Vegan influencer James Aspey has been slammed after he made tone-deaf comments likening the “holocaust” and “slavery” to killing animals for food.
The Aussie influencer currently has over 250,000 followers and has made a name for himself as an animal rights activist. Aspey also posts regular content about fitness and eating vegan.
In a recent attempt to get the word out about eating vegan, James Aspey has somewhat coined the phrase “Animal Holocaust” in order to shock people. While it has worked to get him the media attention he craves, he’s also insulted and offended a lot of people in the process.
People are unhappy with the comparison because it trivialises the Holocaust and slavery in order to push Aspey’s own agenda.
“You’re deliberately courting controversy to drive social media engagement to your page,” one person wrote.
“It’s outrageous and sick to co-opt the word for 5 minutes of press/attention you wouldn’t otherwise get,” another wrote.
Another person said that using the term “Holocaust” to describe the animal agriculture industry, was the same as people who use “All Lives Matter” to undermine black oppression.
For some reason Aspey shares the comments of people who criticise him. He even shared a comment made by Australian feminist Clementine Ford. Her comment was in response to an image of Aspey chilling in business class on his way to a ‘meeting’ in Panama during a literal pandemic.
The influencer’s approach to animal rights activism has been labelled as “aggressive” and has left people to question if his intentions really are that pure.
Aspey labels this as “passionate,” but it’s hard to believe that when a lot of people are passionate about their activism without undermining an oppressed people’s movement.
I don’t see many people advocating for the environment by comparing it to slavery for example. And that’s because it’s not the same thing. It seems like Aspey is just using provocative language to get a rise out of people, but not actually create real change.
