Memes

The difference between such a machine and a worker is that the worker has the power to withhold their labor and a machine (or animal) does not. An animal will never show solidarity with the workers' movement.

I'm not saying that animal rights are bad. I'm generally in favor of them. But they have nothing to do with Marxism. In fact, I would call any call to have solidarity with a group incapable of or unwilling to have solidarity with the general workers' movement to be a form of Ultra-Leftism.

And I'd appreciate people not over-extending this analogy. Some workers are queer, or immigrants, or disabled. Most are female or colored. These are all people who have the agency and incentive to show solidarity with the Socialist movement. Animals have neither agency nor incentive.

That's not to say that there is no Marxist justification for working with or even making concessions to Vegans. They make up a significant part of the general left-wing movement and animal rights are a bargaining chip that may be used to gain their support when it is strategically necessary. And, again, I am in favor of some animal rights - I just recognize that that is coming from the moral side of my brain and not the scientific side.