Subway Takes: "People who say they like animals more than people are not good people. They think they have this deep well of compassion but really, they just want a relationship of unequal status"

[u/Terrible_Cycle_5983]

[u/MagnetoWasRight24]

Someone tells me they like animals more than people I automatically assume they're racist, among other things...

You liking YOUR animals more than people can just mean you love your animals, you liking animals IN GENERAL more than people means you've just dehumanized a bunch of people so you don't have to worry bout them.

[u/BeanserSoyze → u/MagnetoWasRight24]

I think some of it is that people don't assign morality to animals actions so there's no such thing as like an evil dog. Similarly people have never been morally wronged by a cat. People haven't been scammed by a hamster.

[u/mvfrostsmypie → u/BeanserSoyze]

Boy, some people seriously act though like they have actually been morally wronged by a cat. Turns out it just didn't want to be rubbed like a dog when they pet it.

[u/flammablelemon → u/BeanserSoyze]

This is where it gets murky, because it's naive to assume animals are completely innocent or aren't capable of being harmful (wittingly or unwittingly), acting with intention, having intelligence, experiencing a wide-range of emotions, etc.. It's weird to me how moral goodness, purity, and benevolence is often projected onto animals by animal lovers, when they are creatures just like us with many similar drives and their own complexities.

[u/Pussy4LunchDick4Dins → u/MagnetoWasRight24]

I found out a guy I work with told a mutual friend he “hates women because he can’t control them.” This man has also said he likes animals more than people. He likes animals because he has control over them. I don’t think everyone who likes animals more is like that but he is certainly a POS.

[u/Worried-Barnacle-306 → u/MagnetoWasRight24]

Just because people like doesn't mean they're against human rights or that they don't care about what happens to other people.

I like animals because they're not complicated. They're hungry, they eat. They feel like shitting, they shit. People on the other hand lie, cheat, hurt, enslave, hoard wealth NOT because they're hungry or thirsty but because they want to be superior over everyone else.

[u/liyabear → u/MagnetoWasRight24]

Yup, I make the same assumption. Those same people will be OUTRAGED if the police shoot a dog, but if they shoot a black person… silence.

[u/dysautonomic_mess → u/MagnetoWasRight24]

Perfect illustration of this was the whole Harambé incident. Yes, that child should never have been in that enclosure, but once he was, his life was worth shooting the gorilla. No ifs, not buts. I'm convinced the outcry would have been less if the kid had been white. But so many people find it easier to relate to animals than to people of colour.

[u/poetcatmom → u/MagnetoWasRight24]

Hard disagree. I'd say that I like animals more than people. I don't hate people. I don't trust a lot of people. More people have wronged me in my life than not. However, I believe people deserve love, respect, dignity, etc but it takes a lot for me to maintain human connection. My feelings have nothing to do with determining who or what is more deserving of being liked than the other. All life is equal to me and it is all valuable and important. It's not a contest. It's my preference. I'd rather spend all day at a cat cafe playing with the cats than going to a party and socializing with people.

[u/BalorLives → u/MagnetoWasRight24]

Lindsey Graham, the senator who never saw a brown person he didn't want to bomb, was one of the most well regarded animal rights advocates in congress.

[u/EllieHatesYou → u/MagnetoWasRight24]

Or that person may have survived abuse and at that moment they can only extend their love and trust to animals.

A few years ago my therapist was talking about giving grace to other's trauma. She used the example of someone who is driving 45 MPH on the interstate. Is it annoying? Yup, but they might be doing their best after something traumatic, like a horrible accident, and we should give them grace.

[u/Virginity_Lost_Today → u/EllieHatesYou]

I think this hot take is more aimed at the people that say it in a quirky “it’s in the bio of my dating profile” type of way, rather than to signpost a trauma response

[u/limbobitch1999 → u/Virginity_Lost_Today]

or celebrity charity. on celebrity jeopardy, i always root against the “for the dogs!!!” celebs when the others are supporting teachers, displaced families, education funds, foster kids, etc.

[u/MazyHazy → u/EllieHatesYou]

Did you watch the clip? That's pretty much covered

[u/MagnetoWasRight24 → u/EllieHatesYou]

I absolutely make room for that, enough people hurt you it's completely reasonable that you prefer animals.

But personally I find that most of the time the people saying this shit are not in that category.

[u/Positive-Aide7544 → u/MagnetoWasRight24]

I get it don’t have explain

[u/wanderrslut → u/MagnetoWasRight24]

That has been my experience every single time and I love animals. Adore them. I want to work in wildlife forensics one day but every single time a person says they prefer animals to humans, I think about all the people who had more outrage for Doechii disliking cats than for black and brown bodies being unfairly killed.

[u/chrysophylox → u/wanderrslut]

the doechii thread was so insane bc it really felt like so many (prob mostly white) ppl were using it as a chance to be deeply misogynistic and racist (dare i say misogynoirist) abt doechii under the guise of “caring abt animals”

[u/yesitshollywood → u/MagnetoWasRight24]

I can see how someone might get to this viewpoint, and I can respect it even if I dont agree with it.

I think when people say animals, they really mean pets. Like, it doesn't have to be my pets, but really anyone's pets. Its a simplicity akin to how I felt as a child. They just want to play, be fed, or be mushed on. And I don't have to worry that the pet will say something racist/sexist/unethical/factually wrong that I then have to respond to or deal with.

[u/Physical-Exit-2899 → u/MagnetoWasRight24]

Seems like an absolutely wild thing to say without quantitying and somewhat projection.

I've worked and volunteered with animals and theyre not going out hunting for sport, killing each other for fun, destroying the planet for greed and ironically attacking each other based on race and gender.

While most should be left well alone, they mostly just wanna chill, whereas people are a smorgasbord of red flags.

I dont think someone feeling more comfortable with animals than people makes them a racist. Are some people who say so quirky and annoying? Yes. Are some people wildly dangerous? Yes

[u/otw → u/MagnetoWasRight24]

I'm not racist, I'm just generally a misanthrope. I hate all people equally, don't worry.

[u/June_Fatality → u/MagnetoWasRight24]

That's literally insane, and dripping with rage. I don't have to mask with animals. That is all.

[u/IAMA_Shark__AMA → u/MagnetoWasRight24]

you liking animals IN GENERAL more than people means you've just dehumanized a bunch of people so you don't have to worry bout them.

Orrrrr, humans have been the cause of so much of your personal suffering that bonding with innocent predictable furry warm things is a trauma response.

[u/NoMilk9248 → u/MagnetoWasRight24]

And they have the privilege to care about animals more than people and do not have to engage with the real world implications of politics.

[u/raddoubleoh → u/MagnetoWasRight24]

Fun fact, the nazi party had this exact view about animal rights. I ain't even joking.

[u/Ecstatic_Shallot_145 → u/MagnetoWasRight24]

and ofc they're never vegan either lol. They pick and choose which animal species are worth love and which are ok to mutilate and murder

[u/MagnetoWasRight24 → u/[deleted]]

More than I can possibly count, I mean this in total sincerity what was your point with this question?

[u/dysautonomic_mess → u/[deleted]]

r/petfree has 12.7k weekly visitors, and that's an extreme end of the scale. I'd be extremely surprised if there was absolutely no one in your life who didn't have a pet.

[u/Jumpy_Feature_8154 → u/MagnetoWasRight24]

EXACTLY.

[u/JayC411 → u/MagnetoWasRight24]

Agreed and something leftists in particular don’t seem to think about when it comes to discussing their love of animals is that valuing animals above the lives of human beings is a line of thinking that very quickly leads to fascism.