vegans be like "i am morally praiseworthy for only exploiting and killing other living things for my benefit if they are sufficiently unlike me that i cannot relate to them emotionally, which makes me different from meat eaters with a cannibalism taboo in kind not degree"
-
-
-
Replying to @gabrielamadej @chaosprime
because even if that was true, animal agriculture kills way more plant life than purely vegan agriculture ever could. 56 billion land animals is a lot to feed
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @gabrielamadej
why would that matter? is it possible to kill few enough animals for their meat for the practice to become ethical, without making the number zero?
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @chaosprime
if we reduce the meat/dairy industries to such a small scale that truly humane farming is possible, then they will become expensive delicacies and people will eat mostly vegan diets anyway
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @gabrielamadej @chaosprime
so that would still be a radical change in a positive direction. also: although we have zero reason to believe plant life is sentient, if it was the means by we which we grow/kill it is infinitely more humane
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @gabrielamadej @chaosprime
the most pressing problem with the meat/dairy industries is the extreme amount of suffering that animals go through in their lives, and the sheer scale of it (that 56 billion land animals die per year, most of them being tortured in horrible factory farm conditions)
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @gabrielamadej @chaosprime
there's another difference: giving up (or severely reducing) our meat and dairy intake is a trivial sacrifice to amend the suffering we cause, but giving up all food to save plant life is an extreme. suicidal sacrifice
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @gabrielamadej @chaosprime
so we can invoke a simple ethical principle: it is not right to cause extreme suffering to sentient beings for trivial benefits to us (such as our pleasure)
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @gabrielamadej @chaosprime
of course, we have no reason to accept the idea that plants are sentient because all we scientifically know about what causes mental states have to do with brains
2 replies 0 retweets 1 like
"sentient" means "having senses". plants demonstrably have senses
-
-
Replying to @chaosprime @gabrielamadej
popularly the word is used as if it meant what "sapient" means, but let's not feed into nonsense
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like - 8 more replies
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.