• wafflez@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      [email protected] @smirk:sh.itjustworks however you use mentions

      "just case the textbook anti-PETA rhetoric comes into the thread…

      This is why people hate PETA.

      Yes, PETA does some crazy shit, but as with many things there are two sides to the story which is difficult to see when you get bombarded by anti-PETA stuff as is common on e.g. Reddit.

      Anti-PETA efforts by the meat industry:

      Sites like www.petakillsanimals.com are run by the Center for Organizational Research and Education, which is a lobbying platform for the fast food, meat, alcohol and tobacco industries. They also target the humane society, even John Oliver did a piece on them and their founder Richard Berman. That’s just one outlet for their misinformation-campains, they are also cited in lots of blogs and “news articles” as well, so it’s not always very obvious.

      nathan-winograd-in-perspective
      
      nathan-winograd-misinformation-machine
      

      They are the driving power behind all the misinformation and PETA-hate that is spread around. PETA is actually doing a lot for animal rights, that’s why they are such a big target for smear campaigns:

      [Their biggest victories] (https://www.peta.org/about-peta/milestones/)
      
      [All victories sorted by recent] (https://www.peta.org/about-peta/victories/) (several per week!)
      
      See also http://www.petakillsanimalsscam.com/
      

      PETA and their kill-shelters:

      PETA kills animals because unfortunately there are no better places for them. Blame the puppy mills and irresponsible short term owners that give up their pets a few days or weeks after getting them because they had no idea what they got themselves into. Those people create more pets than there are places for them, so instead of having them become strays and further add to the problem, PETA put down those they can’t adopt out. Because PETA accepts all animals, even those that other shelters turn away in order to not sully their adoption numbers, PETA shelters end up with many more “hopeless” animals. See more here.

      The case of the mistaken dog (and how PETA doesn’t steal and murder pets):

      A farmer asked PETA to euthanise a pack of stray dogs that were aggressive and violent towards the farmer’s cows. Upon arrival, PETA found the pack of stray dogs, took them to the shelter and put them down, as a free service. Unfortunately it turned out, that one of the presumed stray dogs was a pet-chihuaha called Maya, that was not sitting on the porch, as often claimed, but running freely with the stray pack, without leash or collar or supervision. PETA fucked up, because they didn’t wait the 5 day grace period to give the owners time to look for and collect their pet. That’s why they had to pay a fine and apologized for it. http://www.whypetaeuthanizes.com/maya.html

      The monkey selfie:

      The monkey took the picture himself btw, the photographer just left the camera lying around. I am not saying the monkey should be copyright holder and it’s an open-shut case, but it does raise the question about the photographer having ownership over something that was voluntarily and independently created by an animal. What if a painter would leave his brushes lying around and an animal would create a painting? The artist actually sees it the same way and settled for a compromise with PETA followed by a joint statement. This was a landmark case in copyright law.

      PETA equating milk to racism:

      White supremacists actually use milk to demonstrate their superiority over “inferior” (their words, obviously) lactose intolerant ethnicities. That’s the reason behind their campaign on the issue.

      Final thoughts (I promise):

      PETA does a good job at raising issues and are one of the most successfull organisations to fight for animal rights. The granting of rights is the only real way to protect animals from unneccessary cruelty. Animal welfare will always be arbitrary, both in what species are worthy of protection, and the extent of protection they are worthy of. You cannot consider yourself an animal lover without recognizing the importance of that.

      Sometimes PETA (intentionally?) overshoot, that happens when you try to move the border of current perceptions (i.e. animals are objects to be used for food, clothes, entertainment). I am not here to defend their tone or (lack of) tact, and there are a number of (sometimes downright stupid) PETA-campaigns I disagree with. I’m not trying to convice you to become their friend, but at least judge them for what they are doing, not for what they are said to do.

      Most of the criticism of PETA you read on Reddit comes straight from the mouths of the Center for Organizational Research and Education (CORE), formerly known as the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF). It’s basically a corporate propaganda organization with donors like Tyson Foods, Wendy’s, and Coca-Cola. They also run campaigns claiming obesity isn’t that major of a problem and that you can eat 10 times as much mercury from fish as experts recommend. The vast majority of the animals PETA euthanizes are suffering and are brought to PETA’s shelter by their owners specifically to be put out of their misery, but the CCF distorts that into “PETA is stealing people’s pets off the streets” and Reddit gobbles it up.

      The media also knows that PETA is an easy target. Years ago I read an article in one of the British tabloids (the Sun or the Mirror) with a headline something like, “PETA blasts child’s bunny wedding!” But if you actually read the article, what happened is a kid dressed up some bunnies in wedding outfits, the “journalist” reached out to PETA and asked them to comment, and PETA said something like, “we don’t support dressing rabbits in costumes because it may be stressful for them.” And that was the end of the story, but that wouldn’t get clicks so they distorted the headline to make it sound like PETA was protesting or attacking the kid on their own accord.

      For the record, I think there are perfectly legitimate criticisms of PETA, like the sexist imagery they use in some of their ad campaigns and their welfarist (as opposed to abolitionist) approach to advocacy. It just gets to me that so many redditors claim to be rational and free-thinking but then read literal corporate propaganda about PETA and swallow it whole without a second thought.

      Info continued here if anyone is interested… https://sh.itjust.works/comment/2252698

      Then… https://sh.itjust.works/comment/2252784

      Then… https://sh.itjust.works/comment/2252805"

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        I don’t do gish gallops, so I’m just going to address this:

        PETA kills animals because unfortunately there are no better places for them.

        That is bullshit. There are no kill shelters all over the country. There’s one in my town. They didn’t even euthanize after they were overwhelmed when we had a huge storm that destroyed structures. They just found people who would foster while they could rehome as much as they could. PETA doesn’t do that.

        • Sotuanduso@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          1 year ago

          Today I learned what a Gish Gallop is.

          British journalist Mehdi Hasan suggests using these three steps to beat the Gish gallop:

          1. Because there are too many falsehoods to address, it is wise to choose one as an example. Choose the weakest, dumbest, most ludicrous argument that your opponent has presented and tear this argument to shreds (also known as the weak point rebuttal).
          2. Do not budge from the issue. Don’t move on until you have decisively destroyed the nonsense and clearly made your point.
          3. Call it out: name the strategy. “This is a strategy called the ‘Gish Gallop’. Do not be fooled by the flood of nonsense you have just heard.”

          Nicely done.

        • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          I’d just stop now. I just realized who you’re commenting with, and the guy just had a long-ass pissy argument. When I slowed down to show him evidence, he kept changing topics and then ragequit when it didn’t work.

          Feel free to check my comment history (or his) for proof of this.

          • u/unhappy_grapefruit_2@lemmy.worldOP
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            Can also check my comment history I’m just going to try and ignore dx1 although I don’t know how effective that’s going be considering he’s on every god dam comment winging and moaning

            • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              Well, damn. I got to you too late. Or vice versa.

              My wife brought home popeyes since my last comment to you. It’s better than KFC 🐔 😁

                • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  1 year ago

                  Their spicy chicken is to die for, and like 90% less greasy than KFC. And I haven’t done the math, but I think they’re cheaper, too.

                  We fry our own chicken sometimes, and are pretty damn good cooks. And we prefer Popeyes. Which says something.

                  • u/unhappy_grapefruit_2@lemmy.worldOP
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    2
                    ·
                    edit-2
                    1 year ago

                    Sounds amazing m8 propa stuff if popeyes ever come to the uk I’ll.make sure to give it ago some other amercian fast food chains are coming over such as taco Bell I remember seeing that in a few places

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        1 year ago

        I love it when people say this without even suggesting where to do this research. Let me guess- Google it. Because that’s what I already did.

          • ZaroniPepperoni@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            5
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            “Just look it up until a fringe source from an unknown media group ““debunks”” it, despite the mountains of evidence to the contrary, then change your entire point of view from it” in other words: just google the opposite of what you said and go with that answer plz thx. Color me convinced! For the record: every fact check I looked up corroborated the obvious: PETA euthanizes pets at an obscene rate compared to even the most ruthless pounds in the us.

              • Sybil@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                8
                arrow-down
                2
                ·
                1 year ago

                It’s like every time people post something false, and you know it’s false, you can’t just let them know, they expect you to spend the next two hours of your life pulling up all the sources to show them, again and again and again and again and again and again. I’ve had this exact same conversation dozens of times, I’m sick of it.

                seems like you know how to avoid this, but you choose instead to get mad at people asking you to support your own claims.