Spycops & Farm Propaganda: Exposing Animal Agriculture’s Self-Mythology | Rising Anxieties

And what's worrying me though, that's a very, that's a very long topic, uh, as me old mother used to say. She would get so mad if she knew I was calling her me old mother. Uh, nothing good is got by worry.

It never stopped me and, uh, I, when I was a child, I was known as a worrywart, the worrywart 'cause it's just who I am. Anyway. Probably some of this is also worrying you. Uh. But I hope not too much because nothing good is got by worry.

Alright, don't forget we're a podcast, we're on YouTube. Please subscribe, hit like wherever you listen and yeah, let's get into it.

I have a couple of themes today. Uh, the first theme has to do with, uh, this situation in the UK. I've heard of this before. It happened in the nineties, actually, I think, or at least mostly in the nineties, maybe early in the aughts. Uh, and I've heard of it before, but apparently there's a, there's an inquiry going on about it now. And, uh, so it's, it, there's some stories coming up in, in, in the UK papers.

It's called the Spy Cops Scandal, at least that's what the Guardian is calling it. Undercover Police and policing. And talking about, and this is not just about the animal rights movement, but in the nineties there was this unit of the, uh, police in the UK that was tasked with infiltrating mostly left-wing, uh, activist groups of all sorts of different, uh, persuasions. Uh, and, and they'd behaved badly in many instances, including, and I've only really read about the animal rights stuff, but I'm sure it covered other issues as well, then there was also bad behavior. The name of this article is, uh, which is in the Guardian, Undercover Police Officer Fabricated Gun Plot by Animal Rights Activists Inquiry Told.

And uh, so this is about this guy James Thompson, who apparently lied to superiors and deceived two women into relationships. That was a big part of this, that, uh, that almost all of the, the police officers who did this work were men. And they, they started relationships with women in these movements, uh, some of which, at least one of which ended up in a pregnancy, which I think ended up coming to term.

Uh, and, but a lot of which ended up in romantic relationships, which obviously were, uh, were not totally on the up and up. And so, uh, this guy, James Thompson, claimed he had uncovered a plot to, uh, to, uh, obtain a gun to perpetrate a revenge attack by an animal rights activist against, um, against someone who, who had, uh, who was a political opponent.

And, um, the activist who was accused of this, uh, conspiracy, said it was a total fabrication. It could have resulted in him being jailed for years. Fortunately it didn't. Um, alright, so here's the dates between 1968 and 2010. I'm sorry, I didn't have that before. So, all right, this happened in 2001. Uh, this guy Thompson drove with his, in his car with this activist to France, claiming that they were getting a gun from a campaigner to take revenge.

And, and you know, the, the police department apparently thought it was totally credible. They thought that by doing this, that he, by going with him, he had foiled the plot, uh, by, by making it look like the car had been stolen with the gun in it. So the guy never got the gun. Um, and then when they recovered the, the, the gun, uh, it was in the car.

But you know, the, uh, the activist didn't get ahold of it to do whatever nefarious did he was supposedly gonna do with it. And then, you know, later on, some people began to question whether it was real. And, uh, an undercover officer told them Thompson had been given a gun as a gift and had stored it in a French deposit box, which is where they had gone to, uh, supposedly get this gun, uh, in Marsai.

Yeah, so apparently he just made it up. Fortunately, it didn't come to fruition, so the activist did not end up going to prison for this. Uh, but, you know, nice, right? Nice.

All right. The other story, two stories have come out of this inquiry. This one, this one is, that was just the intro. Um, this one isn't that bad. It's actually, I kind of like it. All right. This is from the Daily Mail. Uh, The Met officer who infiltrated the animal rights mob for five years. Daily Mail is not generally very, uh, friendly towards us, um, then fell for a violent activist she has now married. This is by Ian Gallagher, and, uh, it starts out by saying none of the watchful band of animal rights fanatics suspected the truth about the ever helpful woman they knew as Christine. Recalled variously as smiley and chatty, and someone for whom no task was too much trouble.

Yeah, always watch out for those people who or too nice. Christine never missed a meeting or ignored a call to action, whether it involved confronting fox hunters or liberating animals. All agreed she was a recruit of rare dedication and no little zeal. However, at the time she was working for the Metropolitan Police and she was undercover.

Uh, so, yeah. Um, I don't wanna say never trust anybody. Like if we never trust anybody, we'll never get anything done. And as it turned out, Christine, you know, not so bad. So, uh, this inquiry is, is currently going on, um, in, in the UK. And so more may come out about this, but, uh, it, it's mostly about how these male colleagues of Christine's under the guise of false persona, tricked their way into the beds of unsuspecting female political campaigners to shore up their cover stories.

Some fathered children then disappeared. Nice guys, right? Um, but Christine, it didn't turn out like that. Um, she got into a relationship. She did. We don't know what her motive was for getting into the relationship because she is not talking. Um, and, and he was the leader of a London-based Animal Liberation Front cell.

He was once jailed for headbutting a fox hunter and breaking his nose. That apparently is the reason he's called violent in the headline of this. 'Cause that seems to be the only thing that they're alleging was violent. And that, I mean, certainly it's not appropriate to break people's noses. And his defense was that it, he was the one who was attacked and, and, uh, it was a part of a fight and he was just defending himself, but he was convicted. I'm not saying he wasn't. Um, and, but that was the, that was it. Headbutting and, and breaking his nose. Um, alright, so, so apparently the relationship between the undercover officer and this activist was, was true love and it still endures today.

And, um, they now are both 64. They left the UK, which was probably a good idea, got married in Sweden and that's where they are today. They're not, they're not talking to anybody. She's not volunteering to, uh, to come in and tell the her story. She did give a statement in 2018 in which she offered her apologies to those activists who I was closest to and who befriended me opening their lives and homes to me.

And she said she had made some of the best friends anyone could ever want. People who, without hesitation, put their liberty and sometimes their life on the line for me. And probably for the animals. And so that's kind of a nice story, right? It's my idea of a nice story. It's not the Daily Mail's idea of a nice story.

Alright? That was our first theme, which was, you know, mixed. Uh, our next theme is, is an ongoing theme that I cover all the time. I talk about all the time 'cause it makes me nuts as so many things do. Uh, and this is about how in love farmers are with themselves. This probably, I mean, you know, I'm not saying that this is just animal farmers, it's probably farmers in general, but when it's plant farmers, I don't really care, you know, if they think they're better than everybody else, what the hell?

A lot of people think they're better than everybody else. Um, and, but the, you know, the, this is from Hordes Dairyman, so you can imagine what kind of farmers these are. And they talk... It's so embedded in their lives that this is what they are. It's not just what they do, it's what they are.

And they're gonna have their kids be the same thing and they're gonna expose their kids to nothing but this and, and they're just so great. Do they have any idea what they're doing? Like it's so infuriating. They're creating such unbelievable harm, but they're so in love with themselves. All right. I'm just gonna read a little bit of this.

A farm kid's hobbies include more farming. The lifestyle of farming is felt beyond the farmer. It also, it's also often ingrained in their children and grandchildren. It sure is. I mean, these kids, you could almost forgive the entire, like both the parents and the children, like they were brought up like to think that this is what they were. When farm kids aren't out and about on the farm, riding along in machinery, helping feed calves, sorting cows and beyond.

Talk about being enculturated. They can regularly be found doing something else farm related. The youngest farm babies may be playing with a toy barn or a cow pacifier. A cow pacifier. What the hell is that? The older farm kids are often busy carpet farming by setting up elaborate machinery and livestock operations that take up the entirety of the living room floor.

Don't they ever learn anything else about the world, or they could be playing an assortment of farm themed board games, like blah, blah, blah. Not to mention the different farming video games. Uh, blah, blah, blah. When they get to their teenage years, they may spend their free time showing livestock. We've all heard about that.

Uh, participating in future Farmers of America agricultural events or doing aggravated projects like four H. These kids are enculturated from the day they're born to think this is okay, and to think that this is what they are, and to think that this is all their life is gonna be, and to think that that's great. No matter the... this is by, uh, Molly Edie Schmidt, um, and she concludes by saying, no matter the generation farming doesn't stop when you step off the farm. It's not just a job, it's who we are and what we enjoy doing no matter the weather, hour of the day, or where we are.

They're so in love with themselves. Just get it, uh, you know, move into the, move into the current century, okay? A another, uh, so as I said, I have a theme. So another article that I think is along the same theme is from Pork Business. This Thanksgiving, be grateful for the strength of our mothers and, uh, this, uh, is by Karen Boner. Legendary Coach K, she... I don't know who he was, even though I'm assuming he was a he, uh, even though apparently he's legendary.

Sorry, I dunno anything about sports. Um, but anyway, coach K once advised, be as tough as your mothers. This message resonates, as she goes on to say, resonates deeply with those of us who grew up as farm kids, where our mothers proved to be the unsung heroes of our upbringing. Like, like other people love their mothers too, you know?

And other mothers do a good job and sacrifice for their kids too. It's not just on farms. She apparently had this, a mother who was from a wealthy family and gave it all up to become a farm wife, God. These are women who fed calves in the swelter heat of summer irrigated pastures with children on their hips.

How do you irrigate pasture with, I don't know, like, I dunno. Uh, and resolved marital differences amidst sorting calves? Yeah, I bet there were some marital differences. They managed household finances creatively making ends meet even when the milk check was sparse. And they ensured that a family of eight was nourished from garden and freezer bounty.

My mother in particular embodies this strength. Her mother was the best. She would race inside to a home cooked meal prepared from scratch. Like, like, you know, people, women are capable of living type different types of jobs, which don't always involve home cooked meals. Feeding your children appropriately? Yes.

They don't have to be homecooked all the time. Among her most enduring gifts were the values she imparted. Values characterized by a strong work ethic. They're always talking about that because like apparently the only people who work are farmers. And I'm not saying, I'm sure it is like ridiculously hard work in a lot of ways and depressing, and it involves a lot of denial, I would imagine.

Alright, by a strong worth ethic, kindness, gratitude, and perspective. You know, unlike other moms. My mom never permitted self petty to take root, a trait she exemplified in her own life. She instilled in us a perspective that transformed adversity into opportunity. Oh God. Yeah. And transformed cows into food that you don't need to eat. Um, oikonomia on the farm, succession planning is about more than wealth also from Pork Business. Oikonomia is apparently a word. It doesn't have anything to do with it being pork, a pork site. I think it's a Greek word. I don't know. It is pretty, I hadn't noticed that until this moment that the word is oikonomia.

It's pretty funny. Oikonomia on the farm succession planning is about more than wealth and it the, this is by Dennis DePietra and Lance Mulberry. Ancient Greek philosophers viewed resources as abundant, not scarce. They probably were then. So economic action was judged not by the accumulation of wealth, but by whether it enabled and served a praiseworthy end.

I have to say that a lot of people in farming are pretty interested in the accumulation of wealth. Uh, I'm just saying. Um, it, it starts off by saying succession planning. So we're talking about, uh, and this is a big deal in farm and, you know, for all rich people and a lot of farmers are rich people, not all of them.

Um. That, that, uh, you know, keeping it in the family, keeping the money in the family. Uh, succession planning is often treated as a legal or financial exercise, a quote unquote, simple matter of wills, taxes, and transfer dates. Yet for family owned farms and agribusinesses... interesting that they put agribusinesses in there because a lot of these families aren't just like, you know, old McDonald living on the farm.

A lot of them, uh, you know, are families with, with quite a bit of accumulated wealth. Not all of them by any means. All right, yet for family owned farms and agribusinesses, it's something deeper. The deliberate handoff of a way of life. It's never money. It's a way of life. Um. You know, I, I have always thought, I don't know how it would work, but you know how people are saying that it's really bad that we basically have gotten rid of the estate tax?

Well, some people say that, some people think it's great. Um, I think that we should get rid of inheritance. Like, I don't, I'm, I'm not sure how it would work, but I don't, like, I think that would fix everything. You just can't inherit wealth. You know, they have to give it away. If they don't give it away, then, then it'll be up to the government to give it away.

So, uh, or me, you could make it up to me. Anyway, I seriously digress. So from an oikonomia perspective, now I'm gonna laugh every time I say that word. The senior generation's goal is to prepare successors capable of managing abundance with restraint, gratitude, and wisdom.

Yeah, that's, that's really what American, um, economy, including farming, is about- restraint, gratitude, and wisdom. This calls attention to the education of character. The next generation must learn more than production and finance. They must learn judgment, the ability to distinguish needs from wants, and to act for the common good.

Now, I'm saying this sarcastically because obviously those things are really true, and I do think that they're true. I just think that they think that's actually what they're doing, and that's the part that I'm being sarcastic about. Perhaps most importantly, oikonomia reminds us that... oikonomia reminds us that a farm is both a business and a household. Yeah, not necessarily. Uh, among the people who own, uh, soybean farms, we've learned in the past, uh, a few months is, um, you know, the Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, uh, uh.

I assume... we are living in the kind of time where we all know who the SEC treasury secretary is. So I assume you know who he is. And, uh, so yeah, we're not all living on, they're not all living on the farm. It's not all household. They wanna make this idea that all of American farmland is owned by these small farmers who are just the salt of the earth.

Yeah. Not so salt. Not so where did that expression come from? Salt of the earth. Isn't salt bad for the earth. Anyway. Um, uh, so, uh. Yeah, they love themselves. They want us to love them too, or at least to leave them alone, to just keep the land in the family and keep the money in the family. Alright, those are my two themes.

I don't have any more theme articles, but I do have one more article that I wanted to bring your attention to. Uh, animal rights group files crazy lawsuit to declare elephants people. This is from Law Enforcement Today. Uh, you know, a publication that you might not be up on, or maybe you are. Uh, it starts off by this, uh, declare elephant's people.

And it is something that drives me crazy that even people who are friendly to these lawsuits, this is of course talking about The Non-human Rights Project lawsuits, uh, do, do tend to use the term people. Whether, whether an elephant is, is, is a, a people. And actually the word that is used in the lawsuit is person which in common parlance means pretty much the same thing, in the law means something different. 'Cause corporations are persons in the law and ships can be persons in the law. It's, you know, a legal entity that can, uh, that can represent itself in some, in certain ways.

All right, so this is from Law Enforcement Today, as I mentioned, and, uh, I didn't say who wrote it. I wouldn't, I wouldn't leave that out, uh, but oh, by LET guest. So somebody who's, who's decided to say secret? All right, that's fine 'cause I will keep them secret. Anti-hunting lawfare groups pretending to be quote unquote, conservation groups looking to gain support and donations are added, again. With a playbook that ignores conservation realities and highlights cherry picked science, they're attempting to rewrite the law from the bench. That is actually, you can rewrite the law from the bench. I mean, that is what courts do frequently. Harvesting support for their efforts with crafty online petitions, hunting license raffle takeovers... what is that all about?... And slick media campaigns.

Alright, this is, this, this is all focused on hunting. Like, so they, they're using this term conservation that is not the term, you know. It's not how most people think of The Non-human Rights Project lawsuits, but you know, they're basically against them for most of the same reasons. Um. Alright, The Non-human Rights Project is yet again, resorting to legal shenanigans to label pachyderms as people in Pennsylvania. Legal shenanigans is their term for bringing a lawsuit, I guess, like, it's not like they can do it on their own.

And, uh, so, you know, they talk about the, the case in, in Pennsylvania and they, the current one, and then the ones that have been lost. They've all been lost, uh, with some, some with very sympathetic, uh, opinions, but not successful. The, the New York one, there was a Michigan one. Um, apparently the Colorado one was particularly bad, was unanimous.

And, um, and, uh, the judges there also noted that any sweeping change like this rests with legislators, not the judiciary. They like to say that a lot. Uh, yeah, it's not up to us, it's up to somebody else, but, but, um, ultimately they're just, um, behind the whole, they're just against the whole idea. They mentioned Wayne Pacelle for some reason 'cause they like to hate him, doesn't have anything to do with The Non-human Rights Projects.

And, um, and, and keep, um, talking about how, how animal rights groups like to pretend they're conservationists and call themselves conservationists. Nobody ever calls themselves a conservationist, that's not a term that we use. Um, hunters and genuine conservationists, yes, including many zoo professionals measure success in population stability, animal health, human wildlife coexistence, and transparent use of public resources. Yeah. Do they? Do they really, or do they measure, um, success in money? Uh, 'cause that, that's frequently a goal as well. And the NHRP petition is part of a broader effort to bypass accountability.

America does conservation best when wildlife management decisions are driven by evidence-based scientific data, which is exactly what I mean. The Non Human Rights Project does not characterize itself as this conservation group, but certainly they talk about evidence based scientific data.

Respect expertise- they use experts extensively and measure results, not just vibes. Well, the result would be letting an animal out of, um, captivity who deserves to be. That seems like a result. But their real problem, of course, they don't really care about the elephant. I mean, they'd be fine with the elephant. It's the every, uh, it's the same problem we run up against in everything.

We treat animals so horribly in so many different ways that we are so dedicated to that for profit and culture, that, and that it's very hard, and this is what the law frequently has to do, to pick out a particular issue and argue that that should change. Because the reasons for it changing are the same as for all the other reasons.

If we care about one animal, we care about them all. So, uh, so yeah, it's the same problem. Everything we argue proves too much.

And that's it for this week's rising anxieties. Please remember to subscribe, uh, wherever you listen. And don't forget to listen to our other podcasts, the long form interview and The Hen Report. And see you next week.