Confronting – does it work?

Unless vegans are asked to comment on animal rights, it’s likely that whatever we do say will only be heard by the already-converted. Anything we say uninvited, about animal rights or vegan issues, is likely to be seen as deliberately confronting, and people don’t like moral confrontation especially concerning their meals! If vegans question the ethics of people’s food choices, we’ll be put in the ‘whacky’ basket. It will help our detractors feel justified in denigrating us and rejecting all of our intrusive comments. We may not care about that. We may say these people deserve to be confronted … but the freewill of people allows them to walk away from confrontation. So, who wins?
The alternative to this somewhat bulldozer-ish approach is for us to strike a balance when talking about Animal Rights. It depends on who we are talking to. Face to face we can soon judge if there’s a genuine interest to listen or a brick wall against us. If we ignore the vital signals people are putting out when they don’t want to hear, they’ll regard us as moral bullies and have no trouble pushing us away. Such a waste, since these are the very people we should be trying to reach.
Society is split on this issue, as to whether or not rights should be given to animals. In most parts of the world this question never even arises because they haven’t even thought about it. But where the question of rights for non-humans is discussed, you can guarantee that no other subject hots up as quickly as this one! At animal rights demonstrations, dramatic clashes are shown on TV news, between those who are keen to eat animals and those who are animal rights activists. The activist tries a bit of moral bludgeoning, their adversaries denigrate them … and it’s been like this for decades. Some progress is made but nothing in the deep psyche of people is touched. So, nothing changes as a result.
Most people throughout the world have never even thought about these issues. And these are the ones who are surprised when the subject is aired. For them, using animal-food is as natural as drinking water or breathing air. Every main meal they’ve ever eaten contains animal, therefore a meal is never seen as an act of violence. In all innocence they might ask what all this fuss is about. And yet when the issues do have an airing maybe something rubs off. They begin to think about the way animals are treated on farms, and maybe it shocks them, but it’s usually not enough for them to want to take up a vegan diet.
There are some who have thought about it. Our arguments are familiar to them. But still they’re not ready to change, so their response to us is a rehearsed one aimed at maximum resistance. And it’s likely their main aim is NOT to learn more but to avoid it like the plague. In reality, the subject of Animal Rights is never discussed willingly by anyone who still uses animal products.