You could ask the same question about all sorts of parasites (ticks, tapeworms, etc.), but I think the answer is pretty clear. It’s not the conundrum you think it is, and the vast majority of people correctly see no contradiction between killing a mosquito that’s on their arm drawing blood and agreeing that mosquitoes are a relevant part of the ecosystem that should not disappear entirely.
Animal rights people saying you cannot kill mosquitos for ethical reasons is such a small minority, I guess it must be lower than 0.0001%
Most vegans and vegetarians I know choose that lifestyle because they see a problem in the ecological and environmental implications of eating meat and for political reasons of how animals are kept.
Have you seen how intensive animal farming works in practice? Even as a meat eater one must admit the conditions are cruel. I don’t think we do this with mosquitos.
It’s not really that complicated. I think most people feel that we shouldn’t toruture animals. It’s just that a small part realize what is happening to the animals that we eat and they don’t want to be part of that system anymore. The others just look away but they actually feel the same about how we should treat animals. “Animal Rights People” are not some “hard to understand” people.
Why mosquitoes? Cats are right there. They’re obligate carnivores.
But I don’t see that as the point, the point is that we as an (supposedly) intelligent species can choose not to murder a quarter of a billion chickens every 24 hours, and that we can replace what nutrients we get from meat with mineral, plant or fungi alternatives.
That entire line of reasoning only works if the person you’re talking to already considers meat consumption to be inherently cruel.
While those people certainly exist, trying to convince them to be vegan is a form of, "Preaching to the choir.
I’ve never seen accusations of cruelty change anyone’s behavior. I’ve personally gotten many people to reduce their meat consumption through dialog (and cooking *).
Look up the guy who is generally credited with convincing the most KKK members to quit the Klan and how he did it.
Daryl Davis. The main message to take away from his work is to get to know people. I’m commenting on an anonymized forum. I will generally never know if I’m about to speak with an adult, a child, a paid actor, an expert, a liar… I’m not going to use him as an excuse to not say anything. Generally discussions on social media seem pointless when it comes to changing minds, given that there is even less room for empathy than in a real life conversation, but I think they can be informative for people who are not directly involved but are rather just scrolling through to get a feel for others’ opinions. And there’s always a chance you come across someone who has never critically examined their stance and remains open minded enough to do it now.
Plus, I’d love to know! I’d hate to trigger someone by saying something like “another ~10,000 acres of the Amazon rainforest were clear cut today because you can’t stop eating burgers!” So I just need to know what phrases to avoid. It’s a shame to never know :^)
I forgot to note why I put a * on “and cooking” before.
I absolutely eat meat. I eat all kinds of meat. I eat more kinds of meat that most people are comfortable with. I also eat a much lower quantity than most people from developed countries.
One of my favorite foods is Wienerschnitzel. It’s made from veal and if anyone tried to give me a guilt trip over that, I’d laugh at them, loudly and in their face.
My sister is Vegan and rather than give me shit, she just eats vegan food. So I developed a 100% vegan Wienerschnitzel recipe that is almost indistinguishable from the real thing. I wash flour into wheat gluten (seitan) and flavor it with vegetable broth. Then I roll them out in a pasta roller until they’re the size of tenderized veal. Pick your favorite vegan egg subsitute (it just needs to be sticky), bread it, and fry it up.
I was willing to try a lot of vegan and vegetarian food because it was presented in a positive way. If someone had tried to guilt trip me and insist that I’d go 100% vegan I would just have written them off as a crackpot and never even listened to them.
There’s a difference between protecting yourself from a parasite species which spreads deadly diseases and torturing an intelligent being for no reason. Happy animals taste better, you know.
You were so close, and then fumbled at the last sentence. It doesn’t matter what they taste like, you’re literally just describing torturing them for fun with different words.
I don’t feel 100% confident in the idea that everyone can be vegan. I do encourage everyone to consume as little animal products as is realistic for them, but not everyone is interested in doing so. If the pig has to die I would rather it live a happy life than for it to sit in cramped conditions or a solitary cell with no physical or mental stimulation.
What I mean is that I don’t have any control over whether it dies. People want to eat it, and they are not amenable to the idea they shouldn’t. But they are amenable to the idea that it shouldn’t be tortured beforehand. Reduction of harm is always good even if it’s not perfect.
I also said I’m not sure that it’s possible for everyone to live healthfully without consuming some animal products. I personally haven’t been able to maintain a vegan diet for longer than two months any of the many times I’ve tried, so I’m not in a position to lecture anyone on what they eat.
Overall, I think a baby steps approach is the most realistically achievable path to a potential future of zero harm. (I don’t say vegan here because I don’t object to symbiotic forms of exploitation such as pet ownership or beekeeping.)
FYI, the user you’re arguing with is a <1d account that has only posted in this thread. I appreciate the effort you’re putting in, for those of us who have a very limited palette of what their body will tolerate. But don’t wear yourself out on an ableist troll.
Meats and cheese are like 10 things. There are thousands of edible plants and fungi to choose from. In the overwhelming majority of cases, this sort of argument is just a lazy rationalization so people can avoid grappling with the consequences of their actions.
It is similarly not ableist to condemn kidnapping people to forcibly harvest their organs for transplants.
They don’t necessarily need to be trolling. I completely understand the passion and don’t exactly disagree with them. Most people aren’t consuming meat as a necessary evil; they’re often consuming it in excess because it’s enjoyable, even when they already understand the horrors of factory farming. It’s upsetting and frustrating and I just want to do what I think is most likely to improve the situation.
Gee gosh what a clever point that nobody has thought of before. You’re the first one! Those silly animal rights people should just give up everything they believe in now that you’ve totally destroyed the logic of what they’ve thought about way to much compared to how much you’ve thought about it. You’ve exposed their hypocrisy. If they can’t do everything exactly perfect, what’s the point of trying to make anything better, right? Anybody that aims for anything less than extremism doesn’t really exist anyway; everybody thinks in black and white. Thank you thank you thank you for your thoughtful contributions on this subject that turns out to be really simple. Everybody else that allows for any sort of nuance is dumb compared to you with your single clever point that brings the whole thing down. Why would anybody even bother going any deeper into this than you already have since you’ve solved the whole thing?
This isn’t really the gotcha you think it is. Killing mosquitos is self defense, it isn’t comparable in any way to killing innocent animals which have done nothing to you.
In many places mosquitos are not dangerous and are at most annoying. Can I kill an animal because it’s buzzing by my ear? Or should I capture and let it outside?
That’s the point, cats and mosquitoes are both animals, but not comparable in the care we have for one of the other, both for affection and simply for how differently complex they are, not becuase we kill mosquitoes in self defense. I don’t knkw much about the vegan phylosophy, but is a mosquito at the same level as a cat? If eating cow patties is offlimits, would mosquito patty also be considered meat?
Most people care more for a mammal than other animals as they are closer related to us. Same way you generally care more about a family member getting in an accident than a stranger. However the vegan philosophy doesn’t dictate anything about this hierarchy. It boils down to: if someone can suffer and feel pain (aka most animals) you should not inflict that on them.
The food industry is usually the main topic as humans can just eat plants (say all major dietician organizations) but instead we gas pigs to death and put chickens in tiny cages their entire lives out of habit, or utter disregard for how they experience that. But the vegan philosophy also rejects animal testing and using an animal purely for entertainment (think zoos).
Wonder what animal rights people think about mosquitoes…
Jainism. It’s ancient and worried about small lifeforms we can’t see since before we identified bacteria or used a microscope.
You could ask the same question about all sorts of parasites (ticks, tapeworms, etc.), but I think the answer is pretty clear. It’s not the conundrum you think it is, and the vast majority of people correctly see no contradiction between killing a mosquito that’s on their arm drawing blood and agreeing that mosquitoes are a relevant part of the ecosystem that should not disappear entirely.
Animal rights people saying you cannot kill mosquitos for ethical reasons is such a small minority, I guess it must be lower than 0.0001%
Most vegans and vegetarians I know choose that lifestyle because they see a problem in the ecological and environmental implications of eating meat and for political reasons of how animals are kept.
Have you seen how intensive animal farming works in practice? Even as a meat eater one must admit the conditions are cruel. I don’t think we do this with mosquitos.
It’s not really that complicated. I think most people feel that we shouldn’t toruture animals. It’s just that a small part realize what is happening to the animals that we eat and they don’t want to be part of that system anymore. The others just look away but they actually feel the same about how we should treat animals. “Animal Rights People” are not some “hard to understand” people.
Who wants to eat mosquitoes anyway
Dragonflies.
Didn’t know dragonflies participated in the human rights debate
They are staunchly anti human rights
Why mosquitoes? Cats are right there. They’re obligate carnivores.
But I don’t see that as the point, the point is that we as an (supposedly) intelligent species can choose not to murder a quarter of a billion chickens every 24 hours, and that we can replace what nutrients we get from meat with mineral, plant or fungi alternatives.
mUrDeR
People like you are why vegans/vegetarians have such an uncalled for bad rep.
Interchange for any fitting synonym for murder. Slaughter for example. The meaning is the same and so is the outcome
Do you have a preferred term that helps you disassociate from the cruelty your lifestyle inflicts behind closed doors?
There is a word for it, it is slaughter.
No need to try to be condescending.
sLaUgHtEr
:^)
Remember, there is laughter in slaughter 🥳!
That entire line of reasoning only works if the person you’re talking to already considers meat consumption to be inherently cruel.
While those people certainly exist, trying to convince them to be vegan is a form of, "Preaching to the choir.
I’ve never seen accusations of cruelty change anyone’s behavior. I’ve personally gotten many people to reduce their meat consumption through dialog (and cooking *).
Look up the guy who is generally credited with convincing the most KKK members to quit the Klan and how he did it.
Daryl Davis. The main message to take away from his work is to get to know people. I’m commenting on an anonymized forum. I will generally never know if I’m about to speak with an adult, a child, a paid actor, an expert, a liar… I’m not going to use him as an excuse to not say anything. Generally discussions on social media seem pointless when it comes to changing minds, given that there is even less room for empathy than in a real life conversation, but I think they can be informative for people who are not directly involved but are rather just scrolling through to get a feel for others’ opinions. And there’s always a chance you come across someone who has never critically examined their stance and remains open minded enough to do it now.
Plus, I’d love to know! I’d hate to trigger someone by saying something like “another ~10,000 acres of the Amazon rainforest were clear cut today because you can’t stop eating burgers!” So I just need to know what phrases to avoid. It’s a shame to never know :^)
can you show me on the map, and tell me the name of the logger?
I forgot to note why I put a * on “and cooking” before.
I absolutely eat meat. I eat all kinds of meat. I eat more kinds of meat that most people are comfortable with. I also eat a much lower quantity than most people from developed countries.
One of my favorite foods is Wienerschnitzel. It’s made from veal and if anyone tried to give me a guilt trip over that, I’d laugh at them, loudly and in their face.
My sister is Vegan and rather than give me shit, she just eats vegan food. So I developed a 100% vegan Wienerschnitzel recipe that is almost indistinguishable from the real thing. I wash flour into wheat gluten (seitan) and flavor it with vegetable broth. Then I roll them out in a pasta roller until they’re the size of tenderized veal. Pick your favorite vegan egg subsitute (it just needs to be sticky), bread it, and fry it up.
I was willing to try a lot of vegan and vegetarian food because it was presented in a positive way. If someone had tried to guilt trip me and insist that I’d go 100% vegan I would just have written them off as a crackpot and never even listened to them.
What’s his name?
Daryl Davis.
I’m neither vegetarian nor vegan. I even worked in a slaughterhouse a few years back. I’m just saying we are smart enough to make ethical choices.
False flag! /s
There’s a difference between protecting yourself from a parasite species which spreads deadly diseases and torturing an intelligent being for no reason. Happy animals taste better, you know.
You were so close, and then fumbled at the last sentence. It doesn’t matter what they taste like, you’re literally just describing torturing them for fun with different words.
I don’t feel 100% confident in the idea that everyone can be vegan. I do encourage everyone to consume as little animal products as is realistic for them, but not everyone is interested in doing so. If the pig has to die I would rather it live a happy life than for it to sit in cramped conditions or a solitary cell with no physical or mental stimulation.
But it doesn’t. Why assume killing animals for pleasure must be done?
What I mean is that I don’t have any control over whether it dies. People want to eat it, and they are not amenable to the idea they shouldn’t. But they are amenable to the idea that it shouldn’t be tortured beforehand. Reduction of harm is always good even if it’s not perfect.
I also said I’m not sure that it’s possible for everyone to live healthfully without consuming some animal products. I personally haven’t been able to maintain a vegan diet for longer than two months any of the many times I’ve tried, so I’m not in a position to lecture anyone on what they eat.
Overall, I think a baby steps approach is the most realistically achievable path to a potential future of zero harm. (I don’t say vegan here because I don’t object to symbiotic forms of exploitation such as pet ownership or beekeeping.)
FYI, the user you’re arguing with is a <1d account that has only posted in this thread. I appreciate the effort you’re putting in, for those of us who have a very limited palette of what their body will tolerate. But don’t wear yourself out on an ableist troll.
Meats and cheese are like 10 things. There are thousands of edible plants and fungi to choose from. In the overwhelming majority of cases, this sort of argument is just a lazy rationalization so people can avoid grappling with the consequences of their actions.
It is similarly not ableist to condemn kidnapping people to forcibly harvest their organs for transplants.
They don’t necessarily need to be trolling. I completely understand the passion and don’t exactly disagree with them. Most people aren’t consuming meat as a necessary evil; they’re often consuming it in excess because it’s enjoyable, even when they already understand the horrors of factory farming. It’s upsetting and frustrating and I just want to do what I think is most likely to improve the situation.
Damn that’s crazy, I don’t see anything to indicate that anybody asked. Lemmy must be having some federating issues.
Had me until the last sentence.
No animal deserves to die when humans can get all of their nutrition from fruits, vegetables, mushrooms, nuts, seeds, legumes, and algae.
Except for B12. But then again, most omnivores are deficient in B12 too, and magnesium, zing, K2, etc.
Thankfully going vegan likely means you eat last processed food and more real food, which increases vitamin intake.
Gee gosh what a clever point that nobody has thought of before. You’re the first one! Those silly animal rights people should just give up everything they believe in now that you’ve totally destroyed the logic of what they’ve thought about way to much compared to how much you’ve thought about it. You’ve exposed their hypocrisy. If they can’t do everything exactly perfect, what’s the point of trying to make anything better, right? Anybody that aims for anything less than extremism doesn’t really exist anyway; everybody thinks in black and white. Thank you thank you thank you for your thoughtful contributions on this subject that turns out to be really simple. Everybody else that allows for any sort of nuance is dumb compared to you with your single clever point that brings the whole thing down. Why would anybody even bother going any deeper into this than you already have since you’ve solved the whole thing?
This but unironically.
This isn’t really the gotcha you think it is. Killing mosquitos is self defense, it isn’t comparable in any way to killing innocent animals which have done nothing to you.
In many places mosquitos are not dangerous and are at most annoying. Can I kill an animal because it’s buzzing by my ear? Or should I capture and let it outside?
Neighbours cat meowed at my window, just as annoying as a mosquito if not more. Clearly that’s a justified kill then.
That’s the point, cats and mosquitoes are both animals, but not comparable in the care we have for one of the other, both for affection and simply for how differently complex they are, not becuase we kill mosquitoes in self defense. I don’t knkw much about the vegan phylosophy, but is a mosquito at the same level as a cat? If eating cow patties is offlimits, would mosquito patty also be considered meat?
Not critisizing, just curious
Yes, insects are animals and their exploitation and/or killing is therefore rejected under veganism.
Most people care more for a mammal than other animals as they are closer related to us. Same way you generally care more about a family member getting in an accident than a stranger. However the vegan philosophy doesn’t dictate anything about this hierarchy. It boils down to: if someone can suffer and feel pain (aka most animals) you should not inflict that on them.
The food industry is usually the main topic as humans can just eat plants (say all major dietician organizations) but instead we gas pigs to death and put chickens in tiny cages their entire lives out of habit, or utter disregard for how they experience that. But the vegan philosophy also rejects animal testing and using an animal purely for entertainment (think zoos).
Got it. I’ll eat the next big cat that attacks me in the savannah.
But yeah, animals doing animal things I guess.