The Grumpy Vegan once asked before what is it about veganism that makes thinking people so stupid? Well, on this occasion veganism isn’t mentioned but animal rights are. I’m referring to Nicholas D. Kristoff’s Op Ed, “Humanity Even for Nonhumans,” in The New York Times. So, we’ve got to ask this time what is it about animal rights that makes thinking people so stupid?
First off, Kristoff writes
Yet the movement is also the product of a deep intellectual ferment pioneered by the Princeton scholar Peter Singer.
Pioneered? Couldn’t Kristoff Google animal rights history and see that there were centuries of activity before Singer?
Second, Kristoff trips over the all-too-easy and predictable question of how far do you go?
I eagerly pushed Mr. Singer to find his boundaries. “Do you have any compunctions about swatting a cockroach?” I asked him.
and inevitably concludes with this begrudging, ambivalent and dumb conclusion.
These are vexing questions, and different people will answer them differently. For my part, I eat meat, but I would prefer that this practice not inflict gratuitous suffering.
Oh, perlease.
