Attention
In Perth, Australia, a vegan mini-protest took place in front a celebrity-run restaurant after the chef publicly exclaimed that vegans can “fuck off”. This was the middle of a story which began with the chef forgetting to cater for a vegan request which resulted in a negative review, followed by the banning of vegans, then protests and a court case.
The result? A vegan activist was charged with some minor things like being too loud in public, and the chef is now a poster boy for the ever present and ever more petty ‘vegans versus the world’ debate argument thing. No extra animals were killed, no animals were saved, and the media filled the last five minutes of their broadcast for a couple of days with click-bait and sound bites.
Most protests end this way, and often the protesters are featured in a small part on nightly news reports. While the public are generally quite supportive of harsher penalties for animal abusers and often agree that factory farming is abhorrent, the presence of an activist in the media is often as a result of a social disruption and is featured to maintain the narrative of a public wide distain for these protestors.
(It must be noted that in the above linkes The Scientist opinion piece they reference a study of harassment towards health officials and researchers under the guise that they all involved animal activists. In fact, the report refers to protests and harassment from all sources “during the initial stages of the pandemic”, which, as we know, mostly involved anti-lockdown and anti-vaccination protestors, and those harboring conspiracy theories. This is also true in major Australian cities where vegan protests rarely occur, where they receive significantly more coverage than teacher, union, immigration, or anti-lockdown protests, which occur much more regularly and are much more disruptive.)
Peaceful protests, however, may be more likely to change public sentiment towards animal-exploitative industries. In Australia, annual non-disruptive protests on the steps of parliament buildings against the live export of sheep to parts of Asia grow in number each year, and have led to an overwhelming public consensus that the live export industry should be shut down. This has resulted in the government agreeing to a phase out live sheep exports by sea.
Disruptive protests seem to achieve the opposite result. But they needn’t. Following disruptive protests which grab media attention, popular conservative and headline-grabbing media hosts often invite extreme animal activists on to their programs to berate them for ratings, as it has become quite a popular pastime to criticise vegans. In this, though, is an opportunity.
In the mid-eighties, an American group called Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) was formed following a concern of sexually explicit and violent content in music. They created a list of fifteen songs which represented their concerns and initiated a senate hearing and invited a small number of the artists involved to appear before the hearing. One of those artists was Dee Snider of the band Twisted Sister, as it seemed the PMRC assumed that given his outrageous stage appearance he would prove their case. What they got though, was a rational, reasoned, family-man who, upon describing the reality of his lyrics, shamed the PMRC: “The lyrics she quoted have absolutely nothing to do with these topics. On the contrary, the words in question are about surgery and the fear that it instills in people. … I can say categorically that the only sadomasochism, bondage and rape in this song is in the mind of Ms. Gore.”
In being invited onto these headline-grabbing programs though, the animal activists often maintain the same aggressive script that they use in their street protests, speaking of rape and holocaust. This approach is unlikely to be an effective tactic with a conservative audience, and on one recent occasion was met with sound advice in dealing with this opposition: “I think there are better tactics than running into restaurants and playing noises of screaming animals.”
Another host on an earlier occasion was met with a more rational activist who had clearly thought about their approach towards the host and the audience, with the infamous right-wing host commenting, “I have to say, I started this segment thinking this guy’s probably crazy, but I think you are actually reasonable and thoughtful...”
During the segment, the host again offers advice on how they, and maybe even their audience, might even be able to be involved in their activism. "I hope other conservatives will pause and think about it." To communicate with the population, particularly when presented with the opportunity to be in front of an audience who are more likely to disagree with us, we need to tailor our language and demeanor to them.
Disruptive protests simply make people late to their jobs, and following this line of communication into a media appearance then annoys those same people during their dinner. They aren’t going to appreciate the message if they lose something to hear it, as is shown in their reaction to these protests. Instead, with consideration for who are speaking to, we can work a little smarter to have them join us and work towards an actual achievement.
