Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

Paranoia and Distorted Beliefs on Animal Testing

I consider any kind of paranoia to be a mental malady, as paranoia's origins lie in thoughts of anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. As such, go the conspiracy theories.

I equate conspiracy theories with stink. When something rots, it gives out a bad odor. There is something rotten there, but it is usually unknown whether it’s coming from a true source or some group’s rotten thinking. Whatever the case may be, the plain truth usually shows up in time.

Those of us who lived through the 1970s will remember the Italian journalist, beautiful Oriana Fallaci’s theory of French-Arab alliance against the US and Israel to turn Europe into an accessory of the Islamic world. My question was why would the French do that? It just didn’t make sense.

Then, most persecutions or genocides usually spring from a prejudice of some kind. The persecution of the Bahai in Iran is rooted in various conspiracy theories with the paranoid thinking of the Bahai to be agents of foreign governments and out to destroy Islam.

Yet another, which really angers me, is the one about the US government being behind the 9/11 attacks. Maybe we don’t have a perfect government at any one time, but only the deranged would have the audacity to think our own government would attack us.

And with our present President, all kinds of conspiracy theories abound due to some people’s or group’s specific prejudicial thinking. I think such conspiracy theories have no more value than being malicious gossip.

On the other hand, some conspiracy theories have proven to be true, such as the one that involved the Mafia, which its existence went unheeded until the 1960s. People knew that organized crime existed, but not to the extent that its control involved big businesses and the CIA.

Another type of paranoia or distorted belief involves animal testing, most of which is unnecessary, cruel, and immoral. Where openness, an understanding of decision-making, and accountability is hidden from the public, it is doomed to be thought of as suspicious and irrational, and unfortunately, that is what goes on in the laboratories involved in animal experimentation.

Those with the distorted idea, which is the other face of paranoia, say that testing on animals is beneficial to human wellness. Yet, if alternatives do exist, and they do; so why not use the alternatives, then?

I believe pain or death brought on animals through experimentation and testing to be immoral, and what makes me furious has been the kind of testing, not for diseases but for beauty products. What kind of egocentric species are we that we force living beings to endure all kinds of torture just to look a tiny bit prettier or more handsome? As to the testing of animals for pharmaceuticals, we cannot be sure if this is efficient either because most products are metabolized differently in animals than in humans. Probably that is why some medications end up being terribly harmful to humans. Remember the Thalidomide babies who were born with birth defects? Or others that caused death to humans?

Then again, humans are also tested, however voluntarily, in order to find out about the positives and negatives of an iffy medication. For that reason, it could be understandable if a certain drug to benefit humans with a terrible disease such as cancer can be tested on animals, too, but only if that testing benefits the animals as well, as animal cancer exists also. Otherwise, I consider animal testing to be inhuman and unnecessary

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Prompts:
1. Do you believe in any conspiracy theories? Which ones and why?
2. Let's go hardcore issue. Animal testing - yes, no, maybe. Let me hear your opinion