The other problem here is the culture of praise on the internet: the pet people and the bikini people alike are accustomed to NOTHING BUT PRAISE pouring in through their instagram accounts, etc. —and, indeed, the people who hold cardboard signs and chant as a form of activism, likewise, are accustomed to an avalanche of praise at all time (from friends, family and from complete strangers on Facebook).
Now, indeed, some of that praise is motivated by the fact that people actually want to have sex with the women in bikinis, and they falsely imagine that flattery is the first step toward seduction… but there is also a lot of positivity simply for the sake of positivity ("you go girl!").
This could be seen even within the orgy of enthusiasm for Black Lives Matter, and the eagerness of white people to congratulate one another for making vague statements on the internet that they "stand with BLM", etc.
In both cases, my opposition (and genuine skepticism) is considered shocking and abhorrent: I was SKEPTICAL of B.L.M. many years before the scandals became public about what exactly they did with the money (and who exactly the founders were, and what their political agenda was, etc. etc.). Those videos are still viewable on my youtube channel.
My point is not that I was right (and, of course, I was) but merely that my videos were perceived to be shocking and abhorrent for having an opinion at all —rather than having the "you go girl!" attitude of mindless encouragement.
As with B.L.M., so too (even more) with encouraging attitudes toward every kind of moronic vegan activism: if someone decides to devote years of their life and hundreds of thousands of dollars to providing hip replacement surgery for elderly cats at their "rescue shelter", they expect to her absolutely nothing but praise ("you go girl!"). I cannot say if this is more or less intense for the vegans whose method of activism is showing their bodies in bikinis —but, in any case, it is very intense all around.
This is the cultural context within which my critique emerges, and this is the cultural context into which my critique submerges as well.
Joey Carbstrong doesn't talk to me anymore. James Aspey has communicated with me indirectly, but never directly. Do you suppose these men are cowards? They're imbeciles, but not cowards. Even they must remain free from any contamination: any skepticism, any freedom of thought, must be assiduously avoided.
And, yes, we now get to look back at my career (over the last ten years, approximately) and ask the question of whether or not I would have been better off devoting myself to fawning over and flattering the likes of Izzy Davis, Tim Shieff and Hitomi Mochizuki, who always were "the natural leaders" of the vegan movement, not despite their stupidity, but because of it.
Would I have been better off, that's one question, would everyone else have been better off is quite another.
