don’t approach me, I’m an animal activist

Currently, animal activists are responding to animal abuse in the only way they know how, the only way they think will work - By Protest! Protesting that we strongly object to the use of violence against animals. Surely that’s unarguable. But we activists sometimes respond impulsively, even aggressively to non-vegans. Sometimes we respond in an unrestrained, intense, extreme, vehement manner to get our point across. We think it’s okay to be pushy if it’s for a good cause. We have a duty to be forceful. But how close is this to ‘fighting violence with violence’? Confronting their abusive language with sharp invective of our own? Animal rights activists believe they have won significant welfare reforms for animals by being non-compromising and sometimes outrageous. By using this approach they have brought issues to public attention and ended many of the worst abuses of animals. This approach of shaming the vivisectors and other animal exploiters has worked to some extent. But it has not convinced the majority of consumers. They haven’t felt the opprobrium personally and therefore they’ve not felt responsible enough to change their daily habits. We might say that the collective conscience has not been tweaked. Instead, an impression has been formed which is hard for most people to identify with. From that feeling alone springs an emotional disagreement with the arguments of the animal activists. Consumers have successfully convinced themselves that these are people you wouldn’t want to know. The vegan activist can’t afford to appear like this.