” is going around telling people: “You’re killing them! They are all going to die!”

It’s not a warning about the dangers of the furnace, it’s a warning that the unthinking actions of the person holding the lever at the moment is going to result in another person’s death.

And a moral of the story being about how once you know that your routine unthinking actions are causing suffering and death of people, you have to make a change… yeah, that works. It’s a serviceable enough parable for that.

But the problem is that if you’re not vegan already it doesn’t work for animals. Because there are no animals that aren’t people in the story. Tell me a person has to die every time I have a hamburger and I’ll look for a different source of food. Tell me a cow died and you’re revealing no horrible shocking new truth to me.

It’s a great metaphor for the unthinking and incidental cruelty that underpins a lot of modern life. But as a vegan tract, it’s nothing but a self-congratulatory paean. If you think that a story about people on a conveyor belt is parallel to a story about cows on a conveyor belt, this story will make you feel super awesome about the fierce and desperate struggle against a cruel and uncaring world you’re in. But anybody who doesn’t is going to look at it and go, “Bwuh?”

So if your goal is to feel super awesome about your choices while people who made a different choice just have their sense that your choice is ridiculous reinforced, great job. Of course, I think on some level that is your goal. The sort of person who needs this kind of myth-making to keep up with a cause doesn’t want everybody on the same side. If the whole world became vegan you’d be left without an enemy, without a grand and epic struggle to imagine yourself in.

The purpose of this story is to make you feel important, in a doomed and heroic way. If the rest of the world converted, you’d lose that distinction.