Brass Tacks: Beyond Pamphlets, Protests, & Prison.
24 August 2017 [link youtube]
https://www.patreon.com/a_bas_le_ciel
^ That's the link to my Patreon page, join the conversation if you wanna. Long-term, I still do think of it as a crossroads for aspiring activists to get organized, create new foundations, etc.
Shout out to Roger Yates (formerly pro-violence, now anti-violence, using standard public-education methods, as mentioned) who is now on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/1flats/videos
Youtube Automatic Transcription
some live streaming right now and I've
got a question from a guy named Nicholas and it's a question about effective activism on the most human one-to-one scale he has been organizing a vegan Club a vegan Association on his campus and he says in the past they have done leafleting and tabling both of which have been relatively hollow and I seen this is hollow experience and he says it also has little outcome little effect with even sorry screwing here even the vegans not becoming friendly so ie it's not really that effective in terms of outreach to meat-eaters and it's not even that effective as no reach to other vegans so look tabeling tbling as a form of public outrage I've thought about this a lot in the past few days and weeks because I've had some comments with a longtime advocate for veganism called Roger Yates I'll give a shout out to Roger Yates I'll give a link to his YouTube channel Roger Yates was formerly involved with violent activism with the Animal Liberation Front and he formerly did time in prison he got a four year jail sentence because of his involvement with the a LF a violent group and today so far as I can see the form of activism he endorses is tabeling why do we use this term tabling so Roger Yates he sets out a table normally under a rented tent or booth he has buttons you know little buttons you can wear on your on your lapel buttons and leaflets and books I think t-shirts that kind of information they stand there and they talk to whoever is going to talk to them so that's a standard form of public outreach public education that he engages him now so this is interesting why do I raise this many people who get frustrated and exasperated with other forms of outreach turn to tabling turn to this form of public education and see it very positively compared to the other forms of activism they were involved with before so I do think for example through our gates tabeling is a lot more effective than spending four years in prison it I do think overall he probably feels his time is better spent now than it was in some other forms of activism he was involved with in the past he's talked about that a little bit Nassif channel I'm giving you the link cuz I think he's gonna talk about it more in the future on his YouTube channel so I got some really interesting perspective to get now a couple of days ago I was talking via Skype like communication of talking over the internet video chat what do you want to say with an exasperated and exhausted vegan activism who's been involved with a lot of street protests with with direct action everywhere and also with the vigil groups so by vigil groups we mean groups like pig save chicken save etc groups that hold vigils in front of slaughterhouses and with both of those forms of activism people send attend to start out feeling they're really effective and they're really emotionally moving you know you stand there you watch these animals go in and get slaughtered it's a big deal maybe you cry the first couple of times but with just a little bit of repetition whether it's the vigil format or at screaming and strangers on the street and street protests and holding up signs pretty rapidly fatigue sets in and I think for him also coming out of that background angry street protests disruption style disruptive style street protest and the vigil format I think for him he comes to the conclusion that tabeling this very low-key form of standing there and talking about you is a more positive form of outreach and activism right now I'm not in case you know hashtag spoilers in case the point of this video is for me to really endorse tabling as the greatest form of activism it's not I totally sympathize with Nicolas who's writing me saying that he's involved in campus activism and he feels this is Hollow and that it doesn't even get a positive response or vegans 8-1 there's a discussed as a greater length in other videos in the past I think you have to recognize the extent to which a function of that kind is first and foremost a rally for the vegans themselves it's really almost like a party for the because so if you don't have a group of vegans who enjoy getting together and spending time with one another through tabling or through outreach that is already a very strong reason not to engage in that form of activism on the other hand if you did like let's say you had a group of middle-aged people like me and they really appreciate it once a month getting together maybe everybody bakes a cake and you get together and do tabling but really for us as a bunch of middle-aged people maybe it's a joy that once a month we get this chance to see one another each other's vegan chocolate cake and say oh hey how's it going this is our one chance when maybe we get away from maybe we call a babysitter get away from taking care of our kids and we get to see other vegans so even if the outreach is very ineffective we talked to five meat-eaters who are willing to talk to us we really appreciate having those couple of hours under a tent or at a booth standing behind that table that for us it's something very positive that is a reason positively why you should do this or negatively why you should not do this that's a criterion you should take seriously is the social function of the form of activism for the vegan participants themselves because primarily what you're doing is really like let's say a rally and only secondary of secondarily is it a form of outreach because this is not very effective evaluated just as outraged now with that Emmett said again spoilers the point of this video is not to tell you that tabeling is the greatest form of outrage we all need to look at really critically what type of activism we can really accomplish in our lives but if you want to know the most effective form of vegan activism outreach in 2017 it's these four letters P C R M PCRM are massively effective in terms of public education in terms of public outreach PCRM are massively effective in terms of government lobbying they're massively effective in terms of our impact on vegans and meteors and the general public and I'm not saying this about their particular content about their particular message I'm saying this about their methods right I'm saying this about PCRM as a mode of activism can you do what PCRM does probably not but if we're keeping it all the way real but why not so this guy ready to be Nicolas he's a university student if you make that your goal is to have an organization like PCRM maybe specialize in a totally different subject maybe it specialized in dolphin's maybe it specialized in owls or nature conservation or you know the hot dog industry that'd be great you could have a whole organization just dealing with the hot dog industry or just dealing with maybe you're advocating for trying to get vegan options on University campuses in prisons yet City Hall and other institutional content there are so many issues you can specialize in or you look at the level of organization and professionalism of PCRM and you try to emulate that okay so starting now when you're in university what do you think you can accomplish in the next five years what do you think you can accomplish in next 10 years I think the answer is a lot and moreover you can accomplish a lot if you're aiming at using those formal lobbying methods formal organizational methods of PCRM over five years in two years you can accomplish a lot compared to going to the same street protests again and again for five years going to the same vigil again and again for five you're standing in front of the same slaughterhouse holding a can't a candle and weeping again again fires you can accomplish a lot compared to tabeling again and again for five years and then again something I've said so many times is you do have to look at what forms of activism can really fit in your own life I live on the border between you nan and Myanmar in Southeast Asia I live on the Chinese side of that border there is zero political activism I can engage in so what I did is I wrote a children's story book I wrote it in both English and Chinese other people translated it into Japanese Russia and German and other languages and I'm talking to an illustrator trying to illustrate and publish that children's book the children's book is by the way you know vegan propaganda I'll give you the link to that below this video I'll also give you the link to my patreon below this video because for me you too and patreon is a form of vegan activism and vegan outreach and if you think it's ineffective well compared to what sure it's not super effective but compared to standing on the street and screaming at strangers compared to some of these alternatives it may be very effective indeed ok this is not my first discussion of these issues it is not my last discussion of these issues these are real brass tacks what we can and can't do in terms of vegan activism now I appreciate getting the question from Nicolas and I'm gonna be happy to discuss these things again and again on YouTube over the next five years as my own life changes as my own options change and I don't know if I'm ever going to get closer to being in the position that PCRM is in or if I'm gonna get in a position where publishing children's storybooks is more and more something positive I can do for the movement or if I'm gonna remain trapped in a position where my obligations to my family to my job to my education in my career really limit me to not being able to do much more than reach out to people like you now over YouTube over you now through patreon join my patreon for one dollar a month join the discussion and I'm happy to hear from you guys about what you can and can't do about your struggles and your own aspirations short term and long term for vegan activism for the future of the movement hit me on
got a question from a guy named Nicholas and it's a question about effective activism on the most human one-to-one scale he has been organizing a vegan Club a vegan Association on his campus and he says in the past they have done leafleting and tabling both of which have been relatively hollow and I seen this is hollow experience and he says it also has little outcome little effect with even sorry screwing here even the vegans not becoming friendly so ie it's not really that effective in terms of outreach to meat-eaters and it's not even that effective as no reach to other vegans so look tabeling tbling as a form of public outrage I've thought about this a lot in the past few days and weeks because I've had some comments with a longtime advocate for veganism called Roger Yates I'll give a shout out to Roger Yates I'll give a link to his YouTube channel Roger Yates was formerly involved with violent activism with the Animal Liberation Front and he formerly did time in prison he got a four year jail sentence because of his involvement with the a LF a violent group and today so far as I can see the form of activism he endorses is tabeling why do we use this term tabling so Roger Yates he sets out a table normally under a rented tent or booth he has buttons you know little buttons you can wear on your on your lapel buttons and leaflets and books I think t-shirts that kind of information they stand there and they talk to whoever is going to talk to them so that's a standard form of public outreach public education that he engages him now so this is interesting why do I raise this many people who get frustrated and exasperated with other forms of outreach turn to tabling turn to this form of public education and see it very positively compared to the other forms of activism they were involved with before so I do think for example through our gates tabeling is a lot more effective than spending four years in prison it I do think overall he probably feels his time is better spent now than it was in some other forms of activism he was involved with in the past he's talked about that a little bit Nassif channel I'm giving you the link cuz I think he's gonna talk about it more in the future on his YouTube channel so I got some really interesting perspective to get now a couple of days ago I was talking via Skype like communication of talking over the internet video chat what do you want to say with an exasperated and exhausted vegan activism who's been involved with a lot of street protests with with direct action everywhere and also with the vigil groups so by vigil groups we mean groups like pig save chicken save etc groups that hold vigils in front of slaughterhouses and with both of those forms of activism people send attend to start out feeling they're really effective and they're really emotionally moving you know you stand there you watch these animals go in and get slaughtered it's a big deal maybe you cry the first couple of times but with just a little bit of repetition whether it's the vigil format or at screaming and strangers on the street and street protests and holding up signs pretty rapidly fatigue sets in and I think for him also coming out of that background angry street protests disruption style disruptive style street protest and the vigil format I think for him he comes to the conclusion that tabeling this very low-key form of standing there and talking about you is a more positive form of outreach and activism right now I'm not in case you know hashtag spoilers in case the point of this video is for me to really endorse tabling as the greatest form of activism it's not I totally sympathize with Nicolas who's writing me saying that he's involved in campus activism and he feels this is Hollow and that it doesn't even get a positive response or vegans 8-1 there's a discussed as a greater length in other videos in the past I think you have to recognize the extent to which a function of that kind is first and foremost a rally for the vegans themselves it's really almost like a party for the because so if you don't have a group of vegans who enjoy getting together and spending time with one another through tabling or through outreach that is already a very strong reason not to engage in that form of activism on the other hand if you did like let's say you had a group of middle-aged people like me and they really appreciate it once a month getting together maybe everybody bakes a cake and you get together and do tabling but really for us as a bunch of middle-aged people maybe it's a joy that once a month we get this chance to see one another each other's vegan chocolate cake and say oh hey how's it going this is our one chance when maybe we get away from maybe we call a babysitter get away from taking care of our kids and we get to see other vegans so even if the outreach is very ineffective we talked to five meat-eaters who are willing to talk to us we really appreciate having those couple of hours under a tent or at a booth standing behind that table that for us it's something very positive that is a reason positively why you should do this or negatively why you should not do this that's a criterion you should take seriously is the social function of the form of activism for the vegan participants themselves because primarily what you're doing is really like let's say a rally and only secondary of secondarily is it a form of outreach because this is not very effective evaluated just as outraged now with that Emmett said again spoilers the point of this video is not to tell you that tabeling is the greatest form of outrage we all need to look at really critically what type of activism we can really accomplish in our lives but if you want to know the most effective form of vegan activism outreach in 2017 it's these four letters P C R M PCRM are massively effective in terms of public education in terms of public outreach PCRM are massively effective in terms of government lobbying they're massively effective in terms of our impact on vegans and meteors and the general public and I'm not saying this about their particular content about their particular message I'm saying this about their methods right I'm saying this about PCRM as a mode of activism can you do what PCRM does probably not but if we're keeping it all the way real but why not so this guy ready to be Nicolas he's a university student if you make that your goal is to have an organization like PCRM maybe specialize in a totally different subject maybe it specialized in dolphin's maybe it specialized in owls or nature conservation or you know the hot dog industry that'd be great you could have a whole organization just dealing with the hot dog industry or just dealing with maybe you're advocating for trying to get vegan options on University campuses in prisons yet City Hall and other institutional content there are so many issues you can specialize in or you look at the level of organization and professionalism of PCRM and you try to emulate that okay so starting now when you're in university what do you think you can accomplish in the next five years what do you think you can accomplish in next 10 years I think the answer is a lot and moreover you can accomplish a lot if you're aiming at using those formal lobbying methods formal organizational methods of PCRM over five years in two years you can accomplish a lot compared to going to the same street protests again and again for five years going to the same vigil again and again for five you're standing in front of the same slaughterhouse holding a can't a candle and weeping again again fires you can accomplish a lot compared to tabeling again and again for five years and then again something I've said so many times is you do have to look at what forms of activism can really fit in your own life I live on the border between you nan and Myanmar in Southeast Asia I live on the Chinese side of that border there is zero political activism I can engage in so what I did is I wrote a children's story book I wrote it in both English and Chinese other people translated it into Japanese Russia and German and other languages and I'm talking to an illustrator trying to illustrate and publish that children's book the children's book is by the way you know vegan propaganda I'll give you the link to that below this video I'll also give you the link to my patreon below this video because for me you too and patreon is a form of vegan activism and vegan outreach and if you think it's ineffective well compared to what sure it's not super effective but compared to standing on the street and screaming at strangers compared to some of these alternatives it may be very effective indeed ok this is not my first discussion of these issues it is not my last discussion of these issues these are real brass tacks what we can and can't do in terms of vegan activism now I appreciate getting the question from Nicolas and I'm gonna be happy to discuss these things again and again on YouTube over the next five years as my own life changes as my own options change and I don't know if I'm ever going to get closer to being in the position that PCRM is in or if I'm gonna get in a position where publishing children's storybooks is more and more something positive I can do for the movement or if I'm gonna remain trapped in a position where my obligations to my family to my job to my education in my career really limit me to not being able to do much more than reach out to people like you now over YouTube over you now through patreon join my patreon for one dollar a month join the discussion and I'm happy to hear from you guys about what you can and can't do about your struggles and your own aspirations short term and long term for vegan activism for the future of the movement hit me on