Half-assed Support

Support groups just aren't what they used to be. I suppose that every new social movement, revolutionary or reactionary, thinks that it can reinvent the rules.

The first rule of a support group is that you don't point fingers at each other and make accusations. Maybe it being the first rule is why it is the first rule that is always broken. It's sort of like thinking that your car doesn't need fuel or energy to get you where you are going. At least with a car there is a visible difference between going somewhere and going nowhere.

Some have an arbitrary notion of what constitutes "responsibility" coupled with the idea that a person shouldn't be part of the group if they are not "responsible." One or two who are reading this know which argument inspired this blog entry. It is predictable that someone in the crowd is going to try to attain dominance using this arbitrary notion.

Now we have people who oppose ownership rights and use the idea of human safety in bad faith. A lot of these people do not care if we humans live or die and would launch lethal viruses if they were sure that they were immune. The environmental movement and the humane movement have become bent on the destruction of at least part of the human race and a lot of them want it all gone, all of our technology, all of us, everything, and they really mean it. The leaders just want to be billionaires. They are the ones who shout "safety!" when someone wants a tiger.

A lot of people think that they are for ownership rights but they carry the same message to legislatures: Do something about people who keep tigers in backyards and apartments. Do something about irresponsible people who let their pet tigers touch other humans. Do something about people who keep dangerous pets. And by the way, let us have the right to own tigers and sell photos of people handling tiger cubs.

It's no wonder if legislators don't know who we are. Even if the owner of a menagerie or zoo is not AR, they believe that a monopoly on the business in their area could increase sales. I guess it doesn't matter much to them that the people who they need most to help them actually run the business are the ones who are least likely to be tolerant of abuse. Those who are still attracted to working near tigers when they can't touch them, well, what do you think you're going to get? People who sneak touches and who are eventually just going to jump in the cage with an animal that isn't being handled. Those who are a little less obsessive and think it through stay away from the menagerie that won't allow touching. Smarter people, saner people, won't go there. You also have people who don't give two pennies about the animal and it's just a job for them. If I had to work in a no-contact facility and couldn't wash dishes or haul trash instead I'd rather just not give a crap.

People who say that they love animals and say don't touch them can't be entirely sane unless they are saying that for personal gain. At least when they do it for gain it makes some kind of sense.

It's half-ass support when they want to stop a ban law that will adversely affect their own businesses but they want that same law to stop everyone who they think of as "irresponsible." There is little worse than this AR-lite kind of business because AR-lite is the major source of credibility for the animal rights activists. It's how their ideas get into the mainstream. It is also trying to stop a train by pushing the same direction that your opponents are pushing.

It gets where I want to tell them to shove their business up, well, half their asses.