I think the steak comments are pretty close to the initial point of the post because of the relationship many members of the vegetarian/vegan/animal rights community has with PETA.

What are you basing that on? They get a lot of celebrity endorsement, but as far as my anecdata goes (and I’ve been vegetarian for over fifteen years and involved in AR for nearly ten) the actual vegetarian/vegan/AR community remains generally unimpressed at PETA. Or did you miss the bit where most of the veg*ns commenting on this thread criticised PETA and their action?

When, on an almost monthly basis, some new and horrible things comes from PETA’s publicity office we see two things: a tide out outrage from people sympathetic to the cause who think the new ad is offensive and a significant number of people who are part of the cause who say “well, clearly this ad is offensive but…”

Yeah. Clearly this ad is offensive, but we’re not throwing out our entire commitment because PETA are fuckwits. Where’s the problem?

How many people, rather than being sickened by PETA trivializing domestic terrorism and the murder of a doctor who was one of only three to provide a desperately needed medical procedure in the goddamn country, opted to get defensive because their feelings were hurt by people who were reacting in horror?

Don’t you DARE imply that those of us who objected to the obnoxious comments were not sickened by PETA’s action.

And The Dude, my conditions for someone deserving rights certainly do not include “being able to contribute to society” or “being able to ask for them”.

prig = noun
a person who displays or demands of others pointlessly precise conformity, fussiness about trivialities, or exaggerated propriety, esp. in a self-righteous or irritating manner.
Add Disrespectful to that as well.

Are you fucking kidding me? Really? Trivializing the murder of one of the few doctors who provide late term abortions for the women who NEED them–women whose lives are in danger–is not hurting or insulting anyone?

Women who have been told to “choose life” (and perhaps embrace their own deaths) by the forced-birth thugs are now being told to choose vegetarianism. Because a woman grappling with the choice to abort a non-viable fetus or possibly die is certainly okay with her pain being used as PETA’s poltical prop.

No. A thousand times, no. You are welcome to fuck off.

How many people saying “This is insulting” or “This is extremely painful to me” does it take before it’s considered to be insulting or hurtful? ‘Cuz Holocaust survivors have gone on record as being insulted and injured, at least one survivor of a lynch mob has gone on record as being insulted and injured, and countless women have protested their objectification campaigns as insulting and, in a broader, social sense, injurious to women’s standing.

They aren’t hurting or insulting anyone

Bwah? What about the black people who had to walk by PETA members dressed up in white hoods? Or the women who had to walk by the set up of a naked pregnant woman in a cage? Or Dr. Tiller’s family who now have to see these signs as they grieve the man?

Oh wait, they’re not animals so it doesn’t matter if they are hurt or insulted.

I am deeply saddened and disgusted about the death of Dr. Tiller, however, why not make a big deal about both issues at the same time?

Because actions mean things. The explicit message PETA is sending is that the lives of animals are, at a minimum, equal to the lives of women. The implicit message is that the lives of animals are more important than the lives of women because PETA is attempting to co opt the attention around Dr. Tiller’s murder and change the discussion to one about eating meat rather than one about domestic terrorism, murder, and the lives of women. Making a big deal about both issues at the same time isn’t what PETA is doing, what PETA is doing is saying “Hey, this is more important, pay attention.”

PETA is just another group of activists, actively working to better the lives of the group they represent.

Through the routine objectification, dehumanization, and insult of all other groups.

They aren’t hurting or insulting anyone

I’m pretty fucking insulted by PETA on a regular basis and PETA is hurting people. By attempting to change the terms of the discussion they are attempting to change the discussion. Given that Dr. Tiller was one of three doctors in the country doing what he does a change of subject would demonstrably hurt women.

only moving forward to try to help people to understand how painful and torturous the death of a factory farm animal is.

Did you look at the billboards? One ordered people to eat in a certain way, the other drew a direct moral equivalence between abortion and eating meat in such a way as to pose abortion as murder. In fact, by their tacit acceptance of the pro-life argument that abortion is murder and their constant use of holocaust imagery, PETA is lending support to the pro-life movement in an attempt to buttress their own movement.

All of this before Dr. Tiller’s body is even in the fucking ground.

I am deeply saddened and disgusted about the death of Dr. Tiller, however, why not make a big deal about both issues at the same time?

PETA is just another group of activists, actively working to better the lives of the group they represent. They aren’t hurting or insulting anyone, only moving forward to try to help people to understand how painful and torturous the death of a factory farm animal is.