Welfarism and Vegetarianism: a Vicious Circle

The idea that we must promote vegetarianism and welfarism instead of veganism and abolitionism is pernicious nonsense promoted by corporate welfarist organizations which profit thereby and endorsed by advocates who have been lead astray by the seduction of "leaders" - Singer, Pacelle, Friedrich, Newkirk, and so on - into false beliefs about why veganism is perceived by the public as "extreme" and even "fanatical."

It is perceived in these pejorative terms precisely because these "leaders" have not sought to make veganism the normal, default position of anyone who takes animals seriously (Francione). On the contrary: they have knowingly and deliberately made welfarism and "happy" meat the baseline position while maligning veganism as an eccentric ethic for saints and heroes.

But these "leaders" claim with shameless impudence that we must promote welfarism and "happy" meat because the public is unreceptive to veganism when in fact, it is their welfarism and "happy" meat campaigns which causes that unreceptivity. The upshot of this is that they decadently make a means of self-confirmation out of a problem that they themselves define and create. The effect of this decadence is to create a vicious circle whereby unreceptivity to veganism supposedly justifies welfarism which in turn reinforces (as opposed to weakens or erodes) unreceptivity to veganism - and so ad infinitum.

Accordingly, the welfarist movement is designed to feed on itself forever - and will do so unless we recognize that animal rights imperatively compels us to reject welfarism and instead to make veganism the moral baseline, the minimum standard of decency, for animal rights advocacy