you lot are killing and hurting and raping animals, destroying the planet, orgasming at the dead flesh on your tongue and putting up giant banner ads to invite people to have their fill because it tastes so fucking good
gee i don't know i'd rather not sign up to your hedonistic death cult sorry. love the hedonism, not so much the death part. maybe workshop that a little.
of course, i'm the radical one (or worse: the killjoy) when i actually say the above to real people in actual meatspace.
'no thank you' is the appropriate response to an invitation to murder, and silence is the appropriate response to witnessing a murder. 'i'm not a murderer' is a bit of a faux pas.
In more seriousness, I struggle with the above a lot. Most (well, all) of my non-vegan friends are all right. I like them. They're cool, funny, witty, happy, lovely, and many things I aspire to be.
But it's so hard to not feel conflicted. When you've correctly reached the moral stance that maybe murder is bad, it's hard to put on a smile and say 'oh no, you go on ahead at the barbecue, I don't care, I'll just have the sad salad'.
But I do care. That's the thing. It's fine for me to make my own moral choices when it comes to, I don't know, how much I want to reap the benefits of American cultural imperialism by watching the newest hot film or not. But murder? Abstaining from murder is a _moral imperative_ that's rather a bit more serious.
But if I were to treat my beliefs seriously—actually seriously—I'd be a stark raving mad lunatic shouting at people to stop stuffing murder victims down their throats like holy shit what are you sadistic fucks doing?
But I like having friends, so I treat my rather sane and reasonable belief of 'murder is bad' less than a hundredth as seriously as maybe I should.
How do other #vegan people deal with the intense conflict of genuinely believing that animal abuse is bad, but also being a somewhat sociable person who gets along in modern society?
Because I kind of don't. If I think about it too hard, I become like Chidi from #TheGoodPlace.
@Phalzu But that's not true, is it?
Now, I keep good friends. They go the extra mile to make sure that there is always (good) vegan food available at public outings, often even more so than me (I'm the sort of person who goes everywhere unprepared). They're interested in the philosophy and will concede that, yes, what we do to animals is incredibly fucked up.
Buuuuuuuut… No cheese? The flesh is weak.
So the problem remains. If I were to treat my #vegan moral stance seriously—actually seriously—I ought be a _lot_ more cross with my friends than I actually am.
And much like my friends can't justify animal abuse ('I like cheese'), I can't justify being friends with animal abusers ('I like friends'). What gives?
@carmenbianca Hum, that's a good question.
Anyway i doubt just turning back on people which don't understand would help any animal. I think repeated talking about the topic is for real the best thing one can do. Sure, alternatively you can unfriend them, but this won't help anyone other than your conscience? It's still okay to unfriend them anyway if they're radical antis or you cannot bear it anymore tho...
Have a nice day (:
Carmen Bianca BAKKER
PhilLovesCats