Compassion isn’t compassion unless it is felt for everyone — the guilty and the non-guilty, the kind and the unkind, the good and the evil, the human and the non-human. That’s the thing about compassion – it has to be equal opportunity or it’s not compassion.
There’s a presumption among some vegans that if you’re vegan, you’re also liberal, socialist, atheist, feminist, intersectionalist, progressive, and leftist, that you’re pro-choice, anti-vaccine, anti-GMO’s — and that if you’re not any or all of these things, you’re unwelcome — or at least you don’t belong. Or that you’re an imposter. Or that you welcome oppression.
We are living in a time when group loyalty and identity politics are valued more than reason, critical thinking, tolerance for another point of view, and compassion. And it scares the bejesus out of me.
Today’s episode is (yet another) call for compassion.
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