{"id":293,"date":"2008-09-22T08:17:59","date_gmt":"2008-09-22T16:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/?p=293"},"modified":"2008-09-22T08:17:59","modified_gmt":"2008-09-22T16:17:59","slug":"changing-the-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/changing-the-language\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing the Language"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"Times New Roman;\">An image above Herbivore\u2019s table at the recent AR 2008 conference in Alexandria, Virginia, was a pin which read \u201cThere is no such thing as humane meat.\u201d<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s something I wish the organizers of last year\u2019s Taking Action for Animals conference had realized when they had a panel of ranchers who produced what I insist on calling less cruelly produced meat.<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>And it brought to the forefront of my mind how language\u2014and how people word things\u2014can color one\u2019s viewpoint.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"Times New Roman;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"Times New Roman;\">I\u2019m not unfamiliar with the concept.<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019ve been a feminist all my life and have taken part in many pro-choice actions, so I know that how we refer to ourselves and to the other side frames the debate.<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>And as a proud liberal, I know that conservatives are pretty good at controlling the language.<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Anyone who has spent the past seven years in George Orwell\u2019s\u2014I mean, Bush\u2019s\u2014America knows all too well that he and\/or his speechwriters are very good at using language to obfuscate and confuse.<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>They tricked the media into selling an immoral war and tricked (many of) the citizens into supporting it and convinced us to cheerfully let them eviscerate the Constitution in the name of security, much against Benjamin Franklin\u2019s advice of over 200 years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"Times New Roman;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"Times New Roman;\">And animal abusers do it too and do it well.<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>While those of us who are against consuming eggs call what is done to hens \u201cdebeaking,\u201d the industry calls it \u201cbeak trimming,\u201d something they compare to having one\u2019s fingernails clipped, although it\u2019s closer to having one\u2019s schnozz lopped off. <span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0<\/span>Hunters call what they do \u201cculling,\u201d implying that the deer (or wolf) population is just too large, and, they\u2019re just here to help.<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Ranchers who don\u2019t cram their animals into tiny spaces or feed hormones and antibiotics to their animals\u2014those who treat their animals \u201cwell\u201d\u2014get to call their meat \u201chumane,\u201d although there\u2019s nothing humane about killing an animal and tearing his or her body apart for someone\u2019s meal.<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>One thing we can do is try to get \u201cless cruelly produced\u201d into the lexicon so people realize that as long as they eat meat, they\u2019re buying into cruelty, and there\u2019s no escaping that.<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Repeat after me:<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s less cruelly produced meat.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"Times New Roman;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"Times New Roman;\">It\u2019s why I try not to refer to the places where these animals are kept as \u201cfarms,\u201d but industrial facilities.<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>If I have to use the word \u201cfarm,\u201d I make sure the word \u201cfactory\u201d gets well involved in the image.<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>And why I am trying to shift away from \u201canimal agriculture\u201d to \u201canimal industry,\u201d although that can cover a lot of ground besides the exploitation of animals for food. <span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0<\/span>After all, puppy mills are an industry, as are circuses and fur farms.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"Times New Roman;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"Times New Roman;\">However, stripping away any pleasant imagery from the mass exploitation of animals that occurs on a staggering level\u2014well over 90 percent of which is for food\u2014is a necessity and a matter of language.<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>You may have to explain to people the terminology for people unused to language stripped of euphemism, but people will hopefully catch on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"Times New Roman;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"small;\"><span style=\"Times New Roman;\">And while were at it, if someone describes himself with that idiotic term from a certain fast food commercial or calls herself a carnivore, it\u2019s time for a smackdown of epic proportions.<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An image above Herbivore\u2019s table at the recent AR 2008 conference in Alexandria, Virginia, was a pin which read \u201cThere is no such thing as humane meat.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s something I wish the organizers of last year\u2019s Taking Action for Animals conference had realized when they had a panel of ranchers who produced what I insist on calling less cruelly produced meat.\u00a0 And it brought to the forefront of my mind how language\u2014and how people word things\u2014can color one\u2019s viewpoint. \u00a0 I\u2019m not unfamiliar with the concept.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been a feminist all my life and have taken part in many pro-choice actions, so I know that how we refer to ourselves and to the other side frames the debate.\u00a0 And as a proud liberal, I know that conservatives are pretty good at controlling the language.\u00a0 Anyone who has spent the past seven years in George Orwell\u2019s\u2014I mean, Bush\u2019s\u2014America knows all too well that he and\/or his speechwriters are very good at using language to obfuscate and confuse.\u00a0 They tricked the media into selling an immoral war and tricked (many of) the citizens into supporting it and convinced us to cheerfully let them eviscerate the Constitution in the name of security, much [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8873,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7,17,3],"tags":[154,2330,155],"class_list":["post-293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animal-rights","category-general","category-politics","category-vegan","tag-add-new-tag","tag-animal-rights","tag-humane-meat"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Changing the Language - HappyCow<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/changing-the-language\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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