There is a lot here to respond to. A LOT. I could spend an hour typing out a monolithic response but that won’t be as good recommending some reading to you. “Eating Animals” by Jonathan Safran Foer is a great start, and “A Plea for the Animals” is a lovely follow up written by a neuroscientist/monk.
I’d also like to extend the opportunity to talk to you about everything you said. I believe so, so, so deeply that you are incredibly wrong about most of the things you said. My email is in my profile if you’d like to set up time to chat, but other than that all I can do is suggest those books to you.
No one will be able to challenge your beliefs for you. Only you can. Please, for the animals at least, considering challenging the thoughts you laid out in your comment.
A quick scan of the books you recommended did not exactly make me want to read them - it sounded like the same sort of narcississm and bad philosophy that I've come to expect! Indeed, the apparent premise of the first - how can we eat some animals and not others - strikes me as downright inane. Probably as inane as it might strike you, if I were to rephrase the question about plants. The answer is very simple: because we choose to. Some animals we choose to befriend; some we choose to eat; some we choose to protect; some we choose to destroy. We are absolutely in the right to make those choices, and indeed I think the alternative is chaos. :)
The truth is that our perspectives are very different, at some really deep levels. I don't intent to change your mind, only to explain to you a perspective that you apparently find incomprehensible: I absolutely think compassion for animals is compatible with raising them to eat.
> I don't intent to change your mind, only to explain to you a perspective that you apparently find incomprehensible
I spent decades eating animals and claiming that I loved them. You are not exposing me to new ideas. I was a carnist for decades, just like you are now. I thought the same things you did for a long time, but I slowly realized how silly and hypocritical I was being. Those books I mentioned are great introductions to the topic. The onus is on you to expose yourself to new ideas, just like I did before becoming vegan. If you choose to ignore the resources that folks point you to, that's on you. Good luck, and please consider leaving animals off the menu. For their sake.
>> I don't intent to change your mind, only to explain to you a perspective that you apparently find incomprehensible
>I spent decades eating animals and claiming that I loved them. You are not exposing me to new ideas.
I don't mean that eating meat is a new idea. I was specific, as a longer quote will reveal: "... to explain to you a perspective that you apparently find incomprehensible: I absolutely think compassion for animals is compatible with raising them to eat." It was in response to this:
> When meat is being served, you know animal welfare is not being considered. One cannot claim to value the welfare of a being before killing it prematurely and unnecessarily. That is a simple fact.
I think I've demonstrated pretty well that your simple fact is wrong, and there's a lot of complexity that allows for meat and animal welfare to exist together. You don't -- for very convincing reasons that are apparently only available to private followers of your philosophy via video chat. ;)
I suppose that means I've failed to get you to see my point of view -- but ah well. To tell the truth, I didn't actually think I would succeed at that part, because as I've said a bunch of times, I don't think this position proceeds from reason -- I think it proceeds from emotion, and some unhealthy emotions at that. To put all the cards on the table, the quote I was initially responding to is the sort of statement that I find aggressive and morally bullying. I'm writing to remove the power from it, to articulate a good answer for people who have trouble doing that, and to demonstrate that standing up to it isn't scary -- quite the contrary, that you can't back it up because it's silly in the first place. I would like to have been able to help you, but my main motivation is actually to prevent you from hurting others.
I’d also like to extend the opportunity to talk to you about everything you said. I believe so, so, so deeply that you are incredibly wrong about most of the things you said. My email is in my profile if you’d like to set up time to chat, but other than that all I can do is suggest those books to you.
No one will be able to challenge your beliefs for you. Only you can. Please, for the animals at least, considering challenging the thoughts you laid out in your comment.