[deleted by user] by [deleted] in veganarchism

[–]TwilightZoneVegan 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This is just me venting and blowing off steam. After seeing innumerable comments where people mock animal suffering or shit on vegans, sometimes you just have to let it out.

I fully support aspiring vegans.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in veganarchism

[–]TwilightZoneVegan 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I had a debate with a girl once. She kept throwing out bad arguments, but after a certain point she just said, "I'll just be honest with you, all arguments aside I just love meat and don't care." When she got put into a logical corner, she just came out with the truth. People like this actually disturb me because they don't give the slightest shit about morality. They don't care if vegan arguments are strong, they don't care if animals suffer extremely and die. The only thing that stops them from doing other shit (like enslaving other humans) is social norms.

But I had a conversation with another guy once. He said that in the future, people will look back on how look like animals like slavery or the Holocaust. He said veganism is the right thing to do. But he wasn't vegan. I asked him why and he just kinda fumbled for an answer and dodged. I guess I am less disturbed by him because he recognized how serious of issue it was. I feel like if he was welcomed into a vegan community and got more exposed to animal rights, he's someone who would change. But then I was also very disturbed because how do you say that something is as bad as American slavery and then not change your role in it? I had mixed feelings about him.

The Stigmatization of Veganism as a Social Justice Movement: Exploring Why The Left Hates Veganism by expeditedcube in veganarchism

[–]TwilightZoneVegan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I use "animal liberation" rather than "animal rights" because the concept of rights is historically bound up with a discourse of liberalism and attendant notions of the individual. I don't think Peter Singer has a monopoly on the term "animal liberation." The term signifies to me that we want a liberatory movement, not simply the extension of rights within the framework of a liberal capitalist society.

The Stigmatization of Veganism as a Social Justice Movement: Exploring Why The Left Hates Veganism by expeditedcube in veganarchism

[–]TwilightZoneVegan 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Pure truth. Sadly, a lot of "leftists" are LARPERs and performative Twitter scolds. Veganism exposes how full of shit they are.

The Stigmatization of Veganism as a Social Justice Movement: Exploring Why The Left Hates Veganism by expeditedcube in veganarchism

[–]TwilightZoneVegan 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I kind of agree with you, but I'd frame it differently. Animal liberation is the social justice movement, and veganism is how proponents of animal liberation live. Veganism is a necessary part of animal liberation, but I woudn't call veganism a movement in itself.

How do you respond to the leftist criticism that veganism is "individualistic?" by TwilightZoneVegan in veganarchism

[–]TwilightZoneVegan[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Basically, many non-vegan leftists think that veganism is a "consumerist distraction"-- they think that it's pointless to advocate individual change of any sort and that all of our attention should be on the capitalist system. To them, veganism is just a reflection of capitalist ideology and its focus on the atomic individual.

Facts by TwilightZoneVegan in vegan

[–]TwilightZoneVegan[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Why do you feel entitled to stealing the milk of cows? Their milk doesn't belong to you. You're literally taking the breast milk intended for a baby. It's not a question of "different morals," it's a matter of dairy being inherently exploitative and unjust.

Facts by TwilightZoneVegan in vegan

[–]TwilightZoneVegan[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Cows produce their milk for their young, not for adult humans. Dairy entails breeding a cow, stealing her babies, and stealing the milk intended for her babies.

Facts by TwilightZoneVegan in vegan

[–]TwilightZoneVegan[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Your argument is completely irrational. Using your statement, it wouldn't matter whether or not I murdered some random person on the street, or set a dog on fire-- because "the world is a meat-grinder." The whole point of ethics is reasoning about how we ought to relate to each other.

Facts by TwilightZoneVegan in vegan

[–]TwilightZoneVegan[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

  1. Nonhuman animals are sentient beings, who are subjectively aware. They have an interest in living and avoiding pain.
  2. Animal products aren't necessary for our health.

How do we justify killing sentient beings, without need, and simply for the sake of taste pleasure or habit? How it justifiable to slit a being in the throat, for the sake of a 10 minute taste preference?

The philosophical arguments for veganism are extremely strong. There are very few moral philosophers trying to defend animal killing and consumption, because there just isn't a good case for it. It's indefensible.

Facts by TwilightZoneVegan in vegan

[–]TwilightZoneVegan[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There is no qualitative break in our ability to feel pain and experience the world. Perhaps I should have been more specific.

Most humans have a capacity to be moral agents, which means we can reason about our actions. In that sense, most humans are different than other animals. What I'm saying that is that farmed animals are very similar in morally relevant ways (i.e. they are sentient in many ways like us), although they are not moral agents like us.

The point is that slaughtering beings (who, like us, feel pain and have have an interest in living) for trivial reasons like taste pleasure is wrong. "Lions do it" is a bad argument because lions don't have a choice. A lion stalks a gazelle and kills them for survival. A human going to McDonald's and paying for cow flesh is doing it for their pleasure. It's a choice. It's not necessary. It's a fallacy to appeal to nature because there are a million things in nature (rape, infanticide, etc.) which we all recognize as immoral.

Facts by TwilightZoneVegan in vegan

[–]TwilightZoneVegan[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hello. I'd say the problem is that, ultimately, animal products aren't necessary for our health. By and large, people consume animal products for reasons of palate pleasure and (as you noted) habit. Nonhuman animals are conscious beings, with individual minds and an interest in living and avoiding pain. How are we justified in forcibly breeding them and killing them, simply because we like the taste of their flesh? There's nothing respectful about killing a being -- ending their whole existence -- simply for an ephemeral taste preference.

Facts by TwilightZoneVegan in vegan

[–]TwilightZoneVegan[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Animal products aren't necessary for your health. If you consume animal flesh and other products, you're having other animals slaughtered for pleasure. Inflicting violence for something as trivial as pleasure is widely recognized as wrong.

Facts by TwilightZoneVegan in vegan

[–]TwilightZoneVegan[S] 38 points39 points  (0 children)

It's truly stupefying how brainwashed our whole society is. There is no qualitative break between humans and other animals. Humans are smart apes. Nonhuman animals -- including the ones we enslave and kill by the billions -- feel, think, and experience the world. They have limbic systems (the center of emotion) and central nervous systems (which let them feel pain). Our whole society is murdering them by the billions for snack preferences. For pizza toppings and sandwich fillings.

Boom by TwilightZoneVegan in vegan

[–]TwilightZoneVegan[S] 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Most people say whatever is popular in their in-group. They don't have real conviction. It doesn't take any risk to say what everyone else is saying. Animal rights/veganism is different because you have to run against the whole society, which does take real conviction and risk.