Hello, animal activism!

I'm starting to realize that the most effective thing I can do as a writer and an animal activist is giving myself and the other animal activists a solid plan. The era of moaning and mourning has to end. The era of action is getting closer and closer.

Because I do have a plan: I know how we can make animal liberation happen in reality. Not just in theory, but in reality, in this world. Animal rights – not just animal welfare, but animal rights – will become a mainstream thing and ultimately, something that the vast majority of people agree with, if we play our cards right.

Here's the goal:

A society that acknowledges animal rights; a society that acknowledges that non-human animals have a right to life without pain, harm or death consciously inflicted by human beings.

Here's the key:

A person who feels that the declaration of animal rights would take something away from their lives is not going to agree with animal rights. But if a person knows that they won't lose anything by granting animals rights, they will support the idea. Humans have an inherent tendency to 1) care about animals, 2) identify as good people.

Here's the trick:

Psychological liberation of humans. We have to create a society where as many people as possible feel that they are not responsible for animal exploitation – in other words: a society where as many people as possible feel that they would not lose anything if animal rights became a reality.

There are two main ways in which regular people take part in animal exploitation:

1) Eating animals and funding the meat industry.
2) Hunting and fishing.

(Psychologically, things like the fur industry are highly secondary, and vivisection doesn't seem to count. For some reason, it seems that most people don't really link themselves with animal testing; for example: more than 50 % of young people in the USA identify as people who oppose vivisection. So apparently, this isn't important here.)

Here's an encouraging fact: the majority of people (in the developed world) do not participate in hunting or fishing. Ever.

So: if more and more people stop eating animals and replace them with cultured animal products, we'll have more and more people who are open to the idea of animal rights. The ~10-40% who identify as people who hunt or fish will be a minority, and the number will probably start going down steadily as the general attitudes start changing.

For the psychological liberation of humans, the most important tool are cultured 'animal' products. A vegetarian revolution is very unlikely at a global level. Cultured animal products have to become as mainstream as possible. The change in attitudes will follow.

Here's the challenge:

Right now, approximately 20 years before cultured animal products are going to become a reality, the vast majority (about 80%) of people are against the idea of 'lab-grown meat'. They find the idea icky. They just simply can't understand why they should stop eating animals and eat cultured 'animal' products instead.

We'll have to tell them why they should stop eating animals and eat cultured animal products instead. There'll be a lot of very powerful people trying to keep animals in cages. Our voices will have to be as loud, informative and effective as possible. We'll have to be smart and articulate and explain what we're looking for. Our arguments will have to be clear and powerful.

We'll have to tell people why factory farming – and the meat industry in general – and eating animals in general – is the icky thing. Animal expoitation is icky as hell – not the cultured steaks, not the cultured tuna, not the cultured yogurt.

And then: the change in attitudes will follow. Eventually, when we'll ask the public whether they agree that non-human animals "should have a right to life without pain, harm or death consciously inflicted by human beings", a lot of people will say yes. No "but plants have feelings too!", no "but lions eat animals too!", no "but meat tastes good!" Just a simple, easy, solid yes.

And wow: we've actually turned a lot of people into vegans. With meat. This is magic.

Yeah, overcoming the ick factor will be a challenge. But it'll be fifty times easier than trying to make the entire humankind adopt plant-based diets. This boring ick factor is not culturally nearly as deeply rooted as the act of eating meat.

The vast majority of people are not holding on to animal abuse or animal exploitation; they don't want that; they are holding on to the act of eating meat. We can separate animal exploitation from the act of eating meat. 'Meat' will stop meaning animals. We will stop eating animals. We will stop exploiting them.

I'm pretty sure that these are our cards.

Let's play them right.