The Vegan Proposition of Speciesism (PDF)

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2016 in the subject Didactics - English - Discussion and Essays, grade: 13, , course: Critical Thinking and Writing, language: English, abstract: The vegan movement has cultivated a reputation amongst the typical meat-eating individual for their seemingly hostile and unapproachable nature. When noting what some may call their aggressive shaming of those who choose not to involve themselves with a vegan oriented lifestyle, the vegan community has had trouble in gaining traction with non-vegans. While the movement prides itself on their impassioned motivation to put an end to animal cruelty, most crucially in the context of livestock farming, and bringing awareness to all of the social and health benefits of veganism, the support isn't swelling as one might think it would for such a well-intentioned cause. As surprising as some may find, including even activists within the vegan community, a new era of the "classical vegan argument" has introduced a theme that is most commonly rejected by the general population. An emergence in the term 'speciesism ,' used by vegans of every distinction, has struck a particularly bad chord under the mainstream consensus. In recent years, the societal implications rooted in speciesism have evolved into a chief arguing tool for vegans in their pursuit to expose the speciesist tendencies of the meat-eating community.

The speciesist claim is an all-encompassing expression of the negative feelings held towards the livestock industry and all those who support it through their own consumption of meat. Examining 'speciesism' first outside and then within the context of a vegan's argued opposition of the speciesist actions, we will discover clear underlying critical thinking flaws within the movement as a whole. There is a distinct arguable failure in the vegan movement's attempts to equate societies questioned speciesist priorities and animal rights violations within the agribusiness industry.