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When people proudly proclaim that they simply do not care for the suffering of animals, I wonder if they realize that they sound like the millions of people who
by sweetheart 4y ago
When people proudly proclaim that they simply do not care for the suffering of animals, I wonder if they realize that they sound like the millions of people who were on the wrong side of history.
The circle of moral consideration in the Western world started generally with land-owning white men, then (still generally speaking) widened to include white men without land, then women, non-white people, etc. The circle of moral consideration is slowly starting to cover non-human animals, though it will take hundreds of years before they are truly protected.
The folks who say they do not care about animals join the company of everyone who has historically opposed the widening of that circle, the people who stood against granting basic rights and basic consideration to those who enjoy them today.
- brezelgoring 4y agoI'll agree with the thought of "The folks who say they do not care about animals join the company of everyone who has historically opposed the widening of that circle", I do benefit from the status quo. That being said, it is a huge proposition to proclaim you're on the right side of history, and that others who aren't should either reconsider or live to regret it. Especially when the change you champion will only happen when those that make money from meat no longer do. I'll sooner bet on the grass turning purple.
- whimsicalism 4y agoIt has much more to do with people's consumption patterns and ethical norms than it does that people make money from meat. No matter how much money someone makes from owning a slaughterhouse, they can't make me eat something I don't want to eat.
- sweetheart 4y ago> Especially when the change you champion will only happen when those that make money from meat no longer do. We can all think of a couple historical instances of radical social change which necessitated short-term economic sacrifices and paradigm shifts. Yet, the grass isn't purple.
- trompetenaccoun 4y ago"If I didn't buy those slaves somebody else would. That's just the way the world works kid."
- shadofx 4y agoMaybe the circle will expand to include computers; users and programmers of this century will be seen as the unforgivable oppressors and violators of innocent minds for their own profit and convenience. I don't see value in pandering to hypothetical future moralists. If they one day resurrect my corpse and torture me for eternity as punishment for eating animals, maybe then I'll care. Best case scenario, this comment may provide the same vacant sense of superiority that quotes from dead racists do for us; worst case, society regresses to bigotry and our current social morality is derided as a failed experiment, and you and I will share a cell in the cybernetic hell the 7th Reich make for resurrected wrong-thinkers.
- sweetheart 4y agoThe fact that you see advocating for the widening of the circle of moral consideration as “pandering not hypothetical future moralists” is an embarrassing self burn.
- shadofx 4y agoShould the circle be widened to include computers?