I suppose this sort of mental illness is to be expected when a society becomes so advanced that it allows people to be removed entirely, for generations, from the dynamic forces of nature. If a person wants to, they can live in a city apartment forever, eating tofu and sprouts from the neighborhood vegan deli, be continually mind-numbed by leftist TV programming and make a living by being an animal rights activist. Reality is irrelevant for them because they are able to remove themselves from it and then pontificate about their supposed virtue.
In times past, they would have been either shamed into reality-based thinkng or laughed out of town and subsequently starved to death. With our advanced society, they are able to exst - and thrive - in an entirely ideologically-manufactured world.
Unfortunately, many people who should know better listen to them.
Many of them do not understand that life is brutally unfair.
That’s why when they go out and get mauled by bobcats, mountainlions, and bear they describe it as a ‘spiritual expeience’ rather than “wish I’d shot that rotten animal”.
That is, if they life through it.
They do not understand that animals eat other animals.
And sometimes them as well.