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PETA says idioms like ‘bring home the bacon’ are the same as racism and homophobia

PETA – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals – is no stranger to controversy. The group regularly uses controversy and outrage as a tool to gain extra attention from the media. After all, they’re the same group who, in 2014, made this extremely offensive and scientifically incorrect graphic:

(As we all know, correlation does not equate to causation, and while I think it’s weird to drink the milk of another animal, you do you.)

And they seem to regularly say things that make you say “oof” almost immediately:

And now, they’ve done it again. 

PETA posted a graphic on Twitter yesterday saying that meat-based idioms are comparable to homophobia and racism. 

#heroes

The post read: “Words matter, and as our understanding of social justice evolves, our language evolves along with it. Here’s how to remove speciesism from your daily conversations.”

Yes, PETA. I agree. Words do matter. Which is why comparing eating meat to human rights struggles is completely ridiculous and offensive. 

They followed up their original tweet with an additional explanation:

“Just as it became unacceptable to use racist, homophobic, or ableist language, phrases that trivialize cruelty to animals will vanish as more people begin to appreciate animals for who they are and start ‘bringing home the bagels’ instead of the bacon.”

Look, I get it, it’s just a PR stunt to get extra attention, whatever. At the end of the day, I’m not anymore angry at PETA than I otherwise was. Based on their actions in the past, I don’t expect anything intelligent or rational to come from PETA. PETA says stupid things. It’s what they do. 

But unlike comparing cows to friends, this comes at the cost of cheapening the real and often traumatic experiences many people face on a daily basis. Hell, just yesterday I wrote about a same-sex married couple in Canada who were forced out of their jobs because they were ‘being too gay’ in public. 

It seems that people are seeing through the BS here though, and are letting PETA have it on Twitter:

Don’t you fucking dare put “anti-animal” phrases on the same level has hate speech. That’s totally bullshit. Oh sorry, is that offensive to bulls? No wait, I don’t care. Animals don’t understand these words, and nobody uses them because they hate animals. This is just stupid.

I enjoy ones where people point out their hypocrisy, too:

Apparently they don’t.

And look – I get it. PETA does not speak for the majority of vegans. There’s nothing wrong with being vegan, and there’s data that shows eating a plant-based diet is not only healthier for you, but also better for the environment. 

I look forward to when lab-grown meat is more widely available and comparable in price to farm-raised meat, because I think that will be a major turning point in moving away from eating animals. But until then… I’m going to eat bacon and cheeseburgers. I’m the worst, I know. 

At the end of the day, I think the conspiracy theorists might be right on this one:

Written by Dan Broadbent

Science Enthusiast. Atheist. Lover of cats.

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