My response to a recent video by another youtuber - Roaming Millennial. She recently made a video discussing her problem with vegans and I wanted to respond to some of the points she’s made. (via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTORdbRFB6Y)
it is not death that is the ultimate suffering and worst thing that will happen to you, it’s how you die and what kind of life you lived
you can say “it doesn’t matter how well you treat the animal, you’re still killing them” but that comes from a completely ignorant ideology that 1. animals all have perfect happy lives in the wild and only die of old age happily like humans do in society 2. that animal agriculture has ALWAYS been about animals suffering and being exploited and humans gaining only good things from it, which isn’t the case.
for point 1, animals suffer a lot in the wild. they have disease, injuries, attacks, and high stress constantly for many of them. many farm animals are completely un-adapted to living outside of human care. we also lack the resources to just completely stop breeding and killing animals and just keep them all alive. we only have these populations of many animals for food. they would all quickly die long, complicated, messy deaths from starvation, disease, aggression, and over crowding.
and 2, animals have a lot to benefit from. you need to understand that in the wild they do not have safety, reliable food, and people to take care of them and prevent disease as well as giving them a place to safely reproduce. they don’t have that in the wild.
there are worse ways to die. and everyone will die. you can plug your ears and block it out because you don’t want to face the reality that EVERYTHING will die, including yourself, but it will. it’s a fact of life, not the opposite of it. if someone gave me a choice of living out harshly in the wild and dying of being hit by a car, or disease, or an animal ripping me apart and eating me alive, and a farm, i would chose a farm. i don’t want to die, but i’d rather live a fulfilling life and die with dignity than live painfully and afraid my whole life.
factory farms are not the only ways animals live. there are other ways we get animal products. i will oppose factory farming right with you but don’t you dare scream ‘cognitive dissonance’ at me. i know my steak is a cow. i see cattle all the time. i’ve touched them, seen them, and even smelled them all my life. i know it is a cow that has been walking around and living. the thought doesn’t scare me, because i am not afraid of death. the second you realize dying itself is not the worst thing to happen to someone or something, the sooner you can focus your efforts to end real suffering.
when you reply to a meat eater to point out the error in something they said/explain why said thing is wrong. just to discuss. and they get hella mad n start asking for proof of abuse in the industry and stuff
n whenever i show proof or make a valid point they reply to a different part of the conversation???? or make a whole new point???
lmao srry hun ur wrong, ur loosing, ur willfully ignorant and u know it. bye
Yesterday I went to dinner with Kirsten and her family. It was a VERY nice restaurant. (When I say very nice, really I mean expensive, but it's pretty much the same, right?)
Anyway. When we were talking about ordering Kir's grand pop asked me why I couldn't eat anything on the menu. I told him because I was vegan. Then he asked me what the difference between being a vegan and vegetarian was and I explained that while bot vegetarians and vegans do not consume any kind of meat, vegans also do not eat any type of animal by-product.
First he got a little defensive because everyone else at the table was also listening to our conversation, but he was genuinely curious, and so he continued to question me. "Why don't you eat cheese? You're not hurting the animal by eating it? Right? Won't the cow explode if you don't take the milk out of it?"
This made me laugh a little, and I felt kind of bad. I then shook my head no . I then asked him. "Cows don't just magically produce milk. Do you know how we get dairy cows to produce milk?"
He looked very puzzeled by this and then questioned me as to how... So I told him. "A cow must be pregnant to produce milk because her body naturally produces it for her calf, so when it is time they take a large needle with bull semen and inject it into the cow so that she remains pregnant and can continue to produce milk. They keep her in a cage about as long as this table where she can't move and they hook her up to machines to pump the milk out of her that is very painful for her utters."
I stopped there. I thought that was a good enough explanation. He was very shocked at the answer he had received, but it makes me happy that I could share a little bit of information with an older gentleman about the dairy industry at the dinner table.
He told me that made him sad and he felt bad. "Hey! Maybe I'll become a vegan!" He had noted at the end of our talk. It was cute, and I wish that it might be true, but he is a diabetic man who can not give up candy and as all meat lovers say. "I just love bacon. I couldn't do it. I really respect you though!"
He asked me where I get my "rules" for being a vegan and I told him mostly online. Then he turned to his girl friend and said "She's learnin' me! I'm learnin'!" It made me happy that he was able to keep an open mind and question me about it.
I was a bit scared coming on vacation as a vegan. People call you crazy, and I know that going out to restaurants with a vegan at places where they serve mostly meat can be very difficult, and embarrassing because it makes me seem like I am picky. Kir's family has been nothing but understanding and respectful of my decisions. I really appreciate that in such a large group of people; it is something to be treasured.
