Why Are Vegans So Heavily Censored?

"Auschwitz begins wherever someone looks at a slaughterhouse and thinks: they’re only animals."

–Theodor Adorno

Is It Violence?

Why do we censor "violence" toward animals? Is it even really violence if it's necessary and justified? Why don't we want to see how animal-based food is produced? If animals really are just food, why don't we also censor vegetables being uprooted from their dirt homes and being chopped up into little pieces? Why is animal violence even more censored than human violence?

Death Camps

I can understand and even respect the wishes of adults to keep violence away from children before they are old enough to understand it. What I don't understand is why we often only apply that censorship to fictional violence. I watch documentaries about Nazi camps in World War II that include videos of people getting shot, the emaciated skeletal figures of prisoners that appear like walking corpses you'd see in a horror movie, dead bodies tossed around as if they were garbage, and, while we all watch with the knowledge that this was one of the greatest tragedies in human history, we feel alright showing this kind of footage because it is a version of bearing witness to the victims' suffering.

In middle school, I visited the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City. There, I was immersed in the experience, forced to be mere inches away from the boots taken off bodies; surrounded by photos of these men, women, and children that I had to remind myself weren't zombies; and could stand before the striped pajamas of children the same size as me who were killed simply for having the audacity to exist. But it was all for educational purposes.

In high school, I visited Mauthausen. Fittingly, the air was cold and damp as the clouds rained soft tears down on this haunted ground. I went inside a gas chamber and stood close enough to touch a human incinerator. How does a kid, only fourteen years old, even process that kind of information? How could I even begin to understand the magnitude of the inhuman horrors that occurred there?

So why would I, as an inquisitive adolescent who has seen what is supposedly the most horrific part of recent human history, be denied the ability to learn where my food comes from? Why am I allowed to see footage of people being slaughtered "like animals" but am not allowed to see animals slaughtered like animals? If this human holocaust was the most terrible thing to ever happen, why should I even be slightly fazed by watching the same thing happen to a lowly animal? So, if we are to follow what society tells us – that animals used in food production are of no consequence and are worth no thought – then it truly shouldn't matter what happens to them. And it certainly shouldn't matter if we witness it.

Additionally, if I am not allowed to see what occurs to produce a hamburger, then why am I allowed to see how soy is grown and harvested? In fact, shouldn't it be illegal for me to grow and "kill" carrots or cilantro in my backyard? Surely, most people would feel unsettled knowing that someone was raising and killing pigs in the house next door. So, why is it acceptable to "kill" plants for food, but when it comes to animals, we are not allowed to see any semblance of violence towards them, even though we also continue to justify this with myriad excuses?

The Nazi Problem

Now, how do I approach the following delicate topic without destroying myself? While I do not empathize with Nazis, nor do I agree with Nazism, nor do I wish to convey that message in my words, I must say that I do not hold immense hatred in my heart for most Nazis (of the WWII time period). I say this at the risk of my reputation as a decent and compassionate human being, and I say this for the same reason that I say the same about farmers and slaughterhouse workers. Because what is the difference between a farm and a concentration camp? What is the difference between a slaughterhouse and a death camp? Only the species. And if I can look at a person whose employment is based upon the methodical murder of animals with sympathy, why can't I look that same way at a person doing the same to humans?

I know that not every slaughterhouse worker is a sadistic murderer, and I know that they would likely much prefer almost any other line of work. And I also know that there are some slaughterhouse workers that do very much enjoy killing and intentionally seek that work as an outlet for their violent frustrations. So why can't I say the same about Nazis? Surely, not all Nazis were cold-blooded killers that hated Jews, gypsies, and any other targeted group since birth. They were indoctrinated to believe this lie developed by their government that any form of "otherness" necessitated eradication. Some switch did not suddenly flip in the minds of the Axis fighters that made them believe such disgusting myths. But what was their other option? To be a Jewish sympathizer meant death. And if you had a family to protect, children to feed, and your own life on the line, I'm sure nearly every single one of us would do what we needed to do, say what we needed to say, to prevent any harm befalling us and our loved ones.

Again, let me reiterate that I do not and will never say that participating in Nazism is acceptable, or those that participated in the eradication of more than 12 million people should have been allowed free with no repercussions, but we also don't know the circumstances in which every Nazi joined (or was forced into) this service. Yet, we discuss any and every Nazi with contempt, and any past trial of those criminals was met with the public calling for their deaths.

I can't say that I wouldn't also want revenge if something so terrible happened to me or my family, but I can't imagine feeling enough hatred in my heart that I would wish for someone to lose their one and only life. Especially as a vegan who believes that all lives are valuable and precious, how could I say that someone like a slaughterhouse worker, who is but a cog in the machine of carnism and nonhuman genocide, deserves to die because they have been forced to kill? I don't believe there is any crime great enough to justify taking someone else's life. If there is a god or noncorporeal entity guiding us through the universe, then that is their jurisdiction.

Death as the Only Option

It seems that our first reaction to any severe crime against humanity is with death, as if killing someone that has killed someone else could ever right that wrong. This points to the greater problem in our society: we can only "correct" past injustices through killing. When there is strife between nations, we go to war. When someone commits murder, we call for the death penalty. When an animal invades our home, we poison them out of it. It has become far too easy for humans to take the lives of others, and that all begins on our dinner plate. We regularly murder and ingest dead bodies, so if we can get away with doing that to them, what's stopping us from doing that to ourselves?

be conscious, be kind, be vegan