Culture vs. Compassion: Does Culture Justify Eating Animals?
Culture vs. Compassion: Does Culture Justify Eating Animals?
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I'm native and I'm vegetarian, but mostly cause of the horrible, disrespectful way that mass meat production treats the animal's life and care. I have no problem with eating meat, if I hunted it myself, showed respect to the animal, and used as much of the animal as possible without wasting or returning the rest to the earth. Since I can't do that I just don't eat meat.
I love animals, but I know that we're all part of an ecosystem and eating meat is part of all human culture, not just mine, from long long before any of us. I don't think it's wrong to eat meat, it just sucks how easy it is to buy meat and not give a thought to how you got it and what it cost, beyond money.
That's a strange definition of love if it involves killing the individual you claim to care about. I don't think a person can love someone and then kill them unnecessarily. I don't think the length of time something has been happening makes it morally right or wrong. Slavery and colonization have been going on for long periods of time and most people recognize those might makes right practices as unethical. If there was another species that hunts, kills, and consumes humans, would you be OK being the victim if it was a part of their culture and in their same ecosystem?
If a lion ate me I would not be offended no. We're animals, part of the chain. We can choose to not eat animals. If I wanted beef I'd raise beef cattle but then I'd fall in love with the babies and never eat them, so I avoid meat.
To use a modern, Western, privileged, moral stance on something humans have been doing for millennia is just silly.
To use a modern, Western, privileged, moral stance on something humans have been doing for millennia is just silly.
You are diseased in understanding and religion.
Come to me, that you may hear something of sound truth.
Do not unjustly eat fish the water has given up,
And do not desire as food the flesh of slaughtered animals,
Or the white milk of mothers who intended its pure draught
for their young, not noble ladies.
And do not grieve the unsuspecting birds by taking eggs;
for injustice is the worst of crimes.
And spare the honey which the bees get industriously
from the flowers of fragrant plants;
For they did not store it that it might belong to others,
Nor did they gather it for bounty and gifts.
I washed my hands of all this; and wish that I
Perceived my way before my hair went gray!
Al-Ma’arri: AD 973 – 1058 A vegan Arab philosopher and poet who lived in what is Syria today
You are a modern human. Do you understand that?
Do you understand that poem was written by a vegan who lived over a thousand years ago?
That refutes your claim veganism is a modern moral stance since it's been practiced over a thousand years. There were practicing vegans in major world religions even before then.
I do know I'm a modern human. If you're implying that because I'm a modern vegan, veganism is a modern moral philosophy, that's like saying a Model T Ford is a modern vehicle if someone today drives one around.
There's no greater privilege than thinking you're so important as a human, a sentient beings whole existence is worth less than 15 minutes of your taste pleasure. That's actual privilege, most vegan staples (lentils, tofu, chickpeas) are cheaper and have more protein than animal products.
I'm actually a vegetarian, I don't eat animals. But I also dislike reactionary bullshit and lies
The dairy industry kills cows, the egg industry grinds up baby male chicks alive.
Some of the products you use kill people.
In any case I'm not against meat, I'm native and it's part of our culture, I will never say it's wrong. Waste is wrong though, and so is easy access to meat to the point where consumers don't even think about the sacrifice the poor animal made. If I hunted it myself, showed respect and didn't waste anything I would eat the meat.
By the way you're also assuming I buy those gross grocery store eggs, instead of buying the small local farm, Mennonite stuff. And I'm lactose intolerant so I drink oat milk.
I think your first point is an appeal to futility argument. It's also a good reason to be vegan as crop production to feed animals requires more labor, more injuries. In fact, slaughterhouses are some of the most dangerous places to work. Back to the victims though, there's no respectful way to kill someone who does not want to die - be it a deer or a human. It was part of white culture to wipe out indigenous people and own slaves and there were many whites in the civil war who died trying to protect the institution of slavery which was a part of their culture. Oat milk is based, I encourage you to go vegan.