In Groups And Out Groups
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Well-spoken vegans are some of the best animal advocates. Case in point, Dan Cudahy’s article about kindness:
“With almost any oppressive group or regime one can think of in history – from genocidal regimes to slave societies – the treatment of in-group members is no way to monitor the indifference and often extreme cruelty toward out-group members. Again, I have no reason to doubt that Steve and his associates [who are nonvegans] are ‘very kind and gentle people’ to humans and companion animal in-group members, but that is no way to monitor their indifference and resultant (acts or toleration of) cruelty toward the exploited animal out-group.
“Our present society’s out-group, first and foremost, is sentient nonhuman beings, and we are no different from any other powerful and oppressive in-group in our prejudice and indifference and the extreme cruelty that results from it, but many of us fail to see it.
“It is not enough, however, to merely see our prejudice. If we are to overcome our prejudice, we must at least recognize and live by a minimum standard of moral behavior, which in the case of sentient nonhumans, is veganism. Going vegan is not the most we can do, but the least we can do.”
Unfortunately, it seems like tribalism is a pretty strongly selected-for trait. Some of us seem to be able to overcome it, though, so I’ll keep hoping.