Are there any organizations less needed and more absurdly counter-productive to their own mission statement than PETA? No doubt, if we dug around the weird corners of the internet, we could find some. But as “mainstream” organizations go, PETA almost exists in a vacuum of PETA-style hissy fits and pointlessness. The rest of us only pay attention because their rants and rages are so laughably counterproductive to their stated goals. One of their latest pieces of nonsense that seems to make them the butt of their own joke is a tweet featuring the image of a cow breastfeeding a man. The caption read, “Looks weird right? It’s what you’re doing if you drink cow’s milk.”
Looks weird right?
It's what you're doing if you drink cow's milk ✋ Raise your hand if you know that humans shouldn’t be drinking cow’s breast milk. It was made for their babies—not you!
Art by @choicebison @freebison 💙 pic.twitter.com/D8QcJnyfUG
— PETA (@peta) March 28, 2019
What a dumb piece of propaganda. Seriously. What a dumb piece of propaganda.
No one who hasn’t already swallowed PETA’s animal-byproduct-free Kool-Aid will be remotely caused to question their milk consumption by it. Even if someone was wondering whether humans should drink cow’s milk or not, the image is so absurd and distracting as to drown out PETA’ message. Even the leftists at HuffPost gets this.
In an article that is clearly sympathetic to PETA’s message that humans shouldn’t drink milk, the counterproductive nature of the image is focused on. The article advises, “Perhaps in its crusade to stop people from drinking milk — and bettering the lives of dairy cows — PETA could lead with the above information as opposed to an image of a quasi-sexy cow breastfeeding a balding man.”
The article in HuffPost went on to point out the comical reactions from Twitter users. And the reactions are comical. Many play on the disturbing bestiality aspect of the image. Others pointed out how PETA does a great job of undermining its own message. Many, though, simply pointed out the general absurdity of the original tweet.
— Zoe (@Taz3297) March 28, 2019
What's so weird about this? Ever hear of furries? Bigots.
— Colin Moriarty (@notaxation) March 29, 2019
Over the last few years, I’ve checked in on PETA’s Twitter account from time to time. They are frequently good for a laugh and a reminder of why I shake my head with disdain whenever I even think about the animal right’s organization, much less when I see their nonsense on my computer screen. That being said, I’m not convinced that PETA isn’t trolling itself. I mean, there are only two options: 1) The person who runs their social media accounts is a complete moron and 2) PETA knows that the only way anybody pays attention to them anymore (or ever) is if people are mocking them.
I’m willing to listen to arguments for why option 1 is true. In the meantime, I will believe that option 2 is correct, all while recognizing that I have done exactly what PETA was hoping: given them attention. As a general rule, it’s not wise to give spoiled brats the attention they crave, but sometimes the spoiled brats are willing to trade their legitimacy for that attention. In that, I am more than happy to help PETA undermine their own credibility for a few minutes of attention.
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