We should present veganism as commendable, and offsetting as a legitimate stopping point for individual supporters.
The pro-animal movement should be a bigger tent than veganism. We should welcome different ways of being pro-animal including donations and civic engagement, like attending a protest or voting for a pro-animal candidate.
I’m tentatively excited about “offsetting” as a specific instance of donating, but I’m cautious about presenting offsetting as enough.
Veganism will remain an important part of many people’s political identity, including mine. (I like the priestly class comparison; it’s also sort of like political lesbianism). In my experience, veganism has helped me see animals as fellow creatures and unlearn my speciesism. I don’t want to put anybody off experimenting with veganism, especially because I want the committed “priestly” class to be as big and strong as possible.
For those (like me) who don’t know what political lesbianism is:
Political lesbianism asserts that sexual orientation is a political and feminist choice, and advocates lesbianism as a positive alternative to heterosexuality for women[1] as part of the struggle against sexism… Heterosexual behavior is seen as the basic unit of the patriarchy’s political structure, and therefore lesbians who reject heterosexual behavior are disrupting the established political system.
As I understand it (and I’m not anything like an expert), the political lesbians rejected heterosexual sex, and perhaps relationships with men more broadly, as (a) a way to challenge the patriarchy, and (b) a way to cultivate feminist values within themselves. To me, this seems somewhat similar to vegans who reject meat consumption as (a) a way to challenge speciest norms, and (b) a way to cultivate anti-speciesism within themselves. Both philosophies create a political critique of personal desire.
Of course, it’s an imperfect comparison, and there are important criticisms of political lesbianism.
Super interesting. I think I’d say that sexual orientation and meat cravings (if that’s what you mean by “personal desire”) are sufficiently different that this analogy doesn’t really hold.
They are clearly different but Ben’s point is interesting because historically, the movement for political lesbianism treated sexual orientation like meat craving.
The pro-animal movement should be a bigger tent than veganism. We should welcome different ways of being pro-animal including donations and civic engagement, like attending a protest or voting for a pro-animal candidate.
I’m tentatively excited about “offsetting” as a specific instance of donating, but I’m cautious about presenting offsetting as enough.
Veganism will remain an important part of many people’s political identity, including mine. (I like the priestly class comparison; it’s also sort of like political lesbianism). In my experience, veganism has helped me see animals as fellow creatures and unlearn my speciesism.
I don’t want to put anybody off experimenting with veganism, especially because I want the committed “priestly” class to be as big and strong as possible.
For those (like me) who don’t know what political lesbianism is:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_lesbianism
Though I’m not sure I follow why veganism is like political lesbianism Ben, can you explain?
As I understand it (and I’m not anything like an expert), the political lesbians rejected heterosexual sex, and perhaps relationships with men more broadly, as (a) a way to challenge the patriarchy, and (b) a way to cultivate feminist values within themselves. To me, this seems somewhat similar to vegans who reject meat consumption as (a) a way to challenge speciest norms, and (b) a way to cultivate anti-speciesism within themselves. Both philosophies create a political critique of personal desire.
Of course, it’s an imperfect comparison, and there are important criticisms of political lesbianism.
Super interesting. I think I’d say that sexual orientation and meat cravings (if that’s what you mean by “personal desire”) are sufficiently different that this analogy doesn’t really hold.
They are clearly different but Ben’s point is interesting because historically, the movement for political lesbianism treated sexual orientation like meat craving.
Yeah, I think that’s reasonable. I also think they’re very different