Animal Rights Mega-Thread

[Scholar]

3 hours ago, Carl-Richard said:

I specifically brought up that individual meat eaters are able to use the fact that meat is deeply established in our society as a last cowardly retreat from having to recognize their fallible reasoning and change their habits.

Oh, ye I can see that I might have misinterpreted it lol. Yes, cognitive dissonance will assure that changes won't take place, which is why reasoning often is ineffective when attempting to change people. You cannot just make people rational when they are motivated reasoners, so changing them through rationality can be futile.

 

3 hours ago, Carl-Richard said:

No. I said this is the reality we have to face. Activism on the individual level is one thing. Structural change, policy change, is another.

I think they are connected, I think only once enough individuals change can policy change. If we live in a society full of nazi's, of course we won't stop the holocaust, because nobody thinks there is something wrong with it. Once people see animals as individuals and resolve their emotional attachments, the reasoning to animal rights flows naturally because it is the obvious thing to do.

 

3 hours ago, Carl-Richard said:

And I'm saying black abolitionists played a crucial role.

I get it. You interpreted my points as a hostile dismissal of veganism rather than the neutral assessment that I intended it to be. I should've been more cognizant that you were already in defense mode earlier in the thread and worded myself differently.

I don't imagine that black abolitionists made enough of a difference to change the outcome, I think we would have still changed even if black abolitionists did not exist.

Yes, I interpreted your points in a certain way based on our past encounters, I am not in defense mode emotionally speaking.

[Carl-Richard]

43 minutes ago, Scholar said:

I think they are connected, I think only once enough individuals change can policy change. If we live in a society full of nazi's, of course we won't stop the holocaust, because nobody thinks there is something wrong with it. Once people see animals as individuals and resolve their emotional attachments, the reasoning to animal rights flows naturally because it is the obvious thing to do.

Agreed. Some form of individual activism has to precede and initiate policy change, which then impacts the individual level again (forming actions, beliefs, more activism etc.). This initial activism is a hard process, which is what some ethically challenged meat eaters will use an excuse (which is the status quo justifying itself by saying it is the status quo).

[vizual]

Veganism is one of the good things that has come from the left. Funny thing is is that most leftists aren’t vegan. 
 

Scaling back animal agriculture is amazing for the environment, public health, and can raise compassion for animals. And it reduces our collective cognitive dissonance regarding animal abuse.