Bonum Certa Men Certa

What Animal Rights Activism Teaches Us About Sympathy and Focus

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Sep 02, 2025

Black dog running on the beach with a tennis ball in mouth

The Manchester City Council's Web site uses Jadu, which is proprietary software. This is where we filed a complaint that seems to have paid off so far [1, 2], knowing they have had plenty of time (or opportunities) to get back to us (but did not). This was done to protect local animals (that have been here long before humans erected homes all over the place) from selfish people.

Activism for animals is a precarious and complicated thing; on the one hand, you speak for life forms that cannot communicate directly with humans (at least not in the same sense that humans can). That's just how it is. There's no solution to that. On the other hand, public sympathy typically goes to the animals. Empathy and sympathy typically win. If a sociopath makes a seemingly valid argument, albeit lacking sympathy, he or she will eventually not appeal to anybody.

In activism, it's always very important to maintain public sympathy. Without it, no matter how compelling an argument you have, you will end up losing.

Earlier on we mentioned polarising politics as means of gaining or losing sympathy. In order to make some position popular and attractive, you should (and will be better off if you) stick to the core issues. Suppose climate activism got caught up in veganism. What would that do? It's possible to believe that the planet is warming, that we must do something about it, and still eat eggs and butter.

It saddens us to see some activism - including tech activism - trying to interject unrelated topics. About 15 years ago I saw many atheist channels being taken over by a separate - and not directly related - groups of advocates. Some of them called it "Atheism Plus" or something to that effect. It quickly turned out to be a disaster and a liability. Even actual (ardent) atheists were disguised by it; they deemed it off-putting, a bit like a "takeover" by people who piggyback something else.

In the case of the FSF, we've been noticing similar takeover attempts. As far as we can tell, those attempts failed. The goal was to get the FSF to advocate for things other than Software Freedom, just like the EFF nowadays speaks for particular groups instead of civil rights and Open Rights Group (like EFF but in the UK) was taken over by immigration activists.

Several years ago there were attempts to do the same thing to us, for example conditional "favours" in exchange for compromising our goals. We stopped this after spotting some familiar patterns.

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

Why We Publish Information About the SLAPPs (But Not About the Legal Process), an Abuse of Process by Americans Trying to Silence Critics of Their Employer, Microsoft
It doesn't take thousands of pages to explain something simple
 
The Register MS Says "AI Web Crawlers Are Destroying Websites", So Why Does The Register MS Help 'AI' Companies? (Spoiler: Money)
People need to call out The Register MS on its hypocrisy
Slopfarms Already Peaked, They Will Die When Slop Companies Run Out of Money to Borrow
slopfarms will lack an actual "engine"
Links 02/09/2025: Attacks on Unions, Microsoft TCO, and DDoSing a Growing Problem
Links for the day
Internet Relay Chat Didn't Fall Off a Cliff
IRC will turn 40 in less than 3 years from now
The UEFI 9/11 - Part V - This is Not a Drill (Disable "SecureBoot" Now)
A "9/11" Coming
There's No Obligation to Speak to Anybody
The very fact that "bkuhn" is till spending time in social control media says a lot about his poor judgment
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 01, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, September 01, 2025
Microsoft Trying to Force People to Resign (Amid Mass Layoffs) a Strategy That Takes Its Toll
Microsoft seems to be circling down the drain and the "final flush" will be the moment the "hey hi" (AI) bubble implodes completely
Google Simply Cannot Be Trusted
Only fools would trust GAFAM
Admission That a Third Party (or Parties) Funds the SLAPPs Against Techrights
This can end up costing them over a million dollars
Modifying and Writing One's Own Computer Programs is Not a Crime (or: Google Proves That Stallman Was Right)
We're generally gratified to see so many positive mentions of him
Why We Stopped Publishing Videos (for Now)
We'll probably get back to videos one day, but it's hard to say when or to what extent
What Animal Rights Activism Teaches Us About Sympathy and Focus
It's possible to believe that the planet is warming, that we must do something about it, and still eat eggs and butter
When You Turn Web Sites About Tech Into Political Sites
A lot of people fall into the trap of catering only for particular groups
Gemini Links 02/09/2025: ROOPHLOCH 2025 and Lagrange 1.19 Released
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/09/2025: News Corp. WSJ and A Month With NixOS
Links for the day
“Sideloading” Never Killed Anybody
There are many online discussions this week about the misnomer "sideloading"
Slopwatch: Google News as FUD Vector Against Linux and Plagiarism Enhancer, Serial Slopper (SS) Uses LLMs to Googlebomb "Linux"
Slop destroys the Web not just by screwing with search engines and helping plagiarists. It's also responsible for de facto DDoS attacks...
Links 01/09/2025: "Attacks on Science" and China's "Soft Power" Grows
Links for the day
Links 01/09/2025: Fresh Backlash Against Slop and "Norway’s Electricity Crisis is About to Hit Britain"
Links for the day
Writing and Coding Isn't Always Enough
Last year we had to assume a role we didn't have before: litigants
Links 01/09/2025: Catching Up (Mostly via Deutsche Welle), "Windows TCO" Effect in UK
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/09/2025: Linguistic Barriers and "Web 1.0 Hosting"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 31, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, August 31, 2025
Autumn Has Come
Autumn should be exciting in all sorts of ways; it'll also mark our anniversary
The UEFI 9/11 - Part IV - External Interference
They all seem to be playing a role in crushing Software Freedom and self-determination for users
Links 31/08/2025: Baggage Claim Scams, an Insurrectionist’s War on Culture, and a Sudden Robotics Hype
Links for the day
Gemini Links 31/08/2025: Reviewing Netsurf and Slightly Less Historic Ada Design
Links for the day
IBM Has Taken Control of GNOME
Don't expect a successor to be found any time soon
Links 31/08/2025: Google Gmail Data Breach and LF Puff Pieces for Pay
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 30, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, August 30, 2025
This is What Google News Has Become
Moments ago