π
my chiropractor put some thoughts in my head this morning that makes me want to do more research (I read a lot, so I hope you enjoy folks who like talking about what they're learning).
His attitude towards the consumption of animals as part of the lifecycle feels worthy of my consideration even if I suspect I will remain a vegan for ethical, environmental, and health reasons.
It has me curious - if you are a vegan or vegetarian what led you to that decision?
Garrett
@dualhammers I'm not vegan nor vegetarian but I do limit my meat intake. For a while I was living by a quasi-Buddhist rule of not purchasing any meat myself, but I did eat meat that was purchased by someone else and presented to me. An example of that would be when I go to my parents house for dinner.
people like dogs
@dualhammers enjoyed seeing everyone's thoughts in this thread, the one thing I haven't seen mentioned much is slippery slopes - especially wrt "i only eat eggs from hens i raise, animals i kill myself OR even meat that is going to be thrown out, etc." There's probably a few people who can really stick to that way of doing things, but normalizing the consumption of meat typically leads eventually to being able to justify buying meat from the supermarket
Kezz
by eating a dog or cat?
Must people would not eat a baby, a dog, or a cat to solve a nutrition problem because that's obviously horrifying.
There is zero difference if instead the animal is a cow, pig or chicken. They suffer the same, we've just culturally normalised ignoring their suffering, just as many other forms of unjustifiable suffering have been normalised.
And it needs to be abnormalised again, immediately. @dualhammers
- 10/10
π
@freedcreative I appreciate your vehement and verbose perspective on this.
I probably should have added at the top the person in question only eats animals they personally fish or hunt. Only eat eggs from hens they raise.
There were lots of assumptions in your post about the classical version of who this person might be. Fair, assumptions, mind, but I figured I'd add that context.
Kezz
are only three reasons to eat animals:
1. I have no choice because of where I live
2. I genuinely didn't know how bad it was
3. My personal pleasure and convenience is worth the suffering and death of thousands
Everything else is just a blathering smoke screen for number 3.
As for amino acids, what if it was easier to get then from a two year old baby? They're less intelligent than an adult pig.
Or what if it was easier to get then @dualhammers
- 9/10
Kezz
Or, to address the fantasy land idea that's it's all okay if it's not a factory farm: Actually watch a sheep or a chicken or duck run for their lives and fight to not be killed by an oh-so-ethical hobby farmer. Watch the blood pour out of them, their skin pulled off, their organs pulled out, and their muscles sliced up.
These things are horrifying and, once seen, especially if in person, forever haunting.
I can't imagine anyone @dualhammers
- 7/10
Kezz
actually facing the reality of how animals are raised and killed for food and still being personally okay with it.
I think most people either refuse to look, or look and then suppress the memory.
The vast majority of people, if actually made to properly watch, learn about and fully come to terms with the horrors of animals-as-food, would never ever touch it again, let again make weak and inconsistent claims of "life cycle".
There @dualhammers
- 8/10
Kezz
trapoed and tortured animals killed a tenth of the way into their natural life span, are just making terrible excuses for behaviour they know deep down is horrifying and unjustifiable.
And it infuriates me.
This person needs to listen to a recording of the sound of pigs *screaming* and thrashing as they try to escape the "humane" and approved gas killing method.
Or to watch the heartbreaking footage of baby cows shunted down metal @dualhammers
- 5/10
Kezz
alleyways towards the blades that will end their short lives.
Or step into a chicken farm without a mask and see how long they can breath the ruined air before passing out.
Or actually spend time with an animal rescued from a farm, look them in the eye, and see first hand the suffering that has been heaped upon their defenceless little bodies. And that even after all that, many still come around to trust and affection for humans.
@dualhammers
- 6/10
Kezz
racism, sexism, and every other form of hierarchy based exploitation.
And people who use this weak argument inevitably only apply it to glossing over suffering they cause for personal gain.
If someone wants to take that position they better also relinquish everything in their life that doesn't fit the natural life cycle. Their car/public transport, electronics, medications, use of utilities, internet, agriculturally grown grains and @dualhammers
- 3/10
Kezz
vegetables, pre-packaged food, gas/electric stove to cook it on. Walk the talk.
If someone living a traditional pre-industry, pre-agriculture lifestyle wants to talk about living with the natural cycle, then okay. They're out in the natural environment, killing animals but living in a way in which they do not harm the natural environment. They are consistent.
But people who drive their car, in the city, to the supermarket to buy @dualhammers
- 4/10
Kezz
@dualhammers
I became vegan permanently when I watched my dog pass away. She was at the end of her life and sending her off was the ethical thing to do. But watching the light go out of her eyes took the death of non-human animals out of the abstract and into reality.
Her death was so terrible, even though it was her time and putting her to sleep was ethical, that it put it into stark relief how utterly horrible, unethical and - 1/10
Kezz
monstrous it was to wantonly take the life of little creatures just like her.
Not because they're sick or old. Not because we must for self defence or survival. But for pleasure and convenience.
The suggestion that taking lives when we have other choices is the "life cycle" is obscene and speciesist.
It suggests that our species has more inherent worth than every other, and that's the same profoundly flawed logic that gives us @dualhammers
- 2/10
Garrett
@dualhammers " (I read a lot, so I hope you enjoy folks who like talking about what they're learning)"
Dude that's 90% of what I'm hear for is to read what everyone is learning
π
@megabyteGhost the response I got yesterday suggests this is probably not a safe community to do that in, at least then it comes to thoughts or ideas that are out of step with the group
Garrett
@dualhammers Oh yeah 100%. I have been ripped a new one here* at least twice before.
*here meaning Mastodon not necessarily Merveilles
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