Doesn't Gary Yourofsky have that one quote where he says all women deserve to be raped
and we should kill everyone who's not vegan?
Hi it’s Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome to another vegan nugget. We are reaching the
end of my interview series with vegan activist Gary Yourofsky and starting to hit the really
hard topics. Gary is a controversial figure within the vegan community with those opposed
to him usually quoting a select passage from his one of his essays on violence. Well today
we’re going to hear Gary about violence and whether it has a role to play within the
vegan animal rights movement. If you're someone who was offended or appalled by the passage
in question, I'd be interested to know if, after hearing Gary's full explanation, you
feel any differently about the matter. And I thought the "Veganism and Religion" video
was going to be a controversial.
So this is a topic that you’ve received a lot of heat about and that is the use of
violence for animal liberation. What is your stance on the use of violence when it comes
to the animal rights movement? And also do you support the Animal Liberation Front with
taking a direct action like breaking into farms and labs to free animals and destroying
businesses.
I definitely support the ALF, if you can see there, I’ve got a tattoo on my arm
here, but I want to be clear. ALF is a non-violent organization, they have a position against
violence, but this brings me to another point - you don’t have to agree with any group
or activist 100% of the time. I love ALF, but I don’t agree with them in being non-violent,
because I think violence has its place in every movement. There are certain groups of
individuals who will not listen to reason and for that you need violence. You need to
put the fear of God in them or take it further. And listen, all throughout history you’ve
had to kill the oppressors to stop the oppression. I don’t say this with glee, I want people
to know, they think I say this with joy. I wish that everybody went vegan after they
heard my speech and they should. It’s logical, it’s rational and it makes sense from top
to bottom, but there are certain people that don’t, so let’s not forget that when people
say that they are opposed to violence, they’re letting violent people- because meat dairy
and egg eaters, fur wearers, leather wearers - they’re the most violent people on the
planet. So they get to go off and murder cows and pigs and chickens and turkeys and we’re
supposed to hold a sign “please don’t kill the animals”? Bullshit, I asked you
to stop killing those animals. How long do you want us to ask you kindly? Think about
this, this has been going on for at least 2600 years, Pythagorus wrote about veganism,
condemn speciesism 2600 years ago. And people are still killing animals. I’m telling you
it’s getting to a boiling point, it’s gonna be in the very near future that somebody
busts into a slaughterhouse or vivisection lab with guns and they’ll tell the slaughterhouse
workers “you take those knives off those pigs throats right now or I’m gonna shoot
you” We’re the defenders. You might want to call it violence, but hey! You’re bringing
it on yourself and this whole bullshit of violence begetting violence? When the Allied
Forces went into Nazi Germany, murdered Nazis to save Jews. I’m kind of curious what was
the violence that happened after that? So, spare me the adage bullshits..spare me the
bullshit adages about violence begetting violence. It doesn’t always beget violence. In most
cases it actually ends violence. I think it has its place. And what I’m gonna ask people
to do as well, go to my website stop reading excerpts of excerpts of excerpts of excerpts
online. The truth is I don’t even believe that people are opposed to violence, even
the ones that claim that they are. And because if one of their loved ones was being held
hostage with a knife to their throat and there was a police sniper at the top of the building
across the street with the infra red dot at the guy's head. Are you telling me that if
that was your mum, your dad, your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your husband, your wife,
son, daughter that you will go tackle the cop with the infrared beam pointing at the
guy's head to stop him from killing in order to prevent an innocent being killed. You have
to look at this from the victim’s point of view. I don’t think that the cows, the
pigs and the chickens are opposed to violence on their behalf. You might be opposed to violence
on their behalf, because you’re not looking at it as a victim, you’re looking at it
as a victimizer. And I understand why people say that because they’re the ones who would
be targeted. Of course you don’t want people to be killed on behalf of chickens, because
you’re a chicken eater! But that’s not how the world works. And listen, there wouldn’t
be any need for violence if people just, you know, stopped mistreating others and I mean
humans too. There wouldn’t have been a need to kill Nazis to kill black slave owners.
There wouldn’t be a need to kill all these evil people that were oppressing humans if
people just treated each other equally and with respect. So, basically I said this before
and I don’t want to take credit because I think some philosopher said this, but “you
don’t oppose violence, you just oppose who I propose to be violent for” Again we can
kill on behalf of blacks, and kill on behalf of Jews and kill on behalf of children, but
nobody want’s to kill on behalf of chickens and cows and pigs. Again I think those
animals disagree vehermently and so do I. Now as I say this I’m passive as activist. That’s
all I do is give lectures, doesn’t get more passive than that. But I want people to think
about something too, pacifism can be taken too far and so can violence, they can both
be taken too far. Gandhi, probably the world’s most popular pacifist. Do you know what his
solution to Holocaust was? He thought that all the Jews should’ve committed mass suicide
to rouse the conscience of the world to their plight. Let me be the first person on the
planet to say this, but the Mahatma fucking lost his mind…with pacifism. Bullshit the
Jews should’ve killed themselves. That’s not the proper solution to that situation.
The right people got killed, the Nazis when it was time to liberate them. The wrong people
got murdered, the right people got killed. Don’t ask me to have empathy to victimizers.
My heart hurts enough for the victims. I’m not gonna weep over a victimizer being tortured
and killed. Screw ‘em, no longer care about victimizers any victimizers, I care about
victims and victims only and that’s where everybody should be on this planet. Forget
about victimizers.
I hope this provided a more comprehensive picture of Gary’s stance on violence than
any excerpt you may have heard. As a note, Bite Size Vegan itself is a peaceful educational
mission, but I don't pull my punches and I don't BS- and I will kick ass educationally
in the name of the animals! I want to make clear that Gary, much like me, believes that
education is where we are going to make the greatest change in our movement. And education
is where we should focus our energies the most. This video is not to incite needless
violent actions. But I do think it's important to realize that vegans, on the whole, are
not the violent ones. Even those breaking into labs and farms to free animals. We are
not the ones killing 150 billion sentient beings every year. We are not the ones stealing
babies from their mothers moments after birth or killing day old babies because we have
no use for them. . We aren't the ones anally electrocuting conscious beings to take their
fur and skin. We aren't the ones torturing them in the name of medical progress despite
ample proof of the inaccuracies of such methods. That is violence. And it Is not excusable,
especially for something as trivial as a meal, a fashion statement, or faulty science.
Now, I’d love to hear from you on this controversial topic. Do you think there is a place for violence
in animal rights and liberation? If you are opposed to violence in any situation, what
did you think of Gary’s examples of the use of violence for the liberation of people?
Did you position change at all after hearing Gary? Let me know in the comments. I truly
value your input.
Share this video around to keep the discussion going and give it a big thumbs up if you enjoyed
it. Stay tuned to the Bite Size Vegan channel for the final installations of my interview
with Gary- there's only a couple left! I’ve also posted bonus footage and questions that
didn’t make it to the main channel in the ViV Area of BiteSizeVegan.com, which you can
access for free by clicking below. And for even more behind-the-scenes action and the
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Subtitles by the Amara.org community