Sigh. "Stay silent. Don't criticize the welfare movement..."

Some of this is in response to The Veganic Way’s rant here:

http://animalrightsevolution.blogspot.com/

At this point, in relation to the time line of earth's history, change DOES need to happen overnight. The problem is that most of the world is sleeping. We need to wake up.

I fail to understand why so many self-proclaimed animal rights supporters seem to think that any useful progress can be made while we allow the massive welfare organizations to dominate the entire debate, and instead demand that we should sit back and let this happen and effectively offer no response while we instead dither with meaningless media-driven campaigns to “expose” the public to the evils of capitalism.

I’m a leftist. I’m critical of capitalism.

The general public doesn’t care. An echo-chamber insularity and an unwillingness to see the facts in front of us for what they actually are has been an ongoing problem of the modern Left for 30 years. If we can just - JUST - spew enough anticapitalist babble at the masses, maybe this time they’ll listen.

No, they won’t. In the meantime, the cozy relationship between the welfare movement and the industrial animal exploitation industries will continue torturing and killing animals, and the welfare movement will continue providing socially acceptable excuses for it.

What would The Veganic Way have us do in response?

Make use of the “independent media” (here’s a protip, darling: I read Indymedia, too. Joe and Jane Sixpack don’t give a damn) to “expose people” to a convoluted mess of left theory and dithering instead of just dissecting the exaggerations and falsehoods of the welfare movement.
Because Veganic is of course no *fan* of the welfare movement. He’s just saying we should all shut up about it.

Is it any wonder that we’re so small and ineffective? Instead of taking the direct, accomplishable route of educating people and disabusing them of welfarist fictions, no, instead we need to take on Smithfields and Archer Daniels Midland and Monsanto. Because bazillion dollar multinationals are eeevil, but utterly stupid, and will be stopped by a tiny little micro-horde of “independent journalists” from the outer edges of the fringe media who want to do a “hard hitting expose” and the multinationals, who have no media budgets of their own, nor any skill at manipulating the corporate media, will just roll over and play dead. Really, seriously, good luck with that.

The strategic calculation in this isn’t difficult to understand: the industry is responding to demand. The industry will ALWAYS respond to demand. Reduce and eliminate demand, and the industry goes away. Play at making “hard hitting” fringe media to “expose the truth” about the industry is a surefire recipe for echo-chamber success. Lots of noise and congratulatory accolades from the chamber, and no change at ALL on the ground.

Good luck with that.

The problem is demand. Unless we meaningfully address the issue of demand - through ongoing vegan education and outreach - we can play at “holding the oppressors” feet to the fire all we may like, and not a damn thing will change. You’re welcome to try. I’m beyond convinced it won’t work in the way you think it will — that’s not to say that it won’t work at all. But your standard of success in this is rapid, widespread cultural change. There is a mountain of evidence that suggests that if this is your expectation and standard of success, you’re likely to be disappointed.

There are no easy solutions in this. Complaining because vegan and abolitionist education works “too slowly” is completely pointless. Everything works too slowly. Some things work not at all. The reason so much of the present abolitionist argument is focused on dissecting the claims made by the welfare movement is because there’s a serious need for it. There’s widespread default acceptance for the claims made by the decades-and-decades old welfare movement, and that will not simply go away because you wish folks would focus on YOUR priorities instead.

It would be nice if people would. They will not, as a practical matter, actually do so. They won’t focus on mine, either, but I’m not making a claim that what I’m doing is going to produce overnight change.

Sure, fine, most people will ignore any and all vegan education; I’ve said so, several times. It all works too slowly. But there are no magic solutions. Pretending otherwise is completely counterproductive.

But, honestly, don’t take my word for it. Go make a documentary. Go fund investigative reportage. Get it out in the culture. Go do it. I’m not telling you not to do it. I’m telling you you shouldn’t have unrealistic expectations about its impact. But, ultimately, whatever expectations you have are your own business.