this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2023
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I didn't ask if you were a vegan. I was asking why you're repeating arguments I've rebutted a dozen times in lemmy. We're deep enough that no random person is going to read this, so if you're just arguing for veganism, it can stop now. I need to know if the environmental argument is foundational to you before I waste time repeating stuff I've said plenty of times elsewhere, knowing you'll be the only person to read it.
To be honest, I've dealt with the classic 3-leg gishgallop of this topic (environment, health, ethics) enough that I'm learning to disengage fast. I just need to be sure there's value in the conversation before it just turns into that. That's not about voir dire. It's about Street Epistemology. If we're discussing something non-foundational to you, the conversation is frankly meaningless.
And frankly, I had to ask the question because you are bringing up infamous objections (like "land use" in full ignorance or negligence of marginal land) that are as much a staple of the vegan-missionary movement as... well, anything I hear out of pro-life arguments.
Interesting. Are you of the position that there is no world where even a single livestock animal being consumed is *ever environmentally better than that same animal NOT being consumed? Do you have well-conceived answers to the symbiosis problem and animal population problem? I mean, is it a goal for the Western World's carbon impact to dip below pre-industrial levels, and do you genuinely think fossil fuel climate change can be circumvented by terraforming our methane footprint artificially? Is there a meaningful view here that might change, or will it remain secondary to your vegan ethical position?
Peter Singer, I presume? This is actually a separate topic I have some experience discussing. I, too, am largely Utilitarian in my ethical foundation. But I do strongly reject his argument on many grounds. A rejection I don't want to intermingle with an environmental discussion, if you get my point above about how easily these discussions can turn into a 3-legged stool of constantly rotating complex discussions.
Sorry to steal your decision to use court terminology, but I object. I simply don't want to respond if you aren't arguing for the environment because it matters to you. I need to understand whether you being convinced that consuming some animals is good for the environment would CYV on anything at all, or if you'd just lean on "but I think it's wrong to consume animals".