Honestly, if someone is truly aware of the horrors of the animal agriculture industry and is totally fine with it, I would be very, very surprised. I have never experienced anyone who genuinely thinks it’s okay. Most people take the position of, “yeah, it’s really terrible and I don’t like it, but…” which I have to live with because that’s most people, but even most of the people who agree it is terrible don’t really know the full truth and often they don’t want to let themselves find out, because they know in their heart if they truly understood how horrific the industry is, they would feel terrible every time they ate.
If someone genuinely thought it was OK, I would assume that they’re a sociopath. Not even in a bad way, necessarily, I have friends who are sociopaths, but I think that’s basically the only way you can lack the empathy.
For the follow-up question, there are a few reasons, I’ll outline a few of them, happy to discuss further, if you have questions then let me know.
An ethical electronics industry is possible, whereas an ethical animal agriculture industry is impossible.
It’s easy to live a full modern life avoiding animal products. It is impossible to live a full modern life avoiding electronics.
The horrors of the electronics industry take place in third-world nations where we have very little influence over their laws. The horrors of the animal agriculture industry take place in our back yards where we can influence the law.
I’m not saying that vegans shouldn’t advocate for ethical manufacture and disposal of electronics, I believe wholeheartedly that we should. But it’s impossible to have an entire industry for making baby animals, fattening them up, and slaughtering them so that we can make money from people who wish to consume their corpses. It is fucked up on the face of it. Melting metal, pouring it into moulds to make circuitry, etc. doesn’t hurt anyone directly, it’s capitalism and the drive for maximal profits which cause issues in electronics. I’m a huge proponent for the abolition of capitalism for this reason too.
It does and your points are valid, but i’ll respond to a couple if you don’t mind.
Honestly, if someone is truly aware of the horrors of the animal agriculture industry and is totally fine with it, I would be very, very surprised.
As would i (outside of the sociopath possibility you also mention) , i was thinking more along the lines of people who fully understand and then accept it as something they can live with.
The comparisons of the meat industry to electronics i mostly agree with, except for this last part, not because it’s incorrect as such, i just didn’t provide enough context.
Melting metal, pouring it into moulds to make circuitry, etc. doesn’t hurt anyone directly, it’s capitalism and the drive for maximal profits which cause issues in electronics. I’m a huge proponent for the abolition of capitalism for this reason too.
I mentioned electronics because it’s easy for people to at least shallowly understand how much they use them, what’s not so obvious is the horrors of how they are produced, in a similar way to how people as a whole don’t really understand how the meat industry is run.
Long before the metal pouring and assembly you have the rare earth elements industry that uses horrific limb-removing slave work camps to extract these minerals. it’s not all of them, but it’s significantly more than zero.
There are also cartel like warlords involved in some of the extraction sites.
Think of it as a similar situation to conflict diamonds, but more entrenched and critical to nation state interests.
I mentioned cobalt because it’s the easiest to find credible documentaries, reports and discussions about, but it’s not just cobalt.
Honestly a lot of the big industries are supported by modern day slavery and inhumane conditions or experimentation, i would also assume that extends to the non-human animals as well but i can’t honestly speak to that.
Textiles (clothes, shoes, trainers), agriculture (avocado’s have cartels because of course they do, coffee), pharmaceuticals, non-meat food (chocolate for example).
I keep coming back to the phrase “There is no ethical consumerism under capitalism” which aligns with your stance on the abolition of capitalism, but i tend to think of it as there is no ethical consumerism in general (at least right now) because i can’t think of a way we could ethically overcome the sheer density of population using the level of logistical technology we have available and that’s not even taking into account the (subjective) apparent nature of how human’s deal with such large populations.
But me not being able to see how we make the jump from now to a post scarcity, fully equitable society is almost certainly just a failure of my imagination.
My main question is how do people seem to be able to decide they can live with limbless kid electronics but slave labour clothes are too far, cartel avocado’s are an unfortunate necessity but meat is monstrous.
I understand that not all of those things are equal and battles need to be picked but it doesn’t seem like the subjective severity is the deciding factor and how are the battles picked.
Thanks for the reply and for your ongoing civility, I really appreciate that you seem genuinely interested in having a conversation about this.
You don’t need to explain to me about the horrors of the electronics industry, I’ve been an activist opposing extractive industries since my teen years, but of course I’m glad you’re raising awareness of it. Heck in my recent comment history I was talking about how I am opposed to EV vehicles and advocating for (green) hydrogen fuel cells due to rare earth extractionism.
I believe that extractionism can never be perfect (i.e. it will always cause some harm) but it’s possible to have a mining industry without slavery, murder, etc. and which is ran as ethically as possible to minimize harm on individuals and the environment. As I mentioned in my last comment as well the disposal and recycling of electronics is a massive issue which also needs to be addressed, as well as disposable/single-use electronic products and planned obsolescence.
On the other hand, animal agriculture NEEDS animals to die, and it needs them to die on such a scale that we NEED an industrial approach. I think you could make a pretty compelling argument that an individual hunting animals to feed their family is somewhat ethical (this isn’t my position btw, just making the point for the sake of discussion), but that can’t really scale up and remain ethical. At a certain point you need to keep the animals in shitty living conditions because otherwise the supply/demand curve would make animal products inaccessibly expensive for regular consumption.
My main question is how do people seem to be able to decide they can live with limbless kid electronics but slave labour clothes are too far, cartel avocado’s are an unfortunate necessity but meat is monstrous.
For electronics, I think the biggest reason is the second one I mentioned: it’s not really possible to avoid them. Personally I always try to buy everything second hand that I can, especially electronics, but I don’t think it’s really fair or sustainable to expect everyone to do that, someone has to buy it new to begin with.
A better comparison is blood diamonds. They’re entirely optional and the ethical alternative is widely available and cheaper. I think you’d be well within your rights to say that a vegan who insists on blood diamonds is hypocritical. I don’t think a vegan using a second-hand cellphone is hypocritical. If they always buy the latest phone I would say that’s back to being hypocritical again.
And yeah, scale is a big factor. Over 150,000,000,000 animals are slaughtered in the animal agriculture industry every year. The scale is beyond staggering. Since becoming vegan nearly six years ago, according to the Cowculator app, my personal consumption has resulted in:
8,727,645 fewer litres of water used
42,783 fewer kilograms of grain used
5,842 fewer square meters of deforestation
19,015 fewer kilograms of CO₂
2,096 fewer animals slaughtered
The animal agriculture industry is one of the most polluting, most wasteful industries on the planet. It’s absolutely mind-warping once you get into the numbers.
Sure, and that’s totally valid, nobody is saying you need to become an animal rights activist. I think everyone should try their best to live their values, and that’s what I do. It’s not about a quest for perfectionism or anything like that, just trying our best as little humans with limited power to make the world a better place.
Honestly, if someone is truly aware of the horrors of the animal agriculture industry and is totally fine with it, I would be very, very surprised. I have never experienced anyone who genuinely thinks it’s okay. Most people take the position of, “yeah, it’s really terrible and I don’t like it, but…” which I have to live with because that’s most people, but even most of the people who agree it is terrible don’t really know the full truth and often they don’t want to let themselves find out, because they know in their heart if they truly understood how horrific the industry is, they would feel terrible every time they ate.
If someone genuinely thought it was OK, I would assume that they’re a sociopath. Not even in a bad way, necessarily, I have friends who are sociopaths, but I think that’s basically the only way you can lack the empathy.
For the follow-up question, there are a few reasons, I’ll outline a few of them, happy to discuss further, if you have questions then let me know.
I’m not saying that vegans shouldn’t advocate for ethical manufacture and disposal of electronics, I believe wholeheartedly that we should. But it’s impossible to have an entire industry for making baby animals, fattening them up, and slaughtering them so that we can make money from people who wish to consume their corpses. It is fucked up on the face of it. Melting metal, pouring it into moulds to make circuitry, etc. doesn’t hurt anyone directly, it’s capitalism and the drive for maximal profits which cause issues in electronics. I’m a huge proponent for the abolition of capitalism for this reason too.
Hope this helps <3
It does and your points are valid, but i’ll respond to a couple if you don’t mind.
As would i (outside of the sociopath possibility you also mention) , i was thinking more along the lines of people who fully understand and then accept it as something they can live with.
The comparisons of the meat industry to electronics i mostly agree with, except for this last part, not because it’s incorrect as such, i just didn’t provide enough context.
I mentioned electronics because it’s easy for people to at least shallowly understand how much they use them, what’s not so obvious is the horrors of how they are produced, in a similar way to how people as a whole don’t really understand how the meat industry is run.
Long before the metal pouring and assembly you have the rare earth elements industry that uses horrific limb-removing slave work camps to extract these minerals. it’s not all of them, but it’s significantly more than zero.
There are also cartel like warlords involved in some of the extraction sites.
Think of it as a similar situation to conflict diamonds, but more entrenched and critical to nation state interests.
I mentioned cobalt because it’s the easiest to find credible documentaries, reports and discussions about, but it’s not just cobalt.
Honestly a lot of the big industries are supported by modern day slavery and inhumane conditions or experimentation, i would also assume that extends to the non-human animals as well but i can’t honestly speak to that.
Textiles (clothes, shoes, trainers), agriculture (avocado’s have cartels because of course they do, coffee), pharmaceuticals, non-meat food (chocolate for example).
I keep coming back to the phrase “There is no ethical consumerism under capitalism” which aligns with your stance on the abolition of capitalism, but i tend to think of it as there is no ethical consumerism in general (at least right now) because i can’t think of a way we could ethically overcome the sheer density of population using the level of logistical technology we have available and that’s not even taking into account the (subjective) apparent nature of how human’s deal with such large populations.
But me not being able to see how we make the jump from now to a post scarcity, fully equitable society is almost certainly just a failure of my imagination.
My main question is how do people seem to be able to decide they can live with limbless kid electronics but slave labour clothes are too far, cartel avocado’s are an unfortunate necessity but meat is monstrous.
I understand that not all of those things are equal and battles need to be picked but it doesn’t seem like the subjective severity is the deciding factor and how are the battles picked.
Thanks for the reply and for your ongoing civility, I really appreciate that you seem genuinely interested in having a conversation about this.
You don’t need to explain to me about the horrors of the electronics industry, I’ve been an activist opposing extractive industries since my teen years, but of course I’m glad you’re raising awareness of it. Heck in my recent comment history I was talking about how I am opposed to EV vehicles and advocating for (green) hydrogen fuel cells due to rare earth extractionism.
I believe that extractionism can never be perfect (i.e. it will always cause some harm) but it’s possible to have a mining industry without slavery, murder, etc. and which is ran as ethically as possible to minimize harm on individuals and the environment. As I mentioned in my last comment as well the disposal and recycling of electronics is a massive issue which also needs to be addressed, as well as disposable/single-use electronic products and planned obsolescence.
On the other hand, animal agriculture NEEDS animals to die, and it needs them to die on such a scale that we NEED an industrial approach. I think you could make a pretty compelling argument that an individual hunting animals to feed their family is somewhat ethical (this isn’t my position btw, just making the point for the sake of discussion), but that can’t really scale up and remain ethical. At a certain point you need to keep the animals in shitty living conditions because otherwise the supply/demand curve would make animal products inaccessibly expensive for regular consumption.
For electronics, I think the biggest reason is the second one I mentioned: it’s not really possible to avoid them. Personally I always try to buy everything second hand that I can, especially electronics, but I don’t think it’s really fair or sustainable to expect everyone to do that, someone has to buy it new to begin with.
A better comparison is blood diamonds. They’re entirely optional and the ethical alternative is widely available and cheaper. I think you’d be well within your rights to say that a vegan who insists on blood diamonds is hypocritical. I don’t think a vegan using a second-hand cellphone is hypocritical. If they always buy the latest phone I would say that’s back to being hypocritical again.
And yeah, scale is a big factor. Over 150,000,000,000 animals are slaughtered in the animal agriculture industry every year. The scale is beyond staggering. Since becoming vegan nearly six years ago, according to the Cowculator app, my personal consumption has resulted in:
The animal agriculture industry is one of the most polluting, most wasteful industries on the planet. It’s absolutely mind-warping once you get into the numbers.
I’m not okay with basically anything that occurs under capitalism, but I have limited time on this earth and I have to pick and choose my battles.
Sure, and that’s totally valid, nobody is saying you need to become an animal rights activist. I think everyone should try their best to live their values, and that’s what I do. It’s not about a quest for perfectionism or anything like that, just trying our best as little humans with limited power to make the world a better place.