The darker side of cat lives

This essay explores two different cases of #CatLivesMatter occurring between 2015 and 2022. By examining the discourses and effects of moral outrage that circulated within these controversies, I point to how the animal is used as an alibi that permits the blasting of white supremacist ideologies out into the open with unchecked speed, scale, and escalating calls to violence. Animal rights campaigns such as #CatLivesMatter thus not only co-opt the political urgency of the Black Lives Matter movement, but also can be understood as a form of emergent everyday ecofascism.