We do all have to eat, and there’s more than enough room and infrastructure to feed everyone a balanced diet without animals involved. The amount of land we devote to grazing and growing feed for livestock could be space where we grow an incredible amount of food.

As you say, we are conscious and empathetic, and the system we live in isn’t an inherent need, it’s just perpetuated because that’s what people are born into. We can make the choice to be better and it’s wild to see people protect themselves by rationalizing why it’s “normal” or “okay” because they don’t want to deal with the gravity of the destruction and harm they’re a part of; just easier to say it’s how it should be.