Critiquing the dystopia in which we live is made tricky, if not untenable, by the basic facts of life as we know it, like the fact that in the animal kingdom, predation rules. Even within many species, killing is the norm, as individuals fight for the right to mate and pass on their genes to future generations. For example, adult males are known to kill the juvenile offspring sired by other males, so that the mother will sooner go into estrus and mate with them.
Although i grew up in a rural area with relatives who were farmers, i was largely spared exposure to the brutality of animal slaughter. However, living vicariously via reading about the lives of other sheeple, i have some idea of the psychologically numbing effect such exposure can have. For example, glen campbell's autobiography describes his very poor upbringing on a farm where he was required to do many chores, including slaughtering hogs. I don't recall what specific age he was when he stated that he'd become so numb to the act that he felt no remorse about cutting a hog's throat, but he was very young, something like 8 or 10.
With modernity and urbanization, most sheeple living in wealthy societies have become completely divorced from the brutality of industrialized animal slaughter. Hidden away, it has become truly horrific, as economic concerns have come to the fore, largely obliterating concerns for minimizing the suffering and trauma inflicted upon animals, not to mention the unfortunate workers in the industry. This suffering and exploitation has been going on for well over a century, as the wikipedia article on the meat packing industry shows. Here's a few excerpts from it:
A 2009 study by criminologist Amy Fitzgerald indicates, "slaughterhouse employment increases total arrest rates, arrests for violent crimes, arrests for rape, and arrests for other sex offenses in comparison with other industries".[33] As authors from the PTSD Journal explain, "These employees are hired to kill animals, such as pigs and cows that are largely gentle creatures. Carrying out this action requires workers to disconnect from what they are doing and from the creature standing before them. This emotional dissonance can lead to consequences such as domestic violence, social withdrawal, anxiety, drug and alcohol abuse, and PTSD".
(a quote from a worker): The worst thing, worse than the physical danger, is the emotional toll. If you work in the stick pit [where hogs are killed] for any period of time—that let's [sic] you kill things but doesn't let you care. You may look a hog in the eye that's walking around in the blood pit with you and think, 'God, that really isn't a bad looking animal.' You may want to pet it. Pigs down on the kill floor have come up to nuzzle me like a puppy. Two minutes later I had to kill them - beat them to death with a pipe. I can't care.
Slaughterhouses in the United States commonly illegally employ and exploit underage workers and illegal immigrants.[35][36] In 2010, Human Rights Watch described slaughterhouse line work in the United States as a human rights crime.[37] In a report by Oxfam America, slaughterhouse workers were observed not being allowed breaks, were often required to wear diapers, and were paid below minimum wage.
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perhaps the best book on the subject (published over 20 years ago):
As i wrote at the start of this post, the fundamental brutality that's intrinsic to life makes critiquing the ways of modern food production dicey, but i think a good beginning is to cease viewing the animals we raise for food as mere commodities, as if they lack sentience or capacity for suffering. While we're at it, we ought to cease putting 'holy books' like the book of genesis in the bible on a pedestal, in which 'god' supposedly tells us that our world and all the other species in it was created explicitly for our edification and exploitation.
