I mean this gently but itâs only not good if you believe animals to be inferior or deserving of fewer rights. Then you would, by extension, believe itâd be calling disabled people inferior.
But as a disabled person who used to be very obviously so (my mom got pity-looks), I donât mind being compared to other animals. I am an animal. We all are-we sure arenât plants, protists, bacteria, etc.
I believe all sentient life has equal value. So no we arenât on the same level as a sea cucumber but why should the dolphin or the chimpanzee have fewer rights than us?
That doesnât mean we should prioritize other species over our own. Other humans are our family. If our familyâs house is on fire, we put that out before we put out our neighborâs fire.
Speciesm is so engrained in us that it sounds patently absurd to even point it out or suggest that itâs wrong. But it is. And we all partake in it. Myself included. I try to minimize it. But in 400 years my âradicalâ opinions on it will be seen as problematic and speciest which I will come out and admit is fair. But Iâm doing my best in the times I live in.
Interestingly, because humans are animals, we are covered under animal rights philosophies. The ideal way to live is to avoid needless cruelty to anyone who is sentient. Animal rights must be intersectional or itâs useless.
If you earnestly live by that, pro equity and justice for humans comes so naturally. I mean if society teaches that all sentient beings are worthy of rights, then dividing that by race, gender, sexuality, etc makes absolutely zero sense. But in a speciest world, we already divide based on external attributes in an arbitrary way. Dogs shouldnât be killed but chickens should. Stuff like that. Thereâs also racism entrenched in speciesm. White people rag on other cultures for which animals they eat and use it to discriminate when really itâs an arbitrary distinction.
And before anyone says anything, I have zero issues with sustenance hunting. Itâs no different from a lion with gazelle. Not a nice reality but a reality.
I think speciesm will die when lab grown meat and dairy become big. Dairy for example is absurdly addictive to some of us. Today I had a very stressful time as the night shift nurse called out in the late afternoon. I was on call so I had to come in for the night shift on zero sleep, knowing Iâd be back for day shift 36 hours later. I craved dairy so badly. Still do right now. But thatâs because I want the casein. Get it somewhere else and those primal urges will be satiated. Then we will look more objectively.
But thatâs just like my opinion.