It’s very clear to anyone who reads Mountain Xpress or the Asheville Citizen-Times that there is a very vocal segment of the public hereabouts that doesn’t eat meat and thinks nobody else should either. I’m OK with that. What I’m not OK with is the fact that some of these folks are now advocating that those who disagree with them should be censored. Stewart David [“About That Burger,” Feb. 21] and Kayla Rae Worden “Thoughtful Dialogue?”, Feb. 21], in their responses to Nina Smith’s letter [“Fries With That?”] in the Feb. 14th edition of this paper, both said that the Xpress should not have published said letter, both citing MX‘s own editorial policies. Mr. David further states that “Asheville doesn’t need a newspaper that’s the print equivalent of the Howard Stern or Jerry Springer show.”
Well, it’s OK to be high-minded, but it’s not OK to be highhanded. Who is Mr. Stewart David to say what we need or don’t? I find both of the shows he mentions distasteful, but I rejoice in the fact that I live in a country where the right to broadcast and to view them is guaranteed. Just as I find it reprehensible that the talk-show hosts of the political right shout down and otherwise intimidate and browbeat their interlocutors, I find it to be equally so with any other group. With an ostensibly peace-and-harmony-loving bunch like vegetarians, it comes dangerously close to crypto-fascism.
Unfortunately, this sort of thing—or far worse—is becoming increasingly common as a tool of “dialogue” by these well-meaning folks. PETA [People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals] affiliates have been implicated in death threats against park rangers eradicating destructive, non-native feral pigs in Hawaii. And Anthony Bourdain, in his latest book, details the downright terrorist tactics of threats, intimidation and vandalism used by a San Francisco animal-rights group against a local chef who produced foie gras. It seems to me that some of these folks, with their apparently ironclad convictions of Absolute Rightness, are treading a very, very slippery slope.
As a political liberal and animal rights activist I feel obligated to respond to David Spangler’s letter published in your last edition [Who defines “dialogue,” March 13]. There is nothing fascist about peacefully calling for our society to respect life, in fact I see it as my responsibility to community and family to speak out against cruelty and injustice. Further, the letter points out a few instances of activists who have made threats or broken the law, the Davids, however, have never been anything but dedicated community activists who stand consistently against animal cruelty. Making even an indirect link to the Davids with such law-breakers is disgusting and demands an immediate apology.
The world we have created, especially since the Industrial Revolution, is one in which nature is subjugated to the whims of financial gain, irrespective of the social, moral, environmental, or individual costs. This path of pure selfishness has lead to a culture that has taken animals from the forests and put them in cages and pumped up with anti-biotics, just to keep them alive. Our natural places dwindle everyday, the temperatures rise, pollution infects more streams and lakes, and at the center or it all is the lose of respect for living creatures. We humans are quickly destroying this planet and leaving a ruined legacy for our future generations. We animal rights folks don’t ask for a totalitarian society, we ask that people give consideration, for a moment, of the terrible price of indifference to animal cruelty. The letter ends by warning of animal activists “Absolute Rightness”, which is one hallmark of fascism, but we claim only one such rightness, that of the sacredness of life.
Nowhere in my letter do I equate peaceful, genuine dialogue or speech with fascism. Rather, I make the point that the desire to stop others from stating their opinions is, in my view, a first step towards the fulfillment of that desire, in some instances by some very horrid means. Please note also my use of the term “crypto-fascist.” This has a very precise meaning which I felt was entirely appropriate in this context.Finally, I specifically did not link any particular person with any particular deed. However, according to the website ActivistCash.com, PETA itself has financially supported two groups, the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front, both of which are, according to the F.B.I.,actually terrorist organizations. Now that’s what I call disgusting.-David K.Spangler