My response to an open-minded carnist
I appreciate your willingness to chat. I would say that most of our views about animals come from the culture that we grew up in. We have been taught that animals are lower than us and hence we can eat and use them as we like. Very few of us ever challenge this thinking because a) it asks us to challenge other views that we have about our culture and b) it asks us to question our values and ethics. Neither are necessarily easy to do.
It’s as simple as I do not need to eat any animal products, wear clothing that comes from animals, support any form of entertainment that uses animals or buy any products that come from testing on animals. Since I do not need to use animals, I have an ethical choice to make. Do I support the harming and killing of animals for my pleasure, tradition or convenience or do I make choices that are more in alignment with my values?
Very few us have values that support harming animals yet almost all of us engage in harming animals directly or indirectly. The reason that our values do not support harming animals is because at our core, we are kind beings. Why would we want to make another suffer? Why would we possibly want to inflict pain on another if we don’t have to? And of course, whether we harm individuals directly or indirectly, by paying farmers and slaughterhouse workers to do it for us, we are causing harm. This is not in our nature. We have to hide this from ourselves. We have to repress the violence that we cause others, that is why people get so upset when a vegan shares this information with them. Because we now a choice. We either continue to repress this information (which becomes more difficult) or we make a new choice. I admire your willingness to look.
Whether someone addresses this from a spiritual or religious perspective, both center on the idea of compassion. We can make compassionate choices three times a day by choosing to eat beans, legumes, grains, nuts and seeds, fruits and vegetables. I find it difficult to near impossible to believe in a God that would put creatures here for us to force breed, confine, torture and ultimately kill, when we don’t have a biological need to do so. That would not be a compassionate God.
Speciesism is what allows for all other forms of isms. If human beings believe that they are superior to another animal (since we are all animals), then it makes it easier to believe that we are superior to other races, religions, sexes, sexuality and the like. Speciesism is the the largest form of ism and also the most ignored. The industries that profit from animal exploitation are begging you to ignore me and your heart. They only survive (and sadly thrive) due to our ignorance of speciesism or our unwillingness to look. Thanks for looking.
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Chaz
September 10, 2011
Very good!
I like that you’ve used the term “carnist” as in Dr. Joy’s book (Why we love dogs, eat pigs and wear cows).
Chaz
September 10, 2011
Very good!
I like that you’ve used the term “carnist” as in Dr. Joy’s book (Why we love dogs, eat pigs and wear cows).
Marg Durrance
September 11, 2011
becoming a vegetarian is easy once one has seen the horror of slaughter houses. i hate factory farms; however, i really hate also people who feed their pet carnivores like cows. it is unnatural. a pig has been labelled as unclean because it eats garbage & no more untrue words have been said. pigs are exceptionally clean, but if one is only fed garbage, that is what you will eat. i love my cats & my dog, but they are carnivores & I will not subject them to a diet of vegetables which they will not thrive on. they are my companions & i am empathic so will not force my values & beliefs on them but rather put myself in their shoes. if this makes me some kind of speciesist, i guess i am, but they need meat.
Marg Durrance
September 11, 2011
becoming a vegetarian is easy once one has seen the horror of slaughter houses. i hate factory farms; however, i really hate also people who feed their pet carnivores like cows. it is unnatural. a pig has been labelled as unclean because it eats garbage & no more untrue words have been said. pigs are exceptionally clean, but if one is only fed garbage, that is what you will eat. i love my cats & my dog, but they are carnivores & I will not subject them to a diet of vegetables which they will not thrive on. they are my companions & i am empathic so will not force my values & beliefs on them but rather put myself in their shoes. if this makes me some kind of speciesist, i guess i am, but they need meat.
German Verzegnassi
November 9, 2011
The whole point is that many people that eat meat or dairy products don’t really link what they eat to where it comes from, for them is just a steak and not a slice of the dead body of an animal, at least at the time to eat it, is proved that a plant based diet is healthier than the average American diet, the big problem here is greed from the companies that sell those products, and push economically in a system that can not to sustain itself…but I believe times are changing for good, people is becoming smarter, and information in blogs like this one is more available to everyone…