Being superior

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Humans have always been advantage-takers and inferior-bashers, whether in the name of racism, speciesism, snobbery or cruelty. Advantage keeps us separated from others. We are hardwired in favour of separation and against equality. Little wonder animals are thought to be inferior - so much easier to exploit them.
If we want to understand this attitude, especially in regard to animals, just look at the way most of us treat new people who are different in a ‘less-so’ way - we practise separation on them. We want to avoid getting too close ... in case, in case ... we have to go in hard on them, later. We don’t admit to this, and in fact we might even appear benevolent towards strangers (to make them think we’re liberal-minded). We show compassion and make a show of it, but it’s like relating sweetly to the neighbour’s cat - it masks our contempt ... for them.
Here’s a suggested process - we half-heartedly get to know strangers; help them but not in an abundant way; so, they start to feel patronised and keep us at arm’s length; so, we feel rejected by them … which lets us complete the circle, where we feel justified in separating from them. We might say, “I guess they’re not worth getting to know” ... which lets us dislike them … which lets us think of them as not-equals ... which brings us to separation.
I lived in a town after the second world war to which Sikhs migrated, and English people in our town had no previous experience of living with other races. They thought they smelt (as of course they did, and we to them too, no doubt!). People would say, “... and they don’t even speak proper English”. To this day the two communities haven’t accepted each other.
In our cocoons of separation it’s more comfortable not to integrate. We’re so used to ‘practising separation’ on others, when it suits us, that we have no trouble doing the same thing with animals - we believe them to be ‘brutish’ and therefore less sensitive to pain ... so, we can exploit them and feel no pity for them.
Separation-beliefs are integral to ‘that’ attitude which is all about hierarchy. The ones on top mark some humans and absolutely all animals as inferiors, allowing different treatment from that lavished on ‘nearest and dearest’.