The Political Climate for Animal Rights Activists

Do you remember about a year and a half ago when I posted in horror about the passage of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act? It's been a long time, so go ahead and reread; this post (which continues after the below embedded video) will still be here when you return.



And now please, please watch this video of a well-researched, chilling talk given by Green Is the New Red's brilliant Will Potter. It will take 30 minutes of your day, and I know your time is precious, but if you're someone who cares about the environment or animals at all, if you're someone who opposes perversion of the justice system and the stripping of civil rights, if you're someone who believes in the rights of people to work for change, to simply provide information, to simply stand at a protest, to simply exercise free speech--without fear of the federal government imprisoning them for decades--you need to be aware of these issues. Even if you aren't concerned about the environment or animal rights, but you still have concern for your rights or the rights and lives of the people you love, you need to watch this. The implications are astounding.

This isn't just worrying; it's terrifying. I knew about all of this before watching the video; I've been reading about it for a long time, and none of the stories were wholly new to me. But hearing it all again, all at once like this, with all these examples of what is happening to activists in this country in this very moment, just reminded me of the climate in which we live today and how truly, outlandishly dangerous and unconstitutional passage of that law was. You will be blown away by what this law and other governmental perversions allow people to be imprisoned for. You will be shocked by exactly how the AETA was passed and by what is designed to do and whom it is designed to protect--and whom it is designed to target.

The federal government calls environmental and animal rights activists the #1 domestic terrorism threat.

Animal rights activists for whom nonviolence toward all animals--nonhuman and human alike--is a basic tenet have been labeled terrorists, to "protect" corrupt American industries in bed with the government from effective activism and free speech, to keep activists frozen and silent out of fear, and to imprison those activists without just cause on trumped-up charges when they dare to still stand up, to speak, to protest and act and educate for change.

Green is the new Red, indeed.

Factsheet: The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA)
Equal Justice Alliance
Stop AETA