Separation

If we are ‘separationists’ and we have dealings with exploited humans, whether low caste or uneducated, we (the boss) need to keep a firm trench dug between what we are and what they are. How big the distance-of-separation is depends on either how far we go. We might want to do the right thing by them. Or we might be willing to screw them. Exploitative attitudes (once they’ve been established and passed on from one generation to the next) are likely to become group attitudes. If we mix socially with 'separationists', soon enough we’ll learn how to put a person ‘in their place’. Even simpler, we can turn on the auto-pilot of dislike – and by disliking ‘people who are different’ we can regard them as either a threat or as a resource. But that’s a people-attitude. When it comes to handling another species the separation process is much cruder. The gloves are off with animals because they are never a threat and nearly always a resource. Whick makes them fair game for any amount of heartless treatment.
If we turn away from separation and are attracted to people who are more egalitarian, we’re likely to act very differently. Our ambition will be to promote the interests of minorities. We won’t see the differences in other people or other species but more likely to regard them as deserving of the best treatment.
But separationists are still in the ascendant, their view is that other people from other cultures should be put ‘in their place’, and that makes it much easier to feel separated from other species; they transpose their culture discrimination to species discrimination. Most humans rate animals (and some lesser-people) as being lower, in order to treat them badly whilst not feeling bad for doing so. Humans do terrible things to animals and yet still maintain their equilibrium, as if nothing bad is happening … that is, until people like vegans come along and burst the bubble, in a most alarming way.
We point out what’s really happening to animals at the hands of humans (read ‘consumers’). Sitting at the dinner table, listening to vegans talking about our “kinship with animals” is not a pleasant experience, especially if one is eating an animal at the time.