u/explorerofbells - originally from r/GenZhou
Hey comrades,
I’m a part of a discord server called Vegan Theory Club that’s run by mix of leftist tendencies. It’s a theory club that’s explicitly leftist and vegan, but we talk about more than just the book of the month.
We just started reading Eternal Treblinka - Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust by Charles Patterson, which we voted for. (Our last book was Kapital.) Right now is the perfect time to join!
We’d love to have you!
u/vampirewallflower - originally from r/GenZhouComparing treatment of animals to the holocaust. Great start yikes.
u/HorseaSauceBoss - originally from r/GenZhouMy health teacher got fired for that lmao
u/gaygirlgg - originally from r/GenZhouTbh, many black and indigenous vegans have similar lines of thinking as this book.
It’s not racist or anti-semitic to point out that comparing Jewish/black/indigenous people to animals is what genocidal ideologies do.
Vegans get attacked for pointing out there is a connection between the way animals are devalued and treated and the way that certain groups of people are animalized (dehumanized) and treated.
u/vampirewallflower - originally from r/GenZhouSo? You still can’t equate black or indigenous people to animals. If you try to, you should be rightfully attacked for it.
u/gaygirlgg - originally from r/GenZhouYes, I fully agree.
But that’s a strawman of the position.
The vegan, anti-colonial, anti-imperialist position is a critique of that tendency. This is from black vegan and indigenous vegan perspectives. It is the opposite of comparing people to animals.
It would be absurd to hear someone be like “wow I felt like an animal in a cage when I was in prison!” and someone to say “wow swetty, I can’t believe you just compared people to animals!”. Or to say “Black people have been called apes by racists” and then have someone call you racist.
Many people can’t conceive of the idea that if people didn’t mistreat animals, that people would be treated better. This is due to the proliferation of colonial and capitalist ideology. If there were no devaluation of animals, there wouldn’t be a devaluation of people through animalization.
For instance, if you glance at the wikipedia of the book proposed in the book club, it mentions Descartes, who believed animals didn’t feel pain, they just had “response to stimulus” as they didn’t have minds. Black people have been dehumanized through race science for centuries after Descartes. There is a still widespread perception in the medical field that black people do not feel pain as much as other races. For this reason, black people are under-prescribed pain medication.
There is also an idea along the same lines of black people being animalistic, and therefore of reduced will/agency, so a disconnect between black people’s thoughts, emotions, and reality. “Instinctual responses to stimuli”. This connects to why black people are fatally medically neglected (“They are just making a big deal about it”).
u/explorerofbells - originally from r/GenZhouI’m Jewish, and so is the author, but go off