I do think that we ought to be prepared to take a more aggressive stance toward public defamation, not just by the humane society but in general. Part of why people think we're crazed animal-rapers and have us conflated with pedophiles is that we get defamed publicly with impunity.
While we admittedly might be half a century out from being able to successfully win a defamation lawsuit against anybody, I also think that we won't get to that point by just hiding down in our holes and doing nothing for half a century.
My OP was partly due to me utterly losing my shit after an emotionally exhausting conversation with someone that was so profoundly anti-activism that he genuinely believed that it could only ever get worse and that the only answer that was even possible was for us all to keep our heads low and go further into hiding. This person's utter cowardice had driven him to becoming manipulative and toxic with me, and I'm sorry: I sort of lost my shit and came off a lot more militant and impulsive than I usually do.
While @Wolfy might have somewhat of a sound point that specifically targeting the HSUS might be misguided when it's not just them but is quite frankly everybody that is targeting us, I also think that we ought to never give up on trying to produce adequate generational change that we can someday succeed at defending ourselves, as a community, against public defamation. Maybe, by then, the HSUS will have woken up to the realization that they have made a mistake, and confronting them in court won't even end up being discussed.
I'll admit, being confronted with someone's toxic defeatism caused me to lose my shit, and I came across as unhinged.
Nevertheless, I hope to bring up the topic again at another time, after it's cooled for a few months, and have a serious discussion about a possible future where we just might succeed at fighting against defamation.
