I eat meat, and I don’t have a problem with it, because I basically don’t much care about animal suffering. I mean, people shouldn’t torture kittens, intensive animal farming is pretty unaesthetic, and I wouldn’t eat primates, but that’s about the extent of my caring. I am not interested in inquiring into the source of the animal products I eat or use, except as far as it may affect my own health. If countries want to have laws against animal cruelty, fine, but it’s not a cause I have any motivation to take up myself. I am especially uninterested in engineering carnivorous animals out of existence, or exterminating ichneumon wasps, or eschewing limestone because it’s made of dead animals.
Which I mention because it’s a viewpoint I do not see expressed much. Am I an outlier, or do people uninterested in animal welfare just pass over discussions such as this?
It’s the common viewpoint, outside of over-intellectual insanely rich discussion groups. It doesn’t get discussed much because there’s no need to defend it—just go on with your life. And because there’s a subset of vegetarian and vegan proponents who will be uncomfortable around such arguments, and that may make you uncomfortable as well.
I eat meat. I eat factory-farmed meat. I do care about animal suffering (and animal joy and the question of “what’s a net-positive life?” for all things). I weight my caring by some high-order function of complexity of mind-space, so I care FAR FAR more about the least human than I do the most exalted cow, and I care about diversity in experience-space, so I care for a marginal factory animal (who’s extremely similar in experience to all the others) less than a wild animal or a pet.
I think it is more common to have the attitude that they are not prepared to sacrifice their health and vitality for claimed animal welfare.
Don’t tell me vegan diets are healthy. Without supplements you will die. That is the good news, Because you will first go mad (from B12 deficiency). And many other problems… was a vegan myself for a while many years ago, never again.
I eat meat, and I don’t have a problem with it, because I basically don’t much care about animal suffering. I mean, people shouldn’t torture kittens, intensive animal farming is pretty unaesthetic, and I wouldn’t eat primates, but that’s about the extent of my caring. I am not interested in inquiring into the source of the animal products I eat or use, except as far as it may affect my own health. If countries want to have laws against animal cruelty, fine, but it’s not a cause I have any motivation to take up myself. I am especially uninterested in engineering carnivorous animals out of existence, or exterminating ichneumon wasps, or eschewing limestone because it’s made of dead animals.
Which I mention because it’s a viewpoint I do not see expressed much. Am I an outlier, or do people uninterested in animal welfare just pass over discussions such as this?
It’s the common viewpoint, outside of over-intellectual insanely rich discussion groups. It doesn’t get discussed much because there’s no need to defend it—just go on with your life. And because there’s a subset of vegetarian and vegan proponents who will be uncomfortable around such arguments, and that may make you uncomfortable as well.
I eat meat. I eat factory-farmed meat. I do care about animal suffering (and animal joy and the question of “what’s a net-positive life?” for all things). I weight my caring by some high-order function of complexity of mind-space, so I care FAR FAR more about the least human than I do the most exalted cow, and I care about diversity in experience-space, so I care for a marginal factory animal (who’s extremely similar in experience to all the others) less than a wild animal or a pet.
I think it is more common to have the attitude that they are not prepared to sacrifice their health and vitality for claimed animal welfare.
Don’t tell me vegan diets are healthy. Without supplements you will die. That is the good news, Because you will first go mad (from B12 deficiency). And many other problems… was a vegan myself for a while many years ago, never again.
Supplements are part of a person’s diet. Vegans who don’t take B12 are being stupid.