LET'S LIVE WITHOUT HARMING! Reject UNSCRUPULOUS speciesism

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I was raised in a traditional Judeo-Christian culture according to which human beings are made in the image and likeness of God and are therefore the masters of all animals. Animals were created by the Lord so that we could use them at our discretion for our own benefit (Genesis 1:26), even if this involved cruelty. I was raised in a country where it was normalized to make animals suffer for pure entertainment, such as in bullfights, throwing goats from bell towers and other even more brutal festivities.

Later I realized that in most cultures the idea tends to be the same, forming a structure with four pillars: objectifying speciesism, perverse narcissistic supremacism, exploitative anthropocentrism and cruelty.

1. OBJECTIFYING SPECIESISM

It is a form of discrimination based on the species to which each individual belongs. It starts from labeling two completely distinct classes: us (humans), who are considered practically everything, and the others (animals), who are considered practically nothing. As if they were insignificant in relation to the entirety of the universe, which is obviously us. That is, they are mere objects for our use and enjoyment, like a football that we can kick or a pen that we throw away when it is no longer useful (use and discard).

Read: Let’s avoid labels that are a free pass to HARM!

LIVE WITHOUT HARMING: Let’s not objectify

This categorization is:

1. Incorrect, because it has nothing to do with the taxonomic classification used by scientists, who divide sentient beings into chordates and non-chordates, vertebrates and invertebrates, which may be fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, which in turn have further subdivisions.

2. Absurd, because Homo sapiens are also animals—specifically vertebrates, mammals, primates, apes, Old World monkeys, and hominids that, according to some studies, share 98–99% of their DNA with our closest hominid cousins, chimpanzees.

3. Insensitive, because it does not take into account a very important fact: many animals also feel, and mammals experience emotions with a similar intensity to humans.

4. Unethical, because it considers beings who feel and suffer as mere objects that can be harmed and trampled. They are not mere objects intended for our use and abuse, but sentient beings like us, each with their own personality.

Objectifying speciesism is part of toxic gregariousness, within which there is also racism, ethnism, xenophobia and ultranationalism. All of them are different walls of the same building affected by structural decay