Mitch and Emotional Arguments

My thanks as always to MSU students and one of my favorites this time for sharing an article with from the State News. A couple of years ago you could've fooled me into thinking that the State News had some semblance of objectivity, but their position on the highly controversial issue of animal rights the past couple years has made it clear that they care for nothing except propagating their own liberal viewpoints and forcing it on the students at MSU. If I was an alumni subscriber, I'd be pretty disappointed in the impression they're making on the general public; it's even gotten worse than the OSU Lantern.

Well, this latest argument from Mitch is so highly charged with emotion and non-factual statements that I finally lost my cool and started typing up a response:

"Mitch, your uninformed, emotional arguments prove exactly why it's so far taken you 5 years to graduate with a bachelors' degree. Glad to see you learned how to photoshop masculinity into your submission picture. If only people knew you were about 4 feet tall and looked more like an enormous squirrel than a college student..."

Yeah, cross that out. This is when I realized I needed to scratch out and start over:

"Mitch (and friends), you probably don't remember your rude treatment of me a couple of years ago at a PETA2 rally, but it seems the only thing that's changed is finally you found a masculine picture to fool the papers. Your attitude towards animal agriculture is a cover up for the fact that you are shamefully unable to accept the facts in this world. There is life, and there is death. University of Michigan has even found that plants have feelings, so I hope in your quest for preservation of all sensitive beings you finally figure out your only option to avoid the death of living, feeling beings is starvation. Good luck with that."

Scratch out again. Geez this guy has me fired up. Well, that's what they try to do to you. They get you all fired up, ruffle your feathers, and once you're angry you spout off something stuttery, unintelligent, then you look like an angry idiot and give farmers everywhere a bad reputation. That's the idea folks and this provocation works. It gets us to say the wrong things at the wrong times and then they misquote you over and over again until you wish you'd never cared.

So I erased again, and here's where we stand:

"Mitch, and friends,

"The incoherency in your argument shames animal rights groups worldwide. Rather, you obviously can't make up your mind whether you're speaking on vivisection, or if you want to go on a diatribe against animal agriculture and MSU Animal Science students (your more common MO). Most of the animal research you cited in your opening isn't even linked to Anthony Hall or the Animal Science Department. Despite your claims of what is in Anthony Hall, you still seem to have no clue what really happens there at all. The same is true of your ignorant statements about mink and Dr. Bursian but others have already elaborated that in previous comments. What is true is that the mink released by your fellow activists suffered horribly from the "freedom" forced upon them during an illegal mass release. Would you like to comment on that incident at all?

"Citing Carol Adams adds no strength to your argument in the least. She demeans women everywhere by even equating the women's rights movement with animal rights. Capable of their own cognition and responsible for their actions, women bravely campaigned for many decades in a persistent effort to receive equal consideration for jobs, legal rights and representation. The women's rights movement in the US is decades old and while there are still places in the world where women suffer inexplicable discrimination, it is certainly not beneath the gaze of the Euro-American male. Truth is that you used this article as just one more opportunity to agitate people against animal agriculture and the faculty/students who research in this field.

"As a former MSU student, I learned much beyond my own field of study or simple classes; among the life skills further developed in my undergraduate career was critical thinking - something your arguments lack. Open up your "arrogant eyes" a little and step back for the big picture. I think you'll find your "male gaze" has become a little clouded with denial of the truth. Life feeds life and recent reports indicate that plants feel pain and stress, and can detect relatives in the soil around them. You can either eat and survive, accepting that all life can serve a purpose through a well cared for life, or you can starve. The choice is all yours."

Have a nice day, y'all, and check out other great comments on that site as well.

Feminism and Veganism

Courtesy of Jackie, I have the chance to get just a little bit more vocal and opinionated today. MSU recently had author Carol Adams in to talk about how closely linked feminism and veganism are in the modern world. Of course it would make sense that the same people who are unwilling to accept that they have been more than equals in the US for a long time now (why else would I as a white male be a minority?) would be the same people who might want to align their efforts with another irrational underdog in the way of veganists and their avid animal activism. What they fail to realize is that while veganism and animal rights may be a current topic of debate, focusing on feminism merely degrades women in today's time since most women are functioning as equals in the modern world unless they try to make a big deal about being a woman. It's only once a woman advocates feminism that they actually degrade their value in the public's eyes, because it proves that they can't get out of the past and move on to accept the new status that they've been arguing for for decades.


Adams also talked about the pornography of meat. I would be lying if I told you I was attracted Lady Gaga in her photos of the meat dress (gag). Does that mean I don't like to eat meat? No, I love to eat meat, and have never before linked women and meat together in my life, and I doubt I'm in a minority here. But I can tell you one person who has Lady Gaga as his profile picture right now, for who knows what reason.


And then who better to represent MSU on the subject of Feminism and Veganism that SPAR and their very own Mitch Goldsmith (President of MSU SPAR). Of course, he's not actually a female, despite the fact he's pumped up on estrogen from high soy consumption as a result of his veganism, but since he thought he could get a word in on stopping meat consumption he stuck his face in the news this week and the liberal State News obliged as always.

Now, I had no doubt Mitch would eventually find himself in a leadership role in this radical organization. He's rude, inconsiderate, highly opinionated, unable to exhibit intelligence or debate intelligibly and has a major that could only result in his placement in a sub-standard organization campaigning for something unreasonable (animal rights). (Disclaimer - there is a difference between animal welfare and animal rights, I support greater welfare, but animals rights is a ridiculous concept in terms of economics, philosophy and general practicality).

The last time Mitch and I ran into each other wasn't exactly a positive interaction. I patiently waited for over a half hour as he continuously ignored me in my attempt to ask a question of the PETA VP. His mistake would in turn be costly as it gave me the time to formulate a much more pointed question which ended with the PETA VP Dan Matthews embarrassing himself at his own pep rally.

Veganism (as a form of activism as it was proposed by Carol Adams according to the State News) and feminism only have one thing in common. They are both supported by radicals who make little or nil logical sense in their attempts to propagate viewpoints that do nothing but insult their intelligence. Feminism had a place in this world once, but combining it with veganism only detracts from both causes. Feminism combined with veganism only portrays women as the weaker sex who refuse to accept the ultimate reality that it takes life to support life. Veganism (and animals rights) combined with feminism results in an even less legitimate concept in animal rights by joining forces with an outdated concept which no longer applies to the modern world (the only part of the world where veganism and animal rights can attract favor).