Exploiting and killing animals for food is inherently violent and inconsistent with our natural empathic tendencies, so we have developed social and psychological mechanisms to maintain our meat-eating habit. We have become largely disconnected from the painful reality of exploitation and slaughter, keeping it out of sight and out of mind. In the rare instances when we are forced to confront our subjection of billions of animals each year to unnecessary suffering, we fall back on the human brain’s great capacity for rationalization. We have come up with good reasons to do bad things for thousands of years. The techniques we use to excuse the eating of meat are the same we have used to justify other violent institutions and prejudices throughout human history.
Humans are social animals, and we learn behaviors, including how and whom we eat, from those around us. In carnistic societies, members unwittingly support businesses that engage in systemic cruelties and conspire to look the other way. But humans are also hardwired to feel empathy. The concept of carnism is a useful tool to understand and deconstruct a dominant institution that stifles our innate compassionate impulses.
From the blog post Why Carnism Matters by Gene Baur
