CF#5, many people judge the actions of others based on their effectiveness. Some people judge others for arguing with a stubborn idiot over IM for hours when they could be leafletting to more open people instead with their time, putting in the same amount of effort to get people to eat thousands of less animals instead of making one person angry. Some people judge others for raising money for a larger animal pound building when that could go towards free spay/neuter instead, causing such a decrease in the overpopulation of animals in that area that half of the current building would be empty. *shrug*
The issue of whether welfarists detract from the efforts of rightsists is a pretty big issue in itself -_-
Biscuit, you're not alone with superstitious/relgious/irrational beliefs and--even after the beliefs change--feelings of that sort. If you're interested in naturalism and determinism, you might want to read up on it. It got me to be a lot more accepting of physical reality when I became a naturalist at 14 years of age. I mean "naturalism" as opposed to supernaturalism, not worshipping "nature."
I guess CF was to you what I was to some people on peta2. My God, the stupid, speciesist posers there...I admit I have feelings of "irrational" hostility and anger, and that I'm human :P And oh yes it inflated my ego big time when people would PM me after a long thread, complete with personal attacks, and say "I was so pissed at you at first. I thought you were a mean, stupid extremist and that I was right. But I thought about it more logically and my stance was incorrect. I'll do x from now on." Mwahaha.
It's a fact that people make emotional decisions. Even if it's not conscious, most people's reasoning is a rationalization of what they are already set on believing; they usually think their beliefs arise from their logical reasoning, hah. You can be logically correct and their ideas can be full of fallacies, you can prove each of their arguments wrong, yet they won't change their minds. Read some Haidt. I'm very bad at manipulating people emotionally so the only way I got through to people was through reason; few people listened to me that way. If there was any strong emotion from them, it was usually defensiveness and anger towards me, and you don't get a lot of flies with vinegar!
Even in my circle of friends, not many are Haidt's logical "philosophy students" to any significant degree. One of the exceptions actually is a philosophy student
I should post less. I'm a forum junkie. Once I get started it's hard to stop. It takes up time I can't afford to spend >.<