Cultural Far-sightedness and Ignorrogance

"The Chinese" are broadly vilified for being "cruel, evil and subhuman" in the AR movement, the action items being "Fxck the Chinese" and "Bomb China", by those who are ignorant about Chinese geography, history and culture (this I put largely to the failure of the educational systems in most non-Chinese countries). Just about all they know about China and "the Chinese" are based on the pictures about cat and dog eating that have gone viral on the internet. And so they think that ALL Chinese eat cats and dogs and do nothing else - stereotyping in the extreme.

To put things in perspective:

1. The 1400 million Chinese in the world eat a total of 14 million dogs and 4 million cat, whereas, for example, the 300 million Americans eat 35 million cows, 120 million pigs and over 10 billion (10,000 million) chickens. So unless the vilifiers think that cows and pigs and chickens are somehow inferior to cats and dogs, they should take a good look at their own countries. And those who do think that cat and dogs are superior to cows, pigs and chickens, they are just cat-dog lovers, not true ARAs.

2. Europe and China are similar in size (Europe 10,180,000 km² and China 9,596,961 km²), but the Chinese are ethnically more diverse than the Europeans (see map). Just as we should not vilify all Europeans for the Spanish bullfight or the French foie gras, neither should we vilify all Chinese for the cat/dog eating of a small minority in a few provinces (out of 33). Just how small a minority of the Chinese eat cats and dogs? Let's say that each dog eater eats 10 dogs every year, the 14 million dogs eaten make 1.4 million dog eaters, which, out of the 1400 million Chinese, make only 0.1% of all Chinese (though of course it is still 0.1% too many).

3. Those familiar with American history should know that Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark expedition loved dog meat (provided by some Indian tribes en route). So are we to vilify all Americans for eating dogs?

4. Those religions espousing vegetarianism and veganism based on compassion for animals are in the East (including Chinese Buddhism and Taoism), not in the West. An exception is the Church of Latter Day Saints, but their vegetarianism is based on personal health, not animal rights.

Those who can see what goes on in a back alley in another country on the other side of the world but are oblivious to what goes on in their own backyard are afflicted with CULTURAL FAR-SIGHTEDNESS, whereas those who are arrogant due to their own ignorance have a bad case of IGNORROGANCE.


Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
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