#Of course I'm going to try and minimise the cost as much as possible

[blackwoolncrown]

I don't want to start a fight it's a serious question, because I'm still making up my mind: why do you think veganism and the goal of not harming other lives is a futile attempt? I have the feeling you're trying to make the better place yourself and educate others on racism. I don't know if I can forsake meat, cheese or leather but after what I've learned about the abuse and cruelty that happens on farms all over the world, it's my duty as a compassionate person to at least try. (one)

“(two) I mean, it can be difficult for different reasons but have you seen videos where dogs are skinned alive or pigs are burned alive? It’s disgusting. And it don’t has to be that gruesome. I mean, do you just shrug this off? Isn’t it at least our responsibility to minimise pain on animals(or othern people as well)instead of just saying “well yeah, this would be nice but what can you do”? Shit, I don’t know what to do with all this information.”

Yes, is futile. As I said before, if you are going vegan specifically and expressly to separate yourself from harming other living creatures you will not and can not succeed. The only way to do that is to not eat, not buy, not provide for yourself. The end.You can certainly lessen your impact, and that is a nice cause.You can certainly refuse to support mainstream factory farming, and that is a reasonable thing you can actually do.You can certainly refuse to stop consuming things that, for instance, have brains and hearts.But you cannot achieve a life that does not cause death. It is not possible. You should not strive to is my point.What you need to understand is that humans kill all the time, they have to. Humans are animals and every animal kills. So stop thinking that any destruction of life is evil and also stop thinking that the behavior is an outlier.You also need to understand that white capitalist-pushed industrial farming is its own demon. The violence necessary to push through such ridiculous amounts of meat at a low cost is not one and the same with for instance the quick cut needed to end a cow or chicken for a farming family’s meal.And it’s not fair to lump the two kinds together. It’s just not.Now on the other hand, here’s something I bring up to those open to the discussion: how many animals had to die for you to eat today? Some sausage in the morning, chicken wings for lunch, steak for dinner….that’s a good 5+ animals just to get one human through the day. Is that deserved? Reasonable? Justified? I’m not going to answer that for anyone but I know how I feel about it. It takes a lot more time, energy and resources to grow an entire animal just for it to end up as yet another redundant meal than it does for someone to start supplementing their diet with more potatoes,grains, mushrooms, etc (I don’t use vegan meats as a go-to for reasons lol).Anyway my point is this: if you want to lessen your impact on the world, you can feasibly do that. If you want to not involve yourself with industrialized animal murder, you can feasibly do that. If you want to eat no animal products or byproducts bc it just seems wrong to you, you can feasibly do that. If you don’t think meat is healthy and want to avoid it, you’re demonstrably right and you can feasibly do that.But what you can not do is live a life where you can say that you are cruelty free. You can’t. You cannot live a life where you are factually better and kinder than other people because you alone are untainted by the sin of killing or causing the suffering of another living being. It’s not true and will not in your lifetime ever be. Beyond that, it’s not logical. The west has very strange and complicated stances on death and decay and it would help if we remembered that life and death are inextricably bound together.I’m not saying don’t try. I’m saying inspect your goals.Now, to be more functional here: try telling yourself to only eat meat every otehr day, and cut down on cheese and dairy. It’s possible that after a while, especially with things like milk and cheese, you’ll lose your taste for them to a point where at least you’ll want to consume less of them. You’ll get used to not having meat for every meal or every dinner, and you can stretch these meatless periods out more and more depending on your goal. I currently tend to eat meat only 3 days a week, more if there were leftovers, and cook at home. Soon I’m going to go meatless for 1 then 2 weeks and hopefully later a month. It’s not a question of resisting the taste at this point so much as the nearly inescapable convenience of meat. I personally don’t want to stop being able to digest it for adaptability reasons but I don’t think meat is something that should comprise a huge part of one’s diet. But of course that’s my opinion and this end part is just to give you some food for thought. What works for me might not work for you.

#Anonymous