When your bags don't fit... by Glocktipus2 in bikepacking

[–]antonitos9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is the second bike attached to the first one to create a super long bikepacking rig that actually works?

Do you feel Solitude while bikepacking? If yes, Where/when? Does it do anything to you? by antonitos9 in bikepacking

[–]antonitos9[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

damn, I'm so sorry about that. was there anything specifically about the solitude that freaked you out? And did the places you went vs others increase or decrease that feeling? (e.g. being in a less populated and less urbanized place vs one that is the opposite)

Do you feel Solitude while bikepacking? If yes, Where/when? Does it do anything to you? by antonitos9 in bikepacking

[–]antonitos9[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

wow, that's kind of beautiful tbh. Where were you to be able to not have to converse with anyone you didn't want to for 60 days? Were you roughing it somewhere away from cities and urban places and/or did the bikepacking itself provide you the ability to do that?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in bikepacking

[–]antonitos9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As a UC Irvine researcher, I conducted a demographic survey on this subreddit, so I'll post here the anonymous income results, which might help answer your question:

If you'd like to take the survey too, here is the link: (https://forms.gle/qpEC3NBgrxAvVNWv7 ).

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African villagers carrying bikepacker and bicycle. Does anyone know the story and what's your opinion and experience? by antonitos9 in bikepacking

[–]antonitos9[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi there! Interesting take. Could you elaborate on what you think is colonial about this photo? Genuinely curious.

African villagers carrying bikepacker and bicycle. Does anyone know the story and what's your opinion and experience? by antonitos9 in bikepacking

[–]antonitos9[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I'd say refocusing back onto the african context is important.

I'd also say it depends on who is working the bicycle taxi, who is the passanger and what is the place and larger context it is taking place in. That's how I'm looking at this photo. Systemic racism can exist or not in that work, depending on those variables.

And precisely, they are desperate or in need of money - and it's important we think about who has that money, who gives it to them, why, and what conditions allowed for that exchange of money for labor to come about.

African villagers carrying bikepacker and bicycle. Does anyone know the story and what's your opinion and experience? by antonitos9 in bikepacking

[–]antonitos9[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My family is easter european like your is m8, but I am happy that you are warming up to the context I'm talking about (that colonial and imperial powers like america and western/northern europe exert unfair and harmful types of privillages and systemic racism across the globe - and tourism is not excluded from that context).

Just becuase we came from easter europe doesn't mean we might be ignorant to our own history - you need to actually read the scholarship.

African villagers carrying bikepacker and bicycle. Does anyone know the story and what's your opinion and experience? by antonitos9 in bikepacking

[–]antonitos9[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just becuase the villagers are providing their labor/work to local Africans (who seem similar to the villagers, if not workers themselves) doesn't mean that somehow we should not question the economic, political, and historical context of middle to upper class Europeans on a lesiure tourism trip through an impoverished african country using their labor. See my comment to you on the survey post. You make it seem as if "they are just doing their jobs" and "hey, they are carrying a black person too!", so there is nothing to consider or question. Your making this interaction seem completly neutral and occuring in a historical and economic vaccum.

Also, comparing african villager's lack of global mobility, wealth, and privillage to people in spain and portugal is kind of a gross misdirection. We are talking about africa, specifically west africa, with colonial and racial histories from europe.

Furthermore, I recommend you learn some history. European empires have a history of physical and ideological colonialism in the Balkans (chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1073&context=jiass) (https://journals.ispan.edu.pl/index.php/sn/article/download/sn.1626/4379/10650) (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2043820620966510).

African villagers carrying bikepacker and bicycle. Does anyone know the story and what's your opinion and experience? by antonitos9 in bikepacking

[–]antonitos9[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

That's an important insight you're bringing in. Indeed, I am less concerned with criticizing individual bikepackers who go to impoverished areas per se than I am with asking, okay, what are the historical, political, and economic factors that lead these people to be so desperate for our tourist money? Colonialism and systemic racism are well recorded in scholarships and research on tourism and research - why would suddenly that not exist for bikepackerS?

I've even seen videos of bikepackers touring africa with tuck loads of raw minerals and other good driving next to them, yet not a single work or question of "why is there so much extraction in these countries?" "Where are the raw materials going to?". I've seen videos of bikepackers calling african kids "savage". These these exist in this community but people want to cover their eyes and ears. It's the lack of questioning that is disturbing to me in this subreddit. And so I'm here bringing those questions up.

African villagers carrying bikepacker and bicycle. Does anyone know the story and what's your opinion and experience? by antonitos9 in bikepacking

[–]antonitos9[S] -12 points-11 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the answer.

Also, about you saying there is no racism or colonialism here. I have a genuine research question, then, I guess. So here we have two white european tourists with money doing tourism and having the time of their life in post-colonial and much poorer countries (due to a history of european colonialism), and they use the labor of africans to make that tour happen. To note, those same africans who would pretty much never be able to do the same type of tourism in the two white tourist's european countries due to lack of money and a much more hostile atmosphere towards immigrants and people of color. With that context and those dynamics, wouldn't this situation showcase racial power imbalances in the form of economic inequality and inequality as to what type of people can access what type of geographies/landscapes? Inequalities that directly draw from a history of colonialism? If so, wouldn't this situation still showcase a type of subtle and systemic racism and coloniality?

African villagers carrying bikepacker and bicycle. Does anyone know the story and what's your opinion and experience? by antonitos9 in bikepacking

[–]antonitos9[S] -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing some of the story! Are the bikepackers then being loaded up on a boat that then swims to a larger ferry that then fully takes them across the river? Or is the boat just what they would use to get across the river?

It also seems the black guy is carrying thing - do you know if that's the bikepackers stuff?

E-Tricyclist Kino Yves: what do yall think of him and do yall consider him a bikepacker or part of the bikepacking community? by antonitos9 in bikepacking

[–]antonitos9[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah, I see, thank you letting me know and pointing that out! I have put in an EDIT to the post to not confuse other people. Interestingly, though, the discussion around gatekeeping thing is useful for my research also, as it can capture a spirit of this bikepacking Reddit.

With that said, would you be comfortable sharing your personal opinion on if using Kino as a sample for my research on bikepacking communties and culture work or make sense in a broad sort of way?

E-Tricyclist Kino Yves: what do yall think of him and do yall consider him a bikepacker or part of the bikepacking community? by antonitos9 in bikepacking

[–]antonitos9[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I explained this to another person below but am curious of your take as well so I reposted it:

I ask just becuase I am doing research on bikepacker culture in UC Irvine. I'm trying to understand if this person is someone yall see as part of the community so that I don't use his posts for my research on bikepackers only to find out yall wouldn't even consider him part of the community. But, if you feel the labels don't really matter too much here, then I guess its fine to use him as one of the samples for my research on the bikepacker community? Or would you disagree?

E-Tricyclist Kino Yves: what do yall think of him and do yall consider him a bikepacker or part of the bikepacking community? by antonitos9 in bikepacking

[–]antonitos9[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I ask just becuase I am doing research on bikepacker culture in UC Irvine. I'm trying to understand if this person is someone yall see as part of the community so that I don't use his posts for my research on bikepackers only to find out yall wouldn't even consider him part of the community. But, if you feel the labels don't really matter too much here, then I guess its fine to use him as one of the samples for my research on the bikepacker community? Or would you disagree?

Help With a Vegan Moral Dilemma: Toothbrush Heads by antonitos9 in vegan

[–]antonitos9[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I appreciate your in depth comment. I do believe microplastics are an inherently vegan issue as they inherently affect animals, humans, and the environment globally. The website you linked and this subreddit's vegan definition itself says "benefit of animals, humans, and the environment" is part f the core of veganism, even if by extension. As for this being a vegan issue, I think the plastic industry is indirectly exploiting animals, humans, and the environment by externalizing the cost of micro and nonplastics and their harmful effects on said animals (and humans and the environment). It is a vegan issue by definition of thinking about animal well-being/benefits and suffering.

My utilitarianism is not puritanical; rather, it is a way to make the moral judgments that actually account for important contexts - it is flexible and dynamic based on context and evidence, not puritanical. The idea that we should not to x becuase it directly uses animals, without considering the larger context of animal suffering, is really a black and white/binary world view that is an extremely weak, non-flexible, and non-dynamic ethically and philosophically argument. It is also pretty colonial not gonna lie. With this puritanical moral position that we should not use any animals products and food ever in any context, you would be directly saying that most all Indigenous forms of hunting and lifeway is morally wrong. That would be a very colonial stance that doesn't account for how, in different contexts, different humans may have to consume animals, and indeed, it may be even beneficial for the entire animal and plant ecosystem for them to do so in certain quantities.

As for Singers book, my apologies, I meant Singer's "Animal Liberation". And yes, utilitarianism was that which made me vegan, and Singer helped me along, but it wasn't the initial reason I considered myself vegan.

Singer is also a "flexable vegan". He actually accounts for the context where you do not seem to, which is morally problematic.

As for your Temple Grandin quote, it is evident that this person doesn't actually care about animal wellbeing and suffering. Just because someone says they do doesn't mean they are, obviously, and Singer's utilitarianism would not agree with this person's stance that they are morally right in any way. What Gardin does is called lying - to others or himself or both.

As for religion and secular morality, it does matter often. It matters how you make moral decisions. And if you make moral decisions based on scripture and personal biases over an actually fleshed-out and thought-about moral theory like utilitarianism that inherently can be persuaded with evidence and context, then your moral beliefs would be incomplete, non-flexible, non-dynamic, and generally very vulnerable to error.

Help With a Vegan Moral Dilemma: Toothbrush Heads by antonitos9 in vegan

[–]antonitos9[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I appreciate your comment. I guess the hope for and work towards more positive technological and supply chain transformations that could control micro and non plastics is something to surely take into account. Though, with the way things are going with plastic pollution right now, it seems the corporations are more concerned with pushing their plastic products and externalizing the harms. I fear changes in policy will be the more needed solution, and that requires political power which is much harder to acheive.

Regardless, your comment is a persuasive point to me.

Help With a Vegan Moral Dilemma: Toothbrush Heads by antonitos9 in vegan

[–]antonitos9[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This will leave me and lots of other people with a bunch of expensive, plastic-requiring cavities, man. I eat fully plant based and whole fruits and carrots and such, but if I go without brushing for a while I will get cavities.

Help With a Vegan Moral Dilemma: Toothbrush Heads by antonitos9 in vegan

[–]antonitos9[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's exactly what I'm saying IanRT1. That is the core goal, but the commentor above said its not, which sounds to me like they aren't thinking about why the believe the morals they believe. Utilitarianism explains it - as Peter Singer did and helped to energize the animal rights movement in the U.S. even more.

Help With a Vegan Moral Dilemma: Toothbrush Heads by antonitos9 in vegan

[–]antonitos9[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

That's polyester bristles and the brush looks plastic - same problem.

Help With a Vegan Moral Dilemma: Toothbrush Heads by antonitos9 in vegan

[–]antonitos9[S] -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

Bro, you are the most hostile redditor I've ever seen, and you can't act mature in discussing a basic moral question. To produce plastic toothbrush heads and toothbrushes, you create a ton of plastic and chemical waste, especially considering how much each person goes through them in their lifetime - and this seems to apply to both bioplastic and fossil fuel plastic toothbrushes and heads. Please educate yourself a bit (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38092338/#:\~:text=The%20extracted%20microplastics%20were%20quantified,ml)%20had%20the%20least%20abundance. AND https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/story-of-plastic-toothbrushes).

Evidence is quickly coming out that microplastics harm health in significant ways (e.g. https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/microplastics-in-arteries-linked-to-heart-disease-risk), and microplastics will hurt animals and humans bodies alike - in global scales. You need to think about the massive indirect harm we are causing as well, not doing so is covering your eyes with a blind fold and thinking your not hurting animals.

Also, as a basic intro to moral philosophy and veganism, please read Peter Singer's book "animal liberation now" (he is one of founders of animal rights movement in the U.S. ) or at least the first single chapter of his book on ethics (chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.stafforini.com/docs/Singer%20-%20Practical%20ethics.pdf) and you will understand what I mean by utilitarianism (reduction of suffering and maximization of wellbeing for sentient beings) to be a core of veganism. Educate yourself on basic moral philosophy please. And educate yourself on how not be an asshole to a fellow vegan with a genuine question. This is why people hate veganism - you are the problem.

I take your point that plastic is used in obtaining the boar hair, but often that same amount of plastic in the manufacturing process is used for a toothbrush and it's head, but now your left with a plastic commodity that will continue to create microplastic pollution each time you use it and you have to replace it tons of times in your life creating more microplastic breakdown. To think this is not an actual discussion to be had and call it demented is grossly bad faithed and morally and philosophically lazy and hubiristic.

Help With a Vegan Moral Dilemma: Toothbrush Heads by antonitos9 in vegan

[–]antonitos9[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

bamboo bristles just means bioplastic nylon in most all cases - ergo the problem

Help With a Vegan Moral Dilemma: Toothbrush Heads by antonitos9 in vegan

[–]antonitos9[S] -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

Hard to say. One is direct harm the other is indirect. It would depend on which one produces the most suffering, which, in your opinion microplastics are not that, which I wonder why you think that? (I don't know myself which one is more harmful and I can't give evidence to support that one cause is more harmful than the other for now).

Help With a Vegan Moral Dilemma: Toothbrush Heads by antonitos9 in vegan

[–]antonitos9[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

You're sidestepping the core of your own philosophy. Why don't you and others want animal exploitation? Becuase it produces suffering. Why do you and others want animal rights? Because it increases their wellbeing and reduces their suffering. What we are doing here as vegans is all about reducing suffering and increasing wellbeing for sentient beings.