RADICAL ANIMAL LIBERATIONISTS' MISANTHROPIC MOVEMENT. Wesley J. Smith's "Liberation Theology" piece at NRO spotlights PETA's continued use of deplorable analogizing between worst human atrocities and the use of animals for food and human welfare. Smith goes on to discuss the radical animal liberationists' contradictory acknowledgement of human agency and embracing of moral equivalency between humans and non-human animals.

Interestingly, Smith also touches upon the radical animal liberationists' crass utilitarian view of evil. Utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham regarded natural rights as nonsense upon stilts. And so we should beware: the equating of wrongs or evil with mere physical pain is the hallmark of utilitarianism and leads to the undermining of RIGHTS as understood in the classic liberal tradition.

Everyone should support animal welfare. But the misguided views of radical animal liberationists' undermines human uniqueness (and hence, human rights), human responsibility, and moral clarity.

(Downtown Seattle, WA)