By Karen Davis, PhD, President of United Poultry Concerns
How do we process heaping praise on a man who didn’t just eat animals but
tortured and demeaned them for pleasure and publicity? Sentimental gush
over the
late Anthony Bourdain (1956-2018) in *The Washington Post* or *The Wall
Street*
*Journal* is expected, but gushing admiration by animal advocates? Yes, a
claim
has been made by some animal people that this voraciously sadistic
celebrity was
just a “flawed” human being on a journey toward “compassion” – a claim with
no
evidence – and that his suicide is a tragic loss.
Imagine a similar situation in other social justice movements where, for
example, someone in the Civil Rights Movement or the #MeToo Movement pays
tribute to “poor, flawed” Bull Connor or Harvey Weinstein. How would the
victims
of these men feel about that?
It’s one thing to feel sympathy for a fellow human…
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Exposing the Big Game 
We are indebted to Karen Davis for offering a badly needed antidote to the lachrymose tributes to Anthony Bourdain being offered up by the CNN talking-heads and other assorted celebrities. Ridiculous drivel about foodie Bourdain’s supposed compassion, his humanity, his dedication to the culinary brotherhood of all humankind. Give me a break! Anthony Bourdain personified everything that is wrong-headed with fashionable liberalism in the United States: ostentatious concern for every conceivable oppressed (human) minority on the planet, from displaced refugees to transgendered bathroom seekers, combined with a hypocritical and near-total disinterest in the real suffering of that most disadvantaged, most oppressed “minority” group of all: non-human animals. That any animal rights advocate would have anything but contempt for Anthony Bourdain and satisfaction at his passing comes as a surprise to me. Bourdain’s last program of the current season was filmed in Bhutan, a poor country that somehow manages to be much more compassionate toward non-human animals than our own or other Western societies. I’d like to think that maybe this had an impact on Bourdain and that the hypothesized “demons” that tormented him in his last anguished hours were the result of him realizing what a moral cesspit his life had actually been. At least that’s what I’d like to think. In any event, I say good riddance and choose to save my sympathies for those who deserve it.
Well spoken. Thanks Geoff.
I think where it was a suicide, it’s always tragic.
But otherwise, I agree with everything you’ve said about fashionable liberalism. It’s very discouraging to read about all of these causes today’s fashionable liberalism is supporting, and see them jump on the hunting support and animal abuse bandwagon with the right, whether due to not being well-informed or agreeing.
And willing to hold up animal welfare and environmental issues as a bargaining chip to get what they want! (and failing miserably).
Today’s leadership on both sides know that the environment and animal welfare issues such as taking away their meat and gas-guzzling cars and turning down the thermostat are killjoys and vote killers, and that’s their only concern – getting back into power in DC.
Humans will have to get past that kind kind of selfish, short-sighted thinking soon…
Will not honor a jerk and an abuser!
In 1962 or so when I was in high school I saw a documentary film called Mondo Cane. It showed assorted rituals from around the world and many involved all the “creative” ways humans everywhere abuse animals both for food use and for revenge and for almost any reason one could think of. I was mortified. Well Anthony Bourdain celebrated these “cultural” barbaric food rituals in his show. He had not one shred of sympathy for any animal involved, but glorified the human abusers ad nauseum. I like Geoff’s theory of his final hours……