I generally see my own vegetarianism as a utilitarian virtue that I’ve cultivated. It feels mostly costless to me now; in fact I feel better doing it than not. I think we should generally try to cultivate such virtues that align with impactful action, but also agree that going veg*n may not be equally effective on the margin for everyone (for a variety of reasons). Still, I’d feel most proud of being in a movement where people didn’t simply accept the psychological costs of some altruistic action, but tried to align their personal utility function more with the universe’s (which is what I mean by “utilitarian virtue”).
(This is not to say that you personally are “simply accepting” this; I know you to be a very deliberate and thoughtful person. I am just uncomfortable with community members consistently resolving this question on first-order considerations of the psychological pleasure of veg*nism without considering the second-order question of whether the first-order is malleable.)
(Also agree with some of the other comments complicating the CEA of veg*nism on wild animal welfare grounds)
I generally see my own vegetarianism as a utilitarian virtue that I’ve cultivated. It feels mostly costless to me now; in fact I feel better doing it than not. I think we should generally try to cultivate such virtues that align with impactful action, but also agree that going veg*n may not be equally effective on the margin for everyone (for a variety of reasons). Still, I’d feel most proud of being in a movement where people didn’t simply accept the psychological costs of some altruistic action, but tried to align their personal utility function more with the universe’s (which is what I mean by “utilitarian virtue”).
(This is not to say that you personally are “simply accepting” this; I know you to be a very deliberate and thoughtful person. I am just uncomfortable with community members consistently resolving this question on first-order considerations of the psychological pleasure of veg*nism without considering the second-order question of whether the first-order is malleable.)
(Also agree with some of the other comments complicating the CEA of veg*nism on wild animal welfare grounds)