“Hierarchy is a toxic inheritance from previous eras that we keep reproducing as a matter of our social reproduction, but that does not mean it is an essential, necessary, or unavoidable aspect of our humanity.” — Bob Torres Copy Share Image
If we're all led to believe that poverty is just a matter of laziness or stupidity or whatever other justifications we can come up with, then we're not likely to be in a real position to do much about it when it comes to attacking the root cause of the problem. Instead of demanding a more equitable system for the… — Bob Torres Copy Share
“Capitalism is marked by a division between classes, with one class holding private ownership of the means of production, and another class forced to sell their labor to live. Through the use of workers’ labor power, the owners of the means of production—the bourgeoisie—extract value in production, paying workers less than the actual value they are producing.This basic class division… — Bob Torres Copy Share
“In her book Tangled Routes: Women, Work, and Globalization on the Tomato Trail, Deborah Barndt examines the seemingly simple tomato from its historic and contemporary roots in Mexico all the way to its final consumption in fast-food outlets and grocery stores. What evolves in examining a product this way is a portrait that defies our simplistic notion of commodities. Rather… — Bob Torres Copy Share
“Much as we live in an economic and social order that is structured to exploit people, we live in one that is structured to… — Bob Torres Copy Share Image
“We can argue about their intelligence (which we would likely define in human-centric terms anyway), their ability to understand human language, or even the extent to which they really understand and know the world around them, but there’s no argument that can convincingly show that animals don’t feel pain, and that they have no interest in avoiding that pain. If… — Bob Torres Copy Share
“What, then, is the solution to this moral schizophrenia we have about animals? According to Francione, we only have two choices: we either continue to treat animals as we are now, by inflicting suffering even for unnecessary ends and recognizing our commitment to humane treatment as a farce, or we can recognize that animals have a morally significant interest in… — Bob Torres Copy Share
“Just as humanity has extended this basic equal consideration to humans (including those who were once outside of our moral community), we must extend this basic equal consideration to animals if we are going to treat like cases alike. Animals are very clearly in possession of a subjective experience of their own lives. Anyone who lives with companion animals knows… — Bob Torres Copy Share
Inevitably, people tell me that poor folks are lazy or unintelligent, that they are somehow deserving of their poverty. However, if you begin to… — Bob Torres Copy Share Image
Our economic order is tightly woven around the exploitation of animals, and while it may seem easy to dismiss concern about animals as the… — Bob Torres Copy Share Image
“What we see in stark relief is that the production of goods is about social relationships.” — Bob Torres Copy Share Image
“Given that animals are nothing more than mere tools for the production of capital, the only way to abolish their exploitation is to challenge… — Bob Torres Copy Share Image
“We have created a false dichotomy between behaviors attributable to companion animals and those of other species that blinds us to the inherent worth… — Bob Torres Copy Share Image
