Sublime

One of the most honest accounts I’ve encountered of humanity’s relationship with nonhuman animals comes from political theorist Dinesh Wadiwel, who describes it as a state of war — not a metaphorical war, but a literal one, in which we are the aggressors. If you were an alien who knew nothing about our species, you might expect a civilization that... See more

Abolition is an interesting concept. It seems very nonobvious to me that wild animals have higher welfare lives than domesticated animals. J: And I would say that many people would disagree with you directly

Ultimately, it is the ideology of human supremacy that allows us to maltreat animals in factory farms, blow up mountaintops for coal, turn vibrant rainforest into monocropped wastelands, trawl millions of miles of ocean floor with nets that scoop up everything that moves—while glorying in the Anthropocene, claiming that nature only exists to serve... See more

But let’s talk about at least three ways we can conceive of animal welfare. One is a net balance of positive to negative feelings. A second way of thinking about it is whether animals are performing natural behaviors. The third way is thinking about biological functioning, or just having good health.

Violence starts when wages stagnate while rents skyrocket, when police shoot first and face no consequences, when governments strip rights and call it “order.” It starts when budgets are passed that leave people hungry and homeless, when voices are silenced by censorship, and when whole generations are told their futures must be sacrificed to... See more