Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Ethics of meat

I’m feeling icky after reading and briefly commenting on a heated debate on the ethics of eating meat, with the conclusion being that I’m a shitty fucking person for being an omnivore and that valuing my personal emotional, mental, and physical health, abilities, and income over that of farm animals is morally lazy and inferior.
  1.       Where do these skeptics get off assuming that vegan is the objectively morally superior choice?
  2.        Where do these atheists get off cramming their “morals” down my throat?
Going vegan is literally the least efficient way to effect change in the brutal farming industry: you’re enacting a significant effort to accomplish zilch. If you want to end animal cruelty and your food restrictions are so easy to afford to accommodate, donate to lobby efforts to change industry regulations (or buy me a Whole Foods gift card), you self-righteous cunts. All your raging is doing is making me want to go out for steak tonight and talk about how rude vegans are and how fucked up their priorities are.

I'm going to continue to eat meat for the foreseeable future for many reasons:
  • I’m struggling enough, as is, to deprogram the food moralizing thrown in my face at every turn by this culture within the context of anti-fat bias, to say nothing of food ethics in addition to that.
  • It takes a LOT of bandwidth and a lot of my income just to feed myself ENOUGH on a daily basis without adding dietary restrictions or guilt to the mix.
  • I am only just learning how to cook at all in the last few months, and it still requires considerable effort to do better than fast and frozen foods for every meal.
  • Food restriction is super-triggery for many people and is not something I can safely attempt at this point in my life.
  • Though I know it can be done, I can’t imagine how I would sustain my highly active lifestyle, including marathon training, on a vegan diet. 
  • And let's not overlook the social, emotional, and cultural value of certain foods, including meat, and what it would mean for me to ask or expect others (friends and family) to accommodate me if I had dietary restrictions.
  • I'm reaching now, but I could also cite my obese family and my present over-consumption of delicious, glutenous starches as a further obstacle to purging animal products from my diet.
  • I don't care for rice.
Recognizing, accepting, and honoring my personal limitations and applying myself to other forms of activism is a good choice to make. We all have to choose our battles and how we prioritize our individual well-being.

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