Of Hypocrites and Psychopaths

You've got to reject dairy and eggs too.

It’s awful that there are people who delight in the pain and suffering of animals.

I don’t like it, but I have to accept that there are people who have no conscience… people who think it’s appropriate to make fucking bacon jokes when you point out the suffering and death of sentient beings… people who say they’ll kill two animals for every one you save.

The fact of the matter is: there is a small percentage of the population that is purely psychopathic or sociopathic. Barring a way to treat this sort of dysfunction, we just have to find ways to restrain the actions of these people where we can.

But the actions of these people aren’t as dispiriting to me as the more insidious actions of otherwise good people. It’s their casual disregard of the importance of non-companion animals that I find really frustrating. They may love dogs and cats, but it apparently ends there.

How can you discuss how much you love animals while eating a ham sandwich?

How can you say how much you oppose animal cruelty over a plate of bacon and eggs?

You clearly don’t get it.

I wrote these words right after seeing a recipe posted by an “animal lover.” A recipe that included cream cheese and eggs. It probably included milk too. but I stopped reading ingredients before I got that far. I had seen enough.

The recipe poster is very involved in rescuing companion animals. This is a clear sign that this person believes that non-humans matter morally. But, apparently, only a very specific and arbitrary set of non-humans.

This person is a hypocrite.

Am I being too harsh?

I don’t think so.

I was once a hypocrite myself. I wish that someone had called me out on this years ago. I would have gone vegan long before I actually did if I had really been forced to confront my hypocrisy.

I find this brand of animal-loving hypocrisy more disturbing than outright cruelty because it’s so much more prevalent. A small percentage of the population is sociopathic or psychopathic, but most of the people I know engage in the casual disregard that perpetuates the animal holocaust. And it is the great shame of my life that I was once one of them.

We all have enemies, but isn’t somehow worse when we find that our friends have sold us out?

Please join me in trying to be a genuine friend to animals.

Live your values. Go Vegan!