Leftist politics in general are severely limited by a speciesist and anthropocentric mindset. Leftists often think that nonhuman animal justice isn’t as important as human justice and adding nonhuman animal issues into their purview just adds to their problems to deal with. On the other hand, many vegans’ politics are severely limited by a lack of understanding of the intertwined nature of oppression. Some vegans think that nonhuman animal oppression is so ubiquitous that it should have priority over anything else.
KIM STALLWOOD: John Tallent is the author and publisher of ‘How to Unite the Left on Animals: A Handbook on Total Liberationist Veganism and a Shared Reality’. A vegan since 2011, he graduated with a Master of Arts degree in Applied Sociology in 2022. He is the Administrative Director of the Piedmont Farm Animal Refuge in Pittsboro, NC…
Kim Stallwood: Some on the left refuse to accept animal liberation as a progressive political issue. Some animal advocates don’t see animal rights as a political issue or even anything to do with progressive politics. Why do you think there’s such an unwillingness to understand the inherent relationship between them?
John Tallent: I think that we too often speak about issues that we aren’t that familiar with — issues that we may have been given information about from other people who are equally as uninformed. So, most non-vegan Leftists have very little knowledge about veganism, other than what their friends have told them or factually incorrect posts they’ve seen on social media. Likewise, lots of nonhuman animal advocates fail to see the inherent connections between animal and human liberation because they are going off of what their friends are saying, or they haven’t read anything about the intersectional nature of oppression.
There’s also the common belief that including an additional concern in a social justice movement will hold that movement back. For example, Leftists often think that nonhuman animal justice isn’t as important as human justice and adding nonhuman animal issues into their purview just adds to their problems to deal with; some vegans think that nonhuman animal oppression is so ubiquitous that it should have priority over anything else.
We also just live in a world where everyone is competing for rights and dignity. It’s a terrible way to view what’s going on, but it is how most movements tend to seek liberation. I think that adage about how “none of us are free until we are all free” is not taken enough.
KS: If a bridge were built between progressive politics and animal liberation uniting them together, what impact would it have on social justice advocacy?
JT: We would be in a much better position than we currently are. We would be able to look beyond single-issue justice and be able to see the commonalities of oppression and how domination and animality run through all forms of human oppression. It would be a massive shift, and I don’t think most people can even imagine how positive of a change that would be. It wouldn’t be simply adding nonhuman animal liberation into human social movements, and it wouldn’t be simply bringing human social justice movements into the fight for nonhuman animal liberation. It would finally be a way for liberation itself to make a huge step forward. Leftist politics in general are severely limited by a speciesist and anthropocentric mindset; many vegans’ politics are severely limited by a lack of understanding of the intertwined nature of oppression. Putting all these forms of liberation together finally opens up the minds of so many humans and allows them a fuller view of the troubles we are fighting against. SOURCE…
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