Anti-Capitalism and Veganism
As a moral philosophy, Veganism has no connections or relationships with any political ideology, moderate or extreme, and is only concerned with the welfare of animals. While it's possible and often beneficial to apply Veganism to different political ideologies as a way of relating it more to the audience, or working within the current system to improve conditions for farmed animals, politics and Veganism are mutually exclusive.
Unfortunately however, despite that firm stance, there are many within the Vegan community who attempt to co-opt what Veganism is all about into their own political worldview, particularly those who espouse leftist and anti-capitalist views, and generally view Veganism as a part of ending capitalism, or as a form of total liberation from the system. While we aren't looking to debate people for their politics (whether or not we agree with them), and we want as many people as possible to go Vegan regardless of their views, we take issue when people make Veganism out to be a sort of subset or necessary part of their ideology.
These people are free to be anti-capitalists if they wish to be so, however, as we do with misanthropes, anti-natalists, and extreme science deniers (e.g. flat-earth or anti-vax), we view these types of people are extreme liabilities to the animal rights movement, by making the movement as a whole seem like it subscribes to the ideology as a sort of prerequisite for joining, which is incredibly alienating; Veganism needs to be something that's for everyone, not some niche group of ideologues who provide little evidence for their ideas for what society ought to be like.
We will not be criticizing Vegan anti-capitalist arguments from a political standpoint, but rather than a practical and empirical one.
As the ONLY means of ending Animal Agriculture
Saying that the ONLY way of ending animal agriculture is via abolition of capitalism is transparently absurd, and ignorantly ignores so many hard-won battles for rights and justice throughout history, from civil rights, women's rights, gay rights, trans rights, workers rights, the environment, and recent progression for animal welfare, all done without needing to abolish capitalism. These groups had the system rigged against them from the start, and yet they won anyway, and are still making progress. Though if you bring up this fact to such a person, they'll say that we can't completely end the oppression of these groups as the system currently is because they believe it's inherently oppressive towards them. A discussion would end up like this:
Anti-Capitalist Vegan: "The oppression of groups can not be ended until the system is abolished and replaced by something else"Inquisitive non-Vegan: "But what about the fact that women, blacks, homosexuals, and transpeople have been winning their rights within the current system?"
Anti-Capitalist Vegan: "Ah, but oppressed groups can never truly be freed under capitalism."
Let's also ignore most oppression not necessarily being the fault of capitalism, but the fault of people. It's not the system itself that's racist and corrupt, it's the people who live in the system. Abolishing capitalism is not going to magically make people not racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic, nor will it make people give up animal products. Now sure, especially for animal agriculture and climate change, there are people who lobby for their groups and do things such as increase advertisement for their products and publish bullshit studies to make their products look better, but this blame can not be put entirely on the system itself, and it still comes down to people. As easy as it is to view these giant corporations as the main obstacle, that's where we may forget that MILLIONS of people WANT to eat meat, WANT to drive cars, WANT to have lavish lifestyles. If people can not live sustainably within capitalism, what reason do we have to assume they would under anything else?
