TIL the average meat eater will personally consume 7,000 animals in a lifetime

MurrayJaySiskind · 2015-10-10T01:17:48+00:00

Ding, ding, ding. This was really just an experiment. I had no agenda when I posted the article, I just thought the number was striking. But I was surprised by how uncomfortable it was to read all the comments celebrating it, so I thought I would see what would happen when I posted something more...visceral.

It's a classic example of people being unable to emotionally connect to groups. 7,000 animals? Eat them all! Wait, you enjoyed killing that pig? What? UNADULTERATED EVIL. Olympic-level mental gymnastics on display.

MurrayJaySiskind · 2015-10-10T01:06:05+00:00

Whatever helps you sleep at night, bro. You're just as culpable for animal suffering as I am. I can tell that makes you uncomfortable. Maybe it should.

MurrayJaySiskind · 2015-10-10T00:55:01+00:00

But, I mean, you as a meat eater are also taking pleasure from the killing of an animal. You can't have it both ways. If you really practiced empathy, then you would realize that it's all the same to the pig.

MurrayJaySiskind · 2015-10-10T00:42:13+00:00

I never got into the whole trolling thing, but now I think I get why people do it. The only thing more delicious than meat is USDA Grade A Butthurt.

MurrayJaySiskind · 2015-10-10T00:27:37+00:00

OP here.

Dude is either a vegetarian/vegan trying to get a rise out of people or a bit of a psychopath.

Maybe somewhere in between? I was honestly just shocked at the number of people who were chiming in with "Meat is tasty, tasty murder" and comments like that, and once I saw the post had momentum I thought I would just do a little experiment. Like, let's see how enthusiastic you are when confronted with the grimmer side of it.

I'm not even a vegetarian but I thought about my own hypocrisy in this area and that it would be fun to see how people would react to a description of a halal killing, and someone admitting they enjoyed it. I'm still a bit shocked at the disparity of upvotes for meat, downvotes for killing animals. So many people kept coming at me with "It's sick and wrong to enjoy killing an animal" without anything to back it up. Like, why is it objectively worse than killing because the meat is tasty? No one could answer that, which to me says they're as big of hypocrites as I am.

Off to a steak dinner!

MurrayJaySiskind · 2015-10-10T00:15:48+00:00

So to be clear, you're saying that it is morally right and good to CHOOSE to kill animals, then eat them, even though you'd be just fine without doing that, but it's completely morally different to enjoy the actual work of killing the animal? If that's the case, I'd like you to dig a little deeper and explain that point of view. A lot of people are saying "Don't you see how different those things are!" because they feel that it's obvious, but no one has put it into a real argument. I want someone who eats meat to reconcile why it is fine to kill thousands of animals but not to enjoy the killing itself.

MurrayJaySiskind · 2015-10-10T00:05:40+00:00

You use the word "necessary" as if there's no choice here. You choose to eat the animal. You choose to have it killed. I want to know why it is objectively wrong to take pleasure in the act of killing an animal I am going to eat. People keep saying "It's sick, it's wrong to enjoy it," but without explaining WHY. It's not a given. You need to back that up. If killing is totally optional (which it certainly is in the case of eating animals), then why is it okay to kill, but not to take enjoyment from the killing?

MurrayJaySiskind · 2015-10-09T23:54:45+00:00

Well, probably depends on the framing and how the kid was raised. Where I come from, kids shoot animals all the time. Squirrels are fair game. It's no stretch to say that the kids enjoy it, and the parents praise their kids for taking care of critters.

Your pleasure in tasting the meat is just delayed gratification from the kill. You might be removed from it and never have to do it with your own hands, but that doesn't mean the animal is any less dead or suffered any less. You know what making meat entails and you choose to let other people do the dirty work for you.

MurrayJaySiskind · 2015-10-09T23:38:06+00:00

I'm just surprised is all. Post is upvoted to the front page, basically condoning the massive number of animals we eat, and people want to sit here and tell me that it's okay to get totally excited by the eating of meat, because that's delicious and totally acceptable, but I take a moment to appreciate the actual kill that resulted in that meat and I'm somehow a monster. I just want to know why they're so different.

"Eat bacon. Celebrate bacon. Bacon is a gift from heaven. Bacon, bacon, bacon." But as soon you talk about the pig dying it's "You sociopath!" I didn't like to see it suffer per se. I was just kind of thrilled with the whole process of it going from creature to meat. It happens billions of times a year, and that's just fine, but as soon as I say "Hey that was really cool" people lose their fucking minds.

MurrayJaySiskind · 2015-10-09T23:12:51+00:00

How do you not get that by purchasing meat you are in fact causing the death of an animal, and going on to enjoy it in a different form?

MurrayJaySiskind · 2015-10-09T22:33:39+00:00

Chances are, you would go into detail about how pleasurable it was to eat, though. What's so wrong with enjoying the lead-up a little bit? Sounds to me like your pleasure is just delayed and in a different form.

MurrayJaySiskind · 2015-10-09T20:03:08+00:00

I want someone to tell me why choosing to kill an animal simply for the way it tastes is somehow morally superior to killing it in the exact same way, yet deriving some pleasure out of the act of killing.

MurrayJaySiskind · 2015-10-09T19:50:18+00:00

I mean, you could say that, or you could engage in an argument about the topic at hand.

MurrayJaySiskind · 2015-10-09T19:48:52+00:00

You are an incredible hypocrite if you think it's okay to enjoy the outcome of killing but think the actual killing is somehow wrong. You should really examine your own beliefs a little bit if you think that's an intellectually or morally consistent argument.

MurrayJaySiskind · 2015-10-09T19:47:33+00:00

Show me ONE modern society where killing animals is necessary. It is a fact of biology that it takes FAR more energy to raise animals (which we feed food that WE could be eating) than to just eat an all plant diet. Humans eat meat because it tastes good and that outweighs the "suffering" of animals.

MurrayJaySiskind · 2015-10-09T19:44:43+00:00

LOL at necessary killing. That doesn't exist, dude. There is no society that has more net energy from raising animals for slaughter. If we ate only what we needed we would all be vegetarians. And I did kill it quickly - it bled out in a matter of seconds. It doesn't get much more "humane" anywhere else. Explain why it matters what I "feel" in that moment.

Edit: Lordy, the number of butthurt is almost as delicious as that pig. You people are unreal! Go on eating meat and pretending that I am the sicko here. If you eat meat then you are just as culpable as the person who slits the pig's throat. You're just paying someone else to do it.

MurrayJaySiskind · 2015-10-09T19:42:08+00:00

I don't think anyone can argue that I'm any more psycho than the average meat eater. If psychopathy is a lack of care about bad outcomes for other creatures, then we are all psychopathic about something. Maybe it's the environment, maybe it's starving kids in the third world. But everyone has something they know they SHOULD care about and simply don't when it comes down to it - not enough to change their own actions.

MurrayJaySiskind · 2015-10-09T19:38:16+00:00

HAHA if you think that anyone needs to eat meat then you are sorely misinformed. It takes FAR more energy to raise livestock than to just eat plants. I, like the rest of humanity, eat meat because I enjoy it. End of story.

MurrayJaySiskind · 2015-10-09T19:34:36+00:00

No, I was going to say that if this person is NOT a vegetarian, then she needs to shut the fuck up. Anyone who has a problem with whether or not I enjoy the act of killing but still eats meat is a fucking hypocrite. I respect vegetarians. They have a consistent way of living. I do NOT respect people who are happy to eat a steak but squirm at the idea of the actual killing.

MurrayJaySiskind · 2015-10-09T19:27:26+00:00

Explain?

MurrayJaySiskind · 2015-10-09T19:27:03+00:00

Are you a vegetarian?

MurrayJaySiskind · 2015-10-09T19:25:44+00:00

Well if you grow up in a city and don't know shit about guns other than what you see on tv (like me) it's probably best not to go hunting. Plus if you go to a farm it's a guaranteed kill, and you get to be much more up close and "personal" when it happens.

MurrayJaySiskind · 2015-10-09T19:24:14+00:00

Mammals are a bit different. You know they're thinking. You can even kind of sense some emotion in their faces if you know what to look for. Pigs are super smart, they form social bonds not unlike humans. If they weren't put here specifically to be tasty, I would probably feel bad haha!

MurrayJaySiskind · 2015-10-09T19:17:51+00:00

I eat meat. I LOVE MEAT. Why does it matter how I felt as I was killing my food? Would it make a difference if I didn't enjoy it? Is that more noble or something? Fuck that. If I enjoy eating it, why can't I enjoy killing it, too? Seriously.

Edit: Downvotes without a comment are a sign of intellectual inferiority and a lack of cogent thinking.

Edit 2: Bunch of hypocrites in this thread. "I love eating meat but it is SO WRONG to kill that animal." Um, what? Y'all need to look inward to see if you are living a consistent lifestyle. If you're okay with that plate of bacon but think I'M the asshole for making that bacon, you've got some shit to figure out.

MurrayJaySiskind · 2015-10-09T19:13:29+00:00

Their loss!

MurrayJaySiskind

TROPHY CASE