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Mellor further argues that in welfare-aligned sentience we might try to support animals under our care to thrive, facilitating what’s called “positive-valenced experiences” that, just like pain, also suggest that “sense of what it’s like to be oneself” — things like warmth, comfort, interest and enjoyment.

“Here, one feels the liberty to be oneself, to walk in the streets freely. I can cry to the four winds, ‘I am a muxe!’

The former presents a philosophical crisis in which I lost interest: How can one “be oneself” and “become a better version of oneself” at the same time?

There’s something about the ability within the limited real estate, particularly in this country — the systemic racism, the constant navigation of having to figure out how to find safety, be safe, and also be oneself and find joy, I see all of those intersections in art from Black people.

“Love to unite people and the freedom to be oneself, because it’s all about embracing existence and seeking a full, full, real life, with depth,” he says.