ALF arsonists compared to Tea Partiers‏
22/08/2010
Sent: August 22, 2010 10:43:10 PM
(NOTE: This editorial proved to be highly provocative. Follow the link below for a sampling of reader responses. See also "Incendiaries used against former mink farm," Fur Commission USA press release, July 28, 2010,
http://www.furcommission.com/news/newsF12c.htm)
EDITORIAL: The Daily Astorian (Oregon)
Aug. 2, 2010
Arson, anyone? Animal Liberation Front and extreme Tea Partiers have
similar delusionsThis is one very sick comparative::
http://www.dailyastorian.info/main.asp?SectionID=23&SubSectionID=392&ArticleID=72314The Animal Liberation Front and kookier elements of the Tea Party
movement have much in common. In the first place, neither allows the
facts to get in the way of their bizarre alternative realities.
At least the Tea Party has not stooped to fire bombing barns and
forklifts. Its incendiary devices are of a rhetorical nature, often
consisting of thinly veiled, racially motivated attacks on immigrants
and President Obama.
Apparently graduating from the same fact-checking school attended by
Tea Partiers who continue claiming Obama isn't a U.S. citizen, Animal
Liberation last week torched a barn and equipment in Svensen months
after mink-raising operations ceased there. Activists previously
twice released mink at the farm. Mink-rearing operations ended in
December after the Ylipelto family concluded that it wasn't worth the
hassle and worry to continue producing the animals.
You can waste a lot of time psychoanalyzing the individuals who
gravitate to fringe groups. They are a stew of persecution complexes
and obsessions, oversalted with self-importance and addiction to the
excitement and attention that come with extremism.
From the standpoint of preserving a basically healthy society, our
best response is to maintain a steadfast grasp on reality. To label
episodes like the Svensen arson "domestic terrorism" is to grant the
perpetrators far more importance and credibility than they deserve.
Reality is that raising mink for their pelts is no more criminal than
raising cows for cheeseburgers. If someone sincerely believes in mink
rights, committing arson against someone who has already left the
business is 100 percent counterproductive. This was stupid anarchy
committed by narcissistic dolts.
It is also reality that many perfectly rational people have
misgivings about raising furry little predators for no reason other
than eventually skinning them for conspicuous consumption. At the
same time, when you live in a place with severe winter _- such as
Russia or the northern latitudes or East Coast cities - you
understand the functionality of fur in a coat or hat.
America provides many mechanisms for political and social change. The
Tea Party fears progress on goals like universal health care, while
Animal Liberation demands immediate parity between animal and human
rights.
Meanwhile, all we in the middle should hold them accountable and make
our own decisions.
How the author arrived as such a comparative is beyond me??. The Tea Party would support free enterprise such as mink sales whether wild or domesticated. They do not support unrestricted growth of an ever burgeoning government bureaucracy. They do not offer criminal reprisals against the folks they disagree with & in a greater sense represent more political percentages than the present Czar socialists do in the US of A. The author is ignorant of just how many more Tea Party type folks are wanting to move away from big government, higher taxes and the government dictates that demand folks live under big brother restraints..