a few years old but still actual...
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Fluoro
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Wow that was depressing. I'm a pesco-vegetarian (fish is the only meat I eat) but I've been trying to go vegan lately. Today I lost control and bought tuna and cheese to make a pasta. After watching this I think I might have to give my tuna and cheese to my flatmate.
Thanks for sharing that. Very affecting.
Thanks for sharing that. Very affecting.
Reckon this thread will die a fast death from proselytizing, but oh well...
Recognize a video like this represents only a portion of the worst cases in the factory food system. Used to work in some sectors of it. I've been in slaughter houses that looked nothing like these - clean and well-sanitized where animals are quickly dispatched and processed. I've been in farms where animals aren't overcrowded and enjoy their full cowness/pigness/chickenness. I've also been in operations just as bad or worse than anything shown above. Also recognize that even factory fruits & veg aren't without significant 'unsavory' visuals (human cost of transient harvesting labor, 'organic' use of manure that hasn't cooked long enough, overuse of fertilizers, immersion in chemical after chemical after chemical, misguided transgenetic alterations, etc). Just choosing to be vegetarian isn't enough to instantly absolve a member of human society from any part in our relative communal wrongdoing. Like anything people require, food is very politicized - the current factory system has only emerged in the past half century largely from the unholy union of corporation and government.
That said, the best way to help a system die is simply to not take part in it. There are alternatives and significant benefits in supporting or BEING small local farmers and taking responsibility over your own food. Anybody that has a lawn or even a few potted plants can have a garden, or fruit trees, or berry bushes, designed to require minimal input depending on the design. Pigs are not difficult to raise. Chickens especially are simple to raise and process - where they're 'allowed.' Zoning laws, HOAs, and the like are largely stupid. Why a person would limit themselves or their neighbors from feeding themselves from their own land is a complete mystery and despite its nicely edged, landscaped, chem-green appearance, far more of a horror in what we've become.
Recognize a video like this represents only a portion of the worst cases in the factory food system. Used to work in some sectors of it. I've been in slaughter houses that looked nothing like these - clean and well-sanitized where animals are quickly dispatched and processed. I've been in farms where animals aren't overcrowded and enjoy their full cowness/pigness/chickenness. I've also been in operations just as bad or worse than anything shown above. Also recognize that even factory fruits & veg aren't without significant 'unsavory' visuals (human cost of transient harvesting labor, 'organic' use of manure that hasn't cooked long enough, overuse of fertilizers, immersion in chemical after chemical after chemical, misguided transgenetic alterations, etc). Just choosing to be vegetarian isn't enough to instantly absolve a member of human society from any part in our relative communal wrongdoing. Like anything people require, food is very politicized - the current factory system has only emerged in the past half century largely from the unholy union of corporation and government.
That said, the best way to help a system die is simply to not take part in it. There are alternatives and significant benefits in supporting or BEING small local farmers and taking responsibility over your own food. Anybody that has a lawn or even a few potted plants can have a garden, or fruit trees, or berry bushes, designed to require minimal input depending on the design. Pigs are not difficult to raise. Chickens especially are simple to raise and process - where they're 'allowed.' Zoning laws, HOAs, and the like are largely stupid. Why a person would limit themselves or their neighbors from feeding themselves from their own land is a complete mystery and despite its nicely edged, landscaped, chem-green appearance, far more of a horror in what we've become.
At one end of the spectrum we have sociopaths. They have no emotions and therefore don't feel bad if they kill someone. At the other end of the spectrum we have vegans. They have so many emotions they feel bad if they eat meat, but that's not enough they want to stop you from eating meat as well. In the middle are people with enough healthy emotions to realize it's wrong to kill people and perfectly natural to eat meat in moderation.
While I understand your point, your stated dichotomy isn't perfect... Nazis, the poster-folk for sociopathy, had some of the first laws against animal cruelty and humane livestock slaughter - Hitler himself was an on-again, off-again vegetarian. There are plenty of other examples of vegan sociopaths through time.
Even non-apologetic omnivores would (or even should?) have a problem with the practices depicted in the OP's vid link, because like all propaganda, it picks out the absolute worst of the worst and/or miscontextualization to stand representative for the whole system. I don't think I've ever seen a PETA-ish video expounding upon the 'horrors' of the hunter-gatherer tribes in the Kalahari, for instance - their methods and situation are easier to empathize with, though they're eating meat all the same. That willingness to construct straw men, overgeneralize, and lie to achieve one's philosophical goals might itself be considered sociopathic.
TO BE PERFECTLY CLEAR, I am NOT saying that vegetarians are Nazis and sociopaths in any way, nor that omnivores never propagandize, nor any other thing that is patently wrong.
I don't believe Nazis were sociopaths. That's more of a societal disorder. I think a lot of Nazis did have PTSD and real emotional scars from the war. I was talking a more about serial killers.
PETA is like many organizations, they start with a reasonable agenda something most people might agree on as merely a stepping stone to their real agenda. If they could PETA would outlaw the consumption of meat, no matter how humane.
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