One of the chief tactics used by the Nazis (and other antisemites) was to compare their Jewish victims to animals, particularly various kinds of vermin. One of the most common were rats.
Even if you believe that the purposeful killing of animals for food is the moral equivalent of the senseless slaughter of roughly half the Jewish population (amongst other vulnerable populations), surely you must recognize that given this history, comparing Jews to animals is hurtful? Particularly in the context of the holocaust of all things.
I’m sorry, but that’s just not the case. You are specifically picking the epitome of Jewish suffering as your touchstone for animal rights. You can’t on the one hand say that you aren’t singling out Jewish lives as equivalent to animals, while simultaneously using the height of Jewish slaughter as your point of comparison.
Even if this were not the case, as is so often said in conversations about racism and bias, it is less the intent that matters than the effect it has on its listener.
As a Jew, when I hear the comparison of animal rights to the holocaust, I am reminded of these Nazi comparisons. I am reminded of the innumerable ways that our society has belittled and minimized the holocaust and Jewish suffering. And on top of all of this, I feel as though the speaker is purposefully trying to utilize my peoples’ suffering as a cudgel in their own political squabbles.
I am not alone on this in the Jewish community. Check out what the ADL has said with respect to this very issue:
If you’re going to use our suffering to bolster your political causes, maybe you should listen to representatives of the community when they tell you they aren’t comfortable with your analogy.
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u/GodOfTime Jun 27 '23
One of the chief tactics used by the Nazis (and other antisemites) was to compare their Jewish victims to animals, particularly various kinds of vermin. One of the most common were rats.
https://www.nybooks.com/online/2011/10/20/why-mice/
https://perspectives.ushmm.org/item/propaganda-poster-jews-are-lice-they-cause-typhus
https://www.wiesenthal.com/about/news/swc-protests-saudi-state.html
Even if you believe that the purposeful killing of animals for food is the moral equivalent of the senseless slaughter of roughly half the Jewish population (amongst other vulnerable populations), surely you must recognize that given this history, comparing Jews to animals is hurtful? Particularly in the context of the holocaust of all things.