This post is just an image. It is up to us to interpret it. thenewgreen, which of the following two interpretations do you think organicAnt most likely intended?

1. This is the part of a pig’s body that is used to make bacon.

2. When meat dishes are served on a plate, an ugly and cruel reality is kept out of sight.

Are you annoyed at this childish, antagonistic post, that you answer it in a childish, antagonistic way? Did you hope to learn anything from your comment? Do you think anyone else learned anything from it? (For those genuinely curious about where bacon comes from, there are more informative sources than infographics [warning: link contains graphic images of bloody flesh].)

Perhaps the classical quote in organicAnt’s previous post is more your style. Or else the artistic, provocative, and inspiring documentary in the following post.

Did you intend anything by your comment other than to poke someone with a stick, to see how loud they would squeal? If so, I reckon you got what you came for.

Remember when we gave organicAnt a hard time for posting stupid, unwanted images in other peoples’ posts? Hubski, alas, does not have good tools for dealing with such unwelcome comments. Fortunately, organicAnt respected the conventions of the forum and has been commenting exclusively on organicAnt’s own posts, for weeks (except when invited by name).

organicAnt is not shitting on your bratwurst. Why are you shitting on organicAnt’s attempt to promote compassion? Don’t like the tone? I don’t like it either. As has been said repeatedly, we are all free to ignore these posts. Don’t follow #animalrights. Don’t follow #shitpost either, as some courageous critic has taken to tagging organicAnt’s contributions.

Want to make organicAnt shut up? Want to end the passive-aggressive, sarcastic comments? Want organicAnt to “fuck off, hard”? Here is a simple way which, as far as I can tell, no one has tried:

Provide a moral counterargument.

Tell us about your holy book which gives man dominion over women and animals. Dig up a quote from Descartes showing that animals are merely machines. Tell us you are a nihilist and you don’t care. Provide evidence that animals are incapable of suffering.

Don’t believe that organicAnt will listen to reason? I provided a calm, evidence-based argument that humans are not the only creatures that kill billions of other animals for sport. That seemed to settle it.

TNG, you tried to have a civil discussion, and it wasn’t a total loss. But it was largely an effort to avoid the question. You cornered organicAnt and the closest we got to an honest exchange was:

organicAnt: Animals are sentient, capable of suffering just like you.

TNG: I won’t openly disagree with that exact sentence, and I don’t think many others would. But can I bait you into condemning a boutique farm that raises 30 chickens under better conditions than the 9 billion other chickens annually raised for food?

organicAnt took the bait, just like with the bacon diagram, and the discussion was successfully derailed.