Getting to know the animals, as people

Omnivores are ‘majority-thinkers’, are limited to thinking within the square, the same square most others think in. Do they feel a ripple of something outside the square? Can they contemplate having empathy with enslaved animal?
Possibly not, because if they did a thousand products would fall off the edge of their shopping list. That’s why veganism is difficult ... to think about.
To contemplate it is to ask if one would have discipline enough to do it, and hold to it, out of empathetic duty. Is our empathy strong enough to drop routine food items from our day? Permanently? Is it strong enough to overthrow a whole system of thinking and consuming, that plays such a large part in our lives?
Probably most omnivores think it best NOT to go down that road in the first place. By opening this one door we let in a flood. We say to ourselves “it’s best not to know”. We pretend not to notice what is on the ingredients list, on products. We pretend not to know the latest husbandry methods on farms.
If it’s conscience-comfort we’re after, our number one aim could very well be to avoid all contact with vegans and animal rights advocates.
To keep those potential flood gates shut we must stay ‘unsure’ or ‘unknowing’. The more we hear horrible stories of caging or confining animals, the harder it is to ignore them. Then we can hit the bigger problem of our becoming a serial forgetter or doubter or a ‘not-knower’. That saps one’s confidence. It exposes omnivores to no-think and all the horrors of zombyism ... which is, after all, what vegans are there to help with.