
First of all, how did this idea come to someone's minds? How could someone who stands for animal rights even have such concerns? How can we simply like that forget all the history and let fascists stand with us for one cause and at the same time spread their hate? Do we so desperately need big numbers on demos? Are there hundreds of nazis waiting to join the movement that we so terrified and simply cannot say no?
Often people tell me that things are changing, we do not kill others just because of their race or sexual orientation, and those so called nationalists do not hate everyone who is not from their country, some even have friends of different race or sexual orientation. Wow, such an argument! My only recommendation to that is to learn about analytic thinking, find out what fallacy in discussion stands for and do some research. Shorty: no, the fact that You know someone from oppressed group does not make You a supporter from the whole group. (Putin has a homosexual friend (according to him), does that make him LGBT community supporter and the rest does not matter? Obviously NOT, same goes here).
Yes, many forms of hate have softened since World Wars, but even if it is become somehow uncomfortable for individuals to express their bigotry openly (most of the time), it doesn't mean that it does not exist. The change of form did not make it disappear. This fascistic hate still spreads around and sadly sometimes on behalf of animal rights/welfare.
Others say that we need to be open to everyone and animal rights it's a good platform to educate fascists about issues on human rights. If You really feel like educating them, maybe You should go and educate them somewhere else, like join anti-fascistic events (as many animal rights activists already do). This ignorance or lack of understanding certainly helps to assure that fascism sticks around and it will be even more difficult to stop it.
Nazi sympathisers play an important role in the whole scene. Any kind of sympathy just gives encouragement to those who spread their violence. Because of their unwillingness to cooperate with those who search for ways to bring justice, those sympathisers also share responsibility for spreading the hate. But there are thousands if not millions of individuals who would not dream of committing any kind of hate crime (in this case "hate crime" can be misleading, as it not always comes from "hate", many times it comes from lack of understanding, desire to be accepted, fear of loosing power, economic motivation, etc.) or hurt someone on purpose nevertheless contribute to fascism by sympathizing with those who do perpetrate hate attacks.
There are countless numbers of individuals in the movement who remain just passive spectators to this bigotry because they benefit in either a psychological or any other socio kind sense from the status quo. When asked they would say it's wrong and perhaps would feel uncomfortable standing surrounded by fascists, but still would do nothing about. Although lacking in prejudice, these spectators also lack the courage required to pay the price for doing the right thing. It seems that many people do not like to step out from their conformity zone, but activists, people who already already are speaking up and fighting for animal rights, already stepped out. . . . So, how does it happen that so many activists don't take a clear stand against fascism? Don't they see the connection between human and animal rights? Don't they see that oppression is always an oppression? . . .
Sadly, even if most of them believe in principles of equality, they may feel powerless to change the situation. And at the same time, while fascism does not touch them directly, they will do mostly nothing. The consequences of this "neutral" side may be ambiguous, but the intentions are clear enough.
Now it's time to choose the side. There is no between and by being just a passive spectator You are contributing to the cause of hate.
Fascism is not an opinion, it's a crime!
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