What if the shrimp guys are the most radical extremists in the animal movement? In this essay, I argue that the animal movement has radical<>moderate all mixed up, and reconsider what kinds will and will not help in the fight against factory farming.

Note: moments after sending out Tuesday’s post, I learned that Tuesday was the start of International Shrimpact Week, a competition between Substackers to raise matching funds for the Shrimp Welfare Project. For every $1 you donate, SWP can spare 1,500 of the most neglected and exploited animals on the planet from the worst abuses (more details below.) I refuse to be left out so I chugged a single dainty little cup of green tea and got this post out ahead of schedule. This one goes out to the shrimps. Join me by making a donation here. In addition to the 50% match on the whole campaign by some big funder, I will match the first $1,000 of donations made with the code shrimpcastles, meaning your donation helps 3x as many shrimps, or 4,500 per $1!

If you haven't seen footage of shrimp eyestalk ablation, maybe you should.

This audio version of Sandcastles is produced using an AI clone of Aidan's voice. Please forgive mispronunciations. Read the original on Substack.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sandcastlesblog.substack.com