A little bit of everything...PETA to Ron Paul

We aren't the typical vegans/vegetarians. By typical, I mean:

A) We don't have pets that are rescued from a local shelter. In fact, we don't have any pets...nor would we force an animal to be "vegan," just like we wouldn't make any future kiddies be "vegan"....



B) We don't work, volunteer, or really want to volunteer at a farm sanctuary...Sorry if our priorities on our free time seem odd...but we currently volunteer to help humans...




C) We don't have random pics of us smiling all pacifist-y, "altruistic-like" with those "rescued" domesticated animals at the farm sanctuary.


D)We do not use the phrase "shocking facts about animal treatment" when we state our reasons...nor do we agree with or endorse to PETA headlines like, "

Shocking Investigation Unveils Torture of Mother Pigs and Piglets

----that headline and the quote about

"horrific abuse to mother pigs and their piglets at a supplier to the largest pig-killing company in the world.."

may work to convert hundreds of tweenie girls into vegetarianism....but somehow I believe this is promoting vegetarianism from the wrong angle.

This route follows the same formula that Oprah uses ("he raped babies!...Girls, you need to urinate on your attackers so you can escape!.....Try to fight and scream!") Gee, thanks for that wise tidbit Oprah, being a helpless female, I'm glad you are getting to big bucks for teaching me such common sense wisdom. Dammit, now I know that rolling over and playing dead won't work. Unless a bear attempts to rape me....I guess that is what Republican candidate Ron Paul has in mind when he says Americans need to be able to protect themselves in potentially hazardous situations...in the National Parks.

The Lifetime channel uses this formula with inane showings of movies that have ridiculous plots, like A Kiss So Deadly...

"A bizarre love triangle develops when a father has a secret fling with his daughter's flirtatious roommate. This sexually deviant dad goes from robbing the cradle to stalking and then turns outright deadly when the affair starts to fizzle. It's fun watching the charming Charles Shaugnessy (from "The Nanny") play such a creepy character."

The Shock Factor Formula

-seems insulting to one's own intelligence....reeling you in with the emotional, tear-jerk response instead of presenting rational facts.....and I don't know about you, but comparing the killing of animals to Holocaust conditions seems to trivialize the atrocities of the Holocaust or a mass genocide. By using such language as "torture of mother" "horrific abuse to mother...piglets" and "largest pig-killing company," PETA hopes to conjure up the image of "innocent women and children" being brutally killed in a calculated genocide by state-supported murderers.

"Torture of mothers" = torture of mothers
"Horrific abuse to mother...piglets" = horrific abuse to women and children
"Killing company" = state sponsored murder

....Yes, I agree that this does put the life of an animal as important as the life of a human....but on the flip side...does this not also put the life of a human only as important as an animal?

Something like a genocide is a horrific atrocity with individual human beings, and the wording that goes along with it should NOT be generalized into a tool for a pop-culture shock.

End

Ripened by Nadia A. @ 13.12.07 Pickings: 12