Sunseeker

And we'd all live on our main property together, a huge wildlife refuge. And if they had kids, and those kids had kids, this would be their reserve, too, and they would be the earth stewards. The only rules would be 1) the property cannot be split and must remain as a whole, and 2) all who live on the property must disavow harming animals, or they lose access to the land. 

Abuse, in most of its forms, can be recognized relatively easily: A raised voice at a child, the bruise from a violent hand, the mental scars from a lifetime of control. But some abuse is much more invisible, hard to grasp, and most especially, polite. The mother who looks the other way, the friend who says that he just doesn't care about politics, the quiet lack of laws protecting consumers. They all say, "I won't hurt you, not in any way you can clearly point to, but I won't stop other people from doing it." Personal and systemic abuse exists because of perfectly well-meaning, mild-mannered people. It's how the Nazis were able to condemn people to death camps--through the polite silence of the barber, the farmer, the everyday man. Only when complicity becomes intolerable will abuse end. We see this explicitly in bonobos, who are considered to be the most peaceful ape species. Bonobos are capable, like chimpanzees, to act violently--but when they do, they are expelled from the troop. That's the difference.

Many people claim to be pro-autonomy, but few of them actually are. And even fewer still, live in real autonomous values. Autonomy does not mean "doing whatever you want." It means that you have the right to self-governance in a way that respects your rights and the rights of others. Your autonomy includes (minus financial obligations), the ability to present yourself, to seek out a future, and to make your own decisions. It also ends where your mind and body does. If you hurt others, you are violating their autonomy. You cannot support carnism (the philosophical belief of eating animals) while believing in autonomy--not coherently.