• toomanyjoints69
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    1 year ago

    I cant really empathize with animals like how i can people. I hit possums with my car on the way to work all the time (once a month or so). Its unavoidable because they charge into the road and its too windy to move out of the way usually.

    If i hit even one person id never live with the guilt and quit my job. Its unfair to expect 1 possum to equal 1 human. I understand you dont expect that. However, how many possums would i have to hit before it was enough for me to care much? It would have to be like when the cicadas come out - piles and piles of them for miles. I just value my husband having nice things more than the lives of those rodents, even though i like rodents a lot.

    So the meat industry is basically a giant concentration camp of suffering, but im unsure if the suffering outweighs all the workers it employs, or evsn ths fact that they taste good.

    At the same time, their suffering has value. Im excited for clone meat and i eat a lot of vegetables. It could easilly be that i cant empathize with them because of class consiousness similar to poor roman citizens not caring about the plight of slaves.

    So, if veganism benefitted my class id be more enthusiastic in becoming a vegetarian instead of just using meat in moderation. It would have to be something about how me not eating meat or doing local activism for animals helps. I cant change society and me not buying meat wont actually help animals.

    For example, my local activism was beneficial to people like me because it gave them a support network and community.

        • MattsAlt [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          Said this elsewhere before, communists will pull out every liberal excuse when being criticized from the left about veganism.

          “They’re mean” “Acktshually it’s not as good for x as you think” “What about x group of people that this will impact” (who haven’t even expressed opposition or concern about the issue) “You just care too much”

          Same vibes as supposed progressives who are sharing pro-Israel PragerU vids after criticizing PragerU on other topics.

          Ideally every comrade is vegan, but if for whatever reason you cannot be or are working towards it then at the absolute least you can support those who are and accept that it is the morally correct position instead of all this hoop jumping

          • SixSidedUrsine [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            Same vibes as supposed progressives who are sharing pro-Israel PragerU vids after criticizing PragerU on other topics.

            Ideally every comrade is vegan, but if for whatever reason you cannot be or are working towards it then at the absolute least you can support those who are and accept that it is the morally correct position instead of all this hoop jumping

            this

            Sorry for the cliche response, but really. This.

            order-of-lenin

            • MattsAlt [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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              1 year ago

              Can you explain how the continued mistreatment and exploitation of animals is moral?

              Would you make the same claim if this were instead some trans rights debate and I claimed supporting trans people is the morally correct position even if you are certainly Cis and do not know a single trans person?

              It’s not a 1:1 analogy for sure, but I think it captures a similar idea

                • MattsAlt [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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                  1 year ago

                  Ah I got ya. To be honest I’m not very well read on the topic, but I do believe there are such instances.

                  What is the reasoning in there not being an objective moral position on anything?

                  • a_blanqui_slate [none/use name, any]@hexbear.net
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                    1 year ago

                    What would it mean for there to be objective moral facts? It would mean that there are true moral statements that live outside of every cultural framework in some sort of transcendent manner, and to arrive at those moral facts would require an individual be able to step out of their subjective, culturally inculcated existence. And as well all know, subjectivity is not the sort of thing you can just step out of.

                    When you start talking about objective moral facts, you can start talking about societies that fail to adhere to those moral facts as being deficient. And from there it’s a quick hop skip and jump to genocide. Which is how this has played out historically.

    • artificialset [she/her, fae/faer]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      So the meat industry is basically a giant concentration camp of suffering, but im unsure if the suffering outweighs all the workers it employs, or evsn ths fact that they taste good.

      it’s okay that sentient beings suffer because you think they taste good. you must realise how genuinely fucked up that thought is, right? what gives you any right to decide your favourite treat is more important than a life? animals feel pain. they have wants that aren’t purely instinctual. their right to autonomy is more important than your desire for treats or a paycheck for workers - paycheck that comes at a heavy price, mind you. a job that requires mass killing has negative psychological and sometimes even physical effects on people.

      at the end of the day, we’re leftists because we believe that pushing suffering on the innocent is wrong. pigs, cows, chickens have done nothing to deserve death. buying their corpses to eat is completely out of step with the values communists and anarchists claim to hold.

      • CarbonScored [any]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        My leftism is about better human social organisation for every human’s benefit and reduced suffering. Beyond the practicality of ensuring a sustainable planetary ecosystem, it has nothing to do with other animals.

        • SixSidedUrsine [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          “My leftism has nothing to do with empathy or recognizing the suffering of others, it has only to do with benefiting those that I deem enough “like me” to be worth my consideration! Leftism is all about making things better for me and my kind! No, that’s not reactionary! I’m not a chud! I’m a leftist, really!”

          • CarbonScored [any]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            Feel free to go and busy yourself making the world better for rocks or something? You draw your own line at making the world better for things that sufficiently ‘like you’, too. I deem humans sufficiently ‘like me’, and there are plenty practical reasons for encompassing all humans in a just world, too. You just deem animals also sufficiently ‘like you’, but I don’t personally see sufficient reasoning to extend that far.

            • artificialset [she/her, fae/faer]@hexbear.net
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              1 year ago

              you really need to self crit and think about why you think beings only like you deserve safety and freedom from oppression. that really is so incompatible with everything we talk about here

              • MattsAlt [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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                1 year ago

                “Oppression and subjugation of a living thing is fine so long as it can’t speak to me and tell me it doesn’t like it. Extra points if it’s tasty!”

                • 1simpletailer@startrek.website
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                  1 year ago

                  There is actually adequate scientific evidence that many animals have a much greater awareness and emotional intelligence then we often attribute to them, this includes most if not all of our domesticated animals. You could argue that the act of meat eating isn’t in itself amoral, but the mass suffering facilitated by the conditions within the meat industry certainly is. Not to mention the conditions it subjects its workers to. There is no ethical industrialized meat consumption.

                  • robot_dog_with_gun [they/them]@hexbear.net
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                    1 year ago

                    Not to mention the conditions it subjects its workers to. There is no ethical industrialized meat consumption.

                    yes, the labor conditions are something that harms people, especially in slaughterhouses.

                  • robot_dog_with_gun [they/them]@hexbear.net
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                    1 year ago

                    idk, what does “feel” mean? the ones with nervous systems and appropriate receptors probably have a stimulus response. do they have an experiential self that sits in that stimulus and dwells on it like people? do they have opinions about pain?

                • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                  1 year ago

                  pure idealism

                  Says the ideologically pure antinatalistic clown that declared that all life that has been should never have been and that everyone alive today should not exist because they didn’t sign a consent waiver before being born and that no future life should be born either, all while trying to justify “fuck you got mine don’t tell me what to doooooooooooo” takes on everything from speed limits to dae le epic bacon. 🤡

                • Maoo [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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                  1 year ago

                  Recognizing the capacity of animals to understand and suffer is basic science, not idealism. People with pets understand this and we know they should protect the health and well-being of the animals they keep. In fact, they often support laws requiring that pets are treated well enough.

                  But the moment it’s a designated food animal, this goes out the window and brains shut off.

                  So anyways are you gonna eat dogs and cats or are you an “idealist”?

            • SixSidedUrsine [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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              1 year ago

              It has nothing to do with where I personally draw the line, asshole. It has everything to do with the scientifically established reality about who is capable of suffering. Rocks can’t. Cows, pigs, etc. can. Just because your sphere of empathy is arbitrarily drawn to reinforce what’s convenient for you doesn’t mean that by necessity everyone else is so shallow, cruel, and morally inconsistent.

        • seeking_perhaps [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          Animal agriculture is a disgustingly exploitive industry with awful environmental practices. Even if you only care about the human side of it you should want it to end.

        • artificialset [she/her, fae/faer]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          if your empathy and concern for suffering ends at humans, i don’t think you’re a proper leftist and you should take your belief in autonomy and freedom from oppression to it’s logical conclusion (animal liberation)

        • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          ok when are we embracing antinatalism?

          “Until and unless a magic post-birth consent machine can be invented, no one should ever have been born and no one should ever be born in the future. Also, DAE le epic bacon and speeding car go vroom vroom don’t tell me what to dooooooooooooooooo” morshupls

            • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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              1 year ago

              I get that you believe that no human life (and all life on the planet) can attain your arbitrary standard of ideological purity, and therefore you believe billions (and all life itself both in the past and in the future) should not exist, but that’s clownish navel-gazing to me with a deeply anti-life core to it.

              All things considered, I’m glad I am alive. I wouldn’t have wanted some clown like you preventing me from even having the choice to make that after-the-fact decision to like being alive, all because of your own ideology purity crusade. hypersus

              EDIT: And all of this from a sanctimoniously ideological purist that also preaches extraordinarily selfish “big car go vroom vroom don’t tell me what to doooooooo” takes in other threads. 🤡

    • Pili [any, any]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      im unsure if the suffering outweighs all the workers it employs, or evsn ths fact that they taste good.

      The workers employed in that industry very often end up with PTSD because of all the horrors they experience every day. Stopping the support for the animal holocaust is the best way to help those fellow workers possibly find a better job in the processing of plant based food, possibly saving their lives.

      And yes, the suffering of others absolutely outweighs 15 minutes of sensory entertainment, how is that even a question?

      veganism benefitted my class id be more enthusiastic in becoming a vegetarian

      My first point already explained why it benefits your class, but I will also add that a vegan diet is the single most impactful thing someone can do to reduce their carbon footprint. So, if your class will suffer from climte change (it will) then going vegan is a necessity.

      And also this: Veggie-based diets could save 8 million lives by 2050 and cut global warming

      • robot_dog_with_gun [they/them]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        My first point already explained why it benefits your class, but I will also add that a vegan diet is the single most impactful thing someone can do to reduce their carbon footprint. So, if your class will suffer from climte change (it will) then going vegan is a necessity.

        the idea of the personal carbon footprint is propaganda created by BP to distract from real environmental issues, much like the idea of the litterbug was corporate propaganda created to distract from actually meaningful pollution by industry.

        • Pili [any, any]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          Yes, the personal carbon footprint is tiny compared to corporations, but that shouldn’t be an excuse not to care about our individual impact. Getting people invested in the problem of the climate crisis is essential to get some regulations from our governments. We will get nothing if everyone just doesn’t seem to care.

        • Pili [any, any]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          The collective is composed of individuals. It’s evident that the collective will never form if every individual is too lazy to make tiny adjustments.

          • toomanyjoints69
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            1 year ago

            I disagree as collective action is not made up of individualist decisions. Its made up of individual ones. The individuals get together and decide to go on strike at the same time for example. They dont all just individualisticly decide to stop working until there is a domino effect.

            Im saying that its a waste of time to be an individualist vegan. If it matters to you so much, join a radical animal rights group like elf or peta. They are doing collective action. Ive always felt like PETA wasnt that bad, tbh. They at least do something.

            If you believe that animal slavery is at all morally similar to human slavery, then you might want to dedicate your life to becoming farm Spartacus. That isnt me mocking you, but an actual suggestion.

            I know all about how frustrating it is to be the only who cares about something. So even though i dont care about animals like humans, i respect that you might.

    • BelieveRevolt [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      So the meat industry is basically a giant concentration camp of suffering, but im unsure if the suffering outweighs all the workers it employs, or evsn ths fact that they taste good.

      Very good utilitarian way of thinking you’re employing here, which can be used to justify everything else too very-intelligent I know slaves are suffering, but their suffering doesn’t outweigh the money they’re bringing to the empire, or even the fact that the shirt made from the cotton they picked is nice.

      • toomanyjoints69
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        1 year ago

        Thats what i was saying. It was the whole point. The question is if animals should be emoathized with in the same way historical slaves are.

        I dont participate in online debate. Im more stating what i believe along with potential flaws in order to see if my mind can ever be changed. Its not really my job to convert people to how i think.

        • SixSidedUrsine [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          All you’ve done is admit that you think the suffering of others is fine and “worth it” for the tasty results, so long as those who are suffering are sufficiently different than you.

          The question is if animals should be emoathized with in the same way historical slaves are.

          That’s a slimy phrasing the question in a way that immediately lets you off the hook for your choice to ignore and perpetuate suffering because it makes it seem like the question of non-human suffering hinges on non-humans being “the same as” human slaves. It’s the old “well, obviously pigs and cows aren’t quite as intellectually complex as humans therefore anything we do to them for the sake of humans enjoying treats is fine. What, do you think pigs and cows should be able to vote or learn to read?

          In other words, the answer to your question about whether we should empathize “in the same way” is no, not the “same way,” but we absolutely should and must empathize with them as fellow sentient beings capable of emotions, joy, suffering, pleasure, pain just like humans, and recognize that the way we torture and murder billions of them every year for profit (and “taste”) is one of the greatest crimes in the history of our species.

          Your entire premise of who deserves your empathy is still based on how much someone is “like you” in whatever arbitrary ways that allow you to maintain the distinctions you’ve already made based on your comfort and convenience. And that part is the same as slave owners who would make similar arbitrary distinctions about how “different from themselves” their victims are.

          Yes, sentient beings deserve your empathy. It’s not at all a difficult conclusion to reach if you have any interest in being honest with yourself.

          • toomanyjoints69
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            1 year ago

            I dont really think i agree with that. What i said doesnt have much to do with what you think my motives are. Im sure it has something to do with someones tho, so its not a worthless comment.

    • Bassword@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      Animal agriculture is horrible for the environment so arguably a vegan diet helps all classes.

      • (Vegetarian here that only eats honey and eggs from a local farm but still feels bad about it) Western animal agriculture is bad, no doubt. I am totally convinced that a society which has animals as a part of a whole healthy environment in like a permaculture+animals sharing the space society can eat animal products and possibly even the animal in cases where it’s healthiest for the entirety of the society including animals (think here of removing a male lion to allow a healthier population in total, but for goats that have been milked but live normal and free/safe lives). This would likely be temporary before becoming unnecessary if we reach a point past scarcity of proteins/foods. Max Ajl talks about this often (though he can be a bit chuddy about it, he’s trying to protect pastoralists with it I think)

      • toomanyjoints69
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        1 year ago

        That seems really vague to me. A lot of things are bad for the environment.

        I could see how it would be bad for the world, so the magical make the world vegan button would be pressed. I simpky see no reason to become vegan, or personally participate in any activism that helps animals.

        • Bassword@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          How is it vague? Animal agriculture is one of many things that are bad for the environment. Reducing these bad things is good for the environment. A good environment is good for people, including you, your community, your class, and everyone else.

          Individuals are only going to have a microeffect but it’s still an effect for good overall.

          • toomanyjoints69
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            1 year ago

            I dont think the microeffect is worth it and im philosophically against individualist solutions

            • NewAcctWhoDis [any]@hexbear.net
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              1 year ago

              I dont think the microeffect is worth it and im philosophically against individualist solutions

              I take it a step further and think everyone should do as much harm to the environment as they can, individually.

              • toomanyjoints69
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                1 year ago

                Lol when u change the oil on your ford f150 pour out half thr oil on the ground. Remove the cat converter and drive without a muffler.

      • toomanyjoints69
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        1 year ago

        I live in a very rural area with way too many becauss the local law makes hunting them illegal to punish rednecks because thats what progressive politicians waste their time on here - murals and attempts to ban hunting anything but deer. Nothing that actually helps people.

        • WafflesTasteGood [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          Possums are generally a benefit to the environment.

          If you have a lot of them that just means they have a lot of food. You probably don’t want to get rid of them

    • Abraxiel@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      Possums are marsupials, the only marsupial native to North America, actually. Just a fun fact.