Cadmium Magenta said:
After watching MovieBob's recent Big Picture episode on the PeTA/Super Mario controversy, I'm curious about people's stance on animal rights here. What I found curious is that Bob asserted he supports animal rights, in that he abstains from products like fur and boycotts companies that test on animals. On the other hand though, eating animals does not seem to be problematic for him.
Yeah, well, there's a difference between smearing red dye #4 on a pig's snout and eating a cow's meat for sustenance, if you can believe that.
Cadmium Magenta said:
My goal is to make people question some things we have been taught about the animals we eat, without shoving my own morality down their throats.
I don't think that there's any conceivable way to do that, but you're welcome to give it a shot.
Cadmium Magenta said:
Human beings are omnivores, which means that we can eat almost anything. There are many divergent nutritional studies and opinions out there, but the gist seems to be that we can get by equally well on meat- or plant-based diets or any combination thereof, as long as we spend some time thinking about what nutrients we need and where to get them.
This means that there is no biological need for us to eat meat. We simply feel like eating it.
But, the aspect that you seemed to ignore is that, conversely, there is also no biological need to eat plants. We just sometimes want to get high and accidentally eat mushrooms that aren't hallucinogenic. I kid. Or do I?!
Either way, mushrooms are fungi and therefore irrelevant.
Cadmium Magenta said:
Therefore, whenever we kill an animal for food, we are essentially deciding that our appetite is more important than that creature's life. We are inflicting deadly violence on a defenseless being, simply for our own pleasure. Personally, I don't think that's ethical behavior.
I don't think you understand how ethics works. You also have to remember that not many animals have what we deem a conscious. Animals can't examine their own existence the way human beings can. Abstract thought it lost on them.
Besides, not eating the animals will only serve to make sure that they died in vain.
Cadmium Magenta said:
Now, many people say that nature isn't ethical, that animals brutally kill and eat other animals all the time. That's true, but we are not animals. We are not lions or sharks. Lions or sharks cannot choose *not* to eat meat because they are natural carnivores and couldn't survive on a herbivorous diet. Humans, on the other hand, can. We are moral beings and as a result of our morality, we place innumerable restrictions on ourselves for the greater good: We prohibit or disapprove of theft, murder, rape, deception, defamation etc.
Moral relativism is a thing. We don't normally kill each other because it's merely a detrimental effect on our own existence; that is, it only serves to make our continued success as a species less likely. However, killing other animals and eating them provides nutrients and materials for building, keeping ourselves warm, making tools, etc. Besides, we evolved this way. We possess complex, abstract thought and problem solving, and we've used it to our advantage despite being the most unlikely creatures to have survived on Earth for as long as we have (around 250,000 years, give or take... At least as we know the human race today, anyway), and I think that if we want to destroy entire species, awesome! What, is God gonna get pissed off and suddenly start existing so that he can punish us? Yeah, sure.
Cadmium Magenta said:
So why do we think it's okay to deprive an entire species of their liberty and kill them for their flesh?
To sum it up: Just because we *can* eat anything, doesn't necessarily mean that we *should*.
But isn't it more in the spirit of humanity to do something not because we must or should, but just because we can?
Cadmium Magenta said:
What do you think? I'm very curious to know.
I think that, despite not trying to come off as high and mighty,your misunderstanding of morality and the reasoning behind your decision tends to give off that aura, regardless.