put all your cards on the table

11:16AM

Animals Are Stupid

by Ari Solomon


In a recent interview with Larry King, celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain quipped that it was OK for humans to kill and eat animals because we've been designed to chase down "smaller and stupider creatures." Never mind that cows and pigs, two animals that are slaughtered by the millions for food, are most certainly bigger than we are. It was the "stupider" remark that caught my attention, and not just for Bourdain's obvious grammatical shortcomings.

I think many of us feel that animals are dumb; that animals lack the intelligence we humans seem to have so abundantly. I believe this looking down on animals plays a big part in what allows us to treat them in the most heinous ways -- from factory farms to fur farms to laboratories to circuses. We believe that because animals can't write a book, compose a symphony, or do algebra that we're so much better than them.

What a load of bullshit.

Did you know, for example, that pigeons can fly thousands of miles to find the same roosting spot with no navigational difficulties? Some species of birds, like the Arctic Tern, make a 25,000-mile round-trip journey every year. Many species use built-in ferromagnets to detect their orientation with respect to the Earth's magnetic field. Can you do that?

Dolphins have a very distinct language that scientists now refer to as "dolphinese" which humans can't decipher. For all our human knowledge, we have no idea how to understand what should be, according to Bourdain, a "stupider" means of communication.

Salmon are born in rivers, but swim thousands of miles to the ocean only to return to the exact same spot upstream to die.

Elephants communicate with each other subsonically, using low rumbles that can travel for miles underground. They also mourn their dead and have been seen cradling the bones of family members that have passed on.

Butterflies are now thought to have the equivalent of a GPS system in their antennae.

Pigs have the mental capacity of a four year-old human child and have beat humans in memory games.

So, perhaps animals are not stupid. Perhaps it's we who are stupid for not recognizing the amazing things animals can do, many of which we can't do ourselves. Perhaps it's we who are dumb for not being able to circumnavigate the globe without instruments as albatross do, or find our way home across thousands of miles of ocean as Blue Whales do.

Maybe humans can actually learn a thing or two from these "stupid" animals. How about we start with this: animals don't create trash. Animals don't build nuclear weapons to annihilate each other. Animals don't conjure up religions and then kill each other in the name of their Gods. Animals with white fur don't discriminate against animals with fur of a different hue or color. Animals only take what they need. Animals are self-cleaning and don't waste water -- my cat has NEVER had a bath yet he'd smell better than any human who didn't shower. Animals don't gay bash homosexual animals. Animals don't screw over other animals for financial gain a la Bernie Madoff. Animals don't breed other animals to be prettier, fatter, or tastier. Animals don't systematically torture and abuse and kill billions of other animals (or each other) the way humans do. Animals don't commit Holocausts, they don't factory farm, and they don't ethnically cleanse each other. Animals don't cheat. Animals don't front. Animals are their authentic selves.

Yes, humans can do some amazing things: we can cure diseases, we can build skyscrapers, we can figure out how to travel into space. But only human arrogance would suggest that we're better or smarter than animals. The animals of the world evolved to be just as they are. They exist for their own reasons. Only an idiot would call them stupid.


Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ari-solomon/animals-are-stupid_b_336049.html&cp

6:27PM

11:51AM - the world of strife we will live in

( who is the real crimethinc? )

Yes, you can argue pretty convincingly that this contradicts the previously posted article which has decidedly factionalist overtones. I would counter that it goes very well with my polemic, though, and maintain that my frustration with anarchists stems from their inability to get along or work with anyone who isn't just like them, and not so much the fact that I disagree with them on this or that issue. I have the same complaint about "Mack Evasion", and most assuredly about the vegan straightedge scene. Also I think both articles are complex, both bring up good points, and both also say things that annoy me. And last but not least I will say that I do go back and forth on how important unity is to me.

5:17PM - 1,001 reasons to be SXE

this has been in the process of gradual compilation for longer than I can remember, inspired by various examples in my life; obviously it's still short of the goal, so contributions are welcome!


XTHE LISTX

1- you piss yourself less
2- you'll probably remember more
3- you're less likely to wake up to being raped
4- you're less of a skeezebag(and have one less excuse when you are one)
5- you don't have and execute really bad ideas
6- you don't suffer from a complete lack of originality and creativity
7- impotence
8- your lungs
9- your liver
10- because TV, computers, radiation, etc. fuck up your brain enough already
11- rape notwithstanding, you're less likely to have sexual experiences you regret
12- you don't hurt and/or kill yourself because you've lost your coordination
13- you don't hurt and/or kill others because you've lost your coordination
14- you don't have to deal with as many shady characters
15- you'll get in fewer stupid fights
16- you have to actually face your social ineptitude/psychological issues
17- no one will steal your drugs if you don't have any*
18- you're less loud and obnoxious
19- a few less fucked-up industries you're supporting
20- your potential as a counterculture to be reckoned with isn't hopelessly neutralized
21- you'll have more money -or- you won't need money at all
22- you'll get arrested less
23- you won't sell out for your next fix if you don't need one
24- your teeth
25- you won't admit your deepest darkest secrets to people you don't actually trust, or really even care about*
26- you'll lose stuff less*
27- no more making friends who have no idea who you are*
28- you don't have to puke in people's houses who you don't know*
29- NO MORE PASSING OUT*
30- you'll be a better ninja
31- you'll break stuff less
32- you won't laugh at things that aren't funny
33- you'll probably be a better conversationalist
34- you'll be in a better place to give consent
35- hangovers
36- you'll puke less
37- dehydration
38- time, one of the few things we have in life that is truly ours and there is less and less of with each passing moment; can be put to much better use before it's gone*


*credit for this reason belongs to someone other than me

1:04PM - yes, my vision of anarchy begins with the end of most anarchists

( better a late cut than no cut! )

3:04PM - a polemic

just posted this in anarchists-



First off I will say that, even though this is completely unrealistic, I am not looking for a fight nor do I have any particular desire to have this turn into a flamewar. Although I won't pretend to be impartial when it comes to this topic, I'm not a troll, and what I am looking for is acknowledgement, respect and reasoned, dispassionate discussion about something that never seems to get brought up but desperately needs to, and if I receive even one response that seems to make an effort toward these things I will be happy.

So I guess I will start with this: I have noticed a trend within the "anarchist community" that I find pretty ironic, rather disturbing and at times incredibly alienating: the tendency to marginalize dissident voices. I overheard the most trenchant and hilarious thing the other day, someone I know said: "A lot of people who consider themselves free thinkers are actually free from thinking." And it's true, whether we acknowledge it or not. Anarchists have no less potential to become dogmatic bigots than Christians or Socialists or Republicans or Scientologists. But it seems to me that as anarchists we have a greater responsibility to exercise flexibility within our collective creed, precisely because of the nature of that creed. Aren't things like intolerance of unpopular opinions and the demand for obedience to someone else's doctrines, some of the things we are supposedly against? Am I mistaken in thinking this? Please tell me if I am, so I can find another crowd to hang out with.
Does anyone here still believe in "I don't like what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"? Because from what I have seen especially in the past couple of months, anarchists as a whole don't generally want to hear anything that differs from the currently fashionable party line. For the sake of clarity I'll lay down what I mean by that; the current party line as I see it is that-
-trans issues are absolutely vital
-queer issues are absolutely vital
-everyone is divided into "whites" and "people of color" and the issues of "people of color" are absolutely vital
-everyone who is white and/or male and/or heterosexual is an inherently oppressive entity
-there is zero tolerance even for an accusation of anything remotely resembling sexual assault, regardless of what the accused or anyone else has to say
-there is zero tolerance for politically incorrect language
-animal rights and environmental issues are unimportant

Feel free to tell me if I got anything wrong there, because I would find that an immense relief. But I doubt it. And if you agree with all these points, and are like "yeah, that seems perfectly alright and correct", well, we can just agree to disagree. My problem isn't so much the content of the party line, as the fact that anarchists have a party line, and the fact of their vicious lack of respect for anyone that disagrees with it. I feel like I could tell an Orthodox Catholic that I think God is a myth and receive far more empathy, than if I told an anarchist that I think animal rights is far more pressing an issue than white privilege. And I am not the only person that thinks this but I often seem to be the only one saying anything. And you know why that is? Because people within the anarchist scene are afraid to voice their opinion if it differs from the party line. Does anyone else think that this is just a little fucked up? A little ass-backwards? Just a tiny bit hypocritical? I do. And I have sat down to write this up today because I can no longer tolerate the fact that no one is pointing these things out. I think it's time anarchists had themselves a little look in the mirror and asked what exactly makes them different from any other "ist".


EDIT: Upon reflection I realize that I just trapped myself into yet another anarchist practice that I find problematic: overemphasizing criticism while all but entirely neglecting the incumbent responsibility to offer a solution or alternative.
So my alternative is simple really. That we not only tolerate but encourage diversity of opinion, rather than being so eager to dish out judgement and condemnation on people for differing, especially if they are in the minority. You may say that that opens the door to oppressive behaviors, but I say that just because someone has a different opinion than you doesn't make them oppressive or even necessarily wrong, and if oppressive behaviors arise then deal with them when they arise, and not before. Anything else is being the anarchist thought police, the irony of which I really cannot let slide and I don't think anyone should.
I think we need to create reasoned healthy alternatives to mainstream society, rather than just having extreme reactions to the oppressions we see and doing little more than just the opposite of them. I think we all need to look within a lot more and figure out what it means to do the right thing in such an insane world. I think we need to transcend our politics and dogma and relate to each other as human beings(speciesist of language though that may be), and not as social roles, because in the end anything less is just going to divide us further, and ensure that a better world will never come.