Yup this post is written with many of my vegan friends in mind (as well as me from not that long ago). I’ve found “saving” lives matters most to them and a distant second is usually reducing suffering.
I intentionally left out reasons to be vegan because the average vegan influencer is basically sharing all of these points. Which makes it readily accessible. Although I do agree some of what you are saying.
For 1, I think this depends on the audience. If the audience are ethical vegetarians who don’t know about harms in dairy then this is indeed quite effective. Although for an average consumer, I’ve found (anecdotally from street outreach) that most of them find quitting dairy a much more unattainable goal than being vegetarian (which is quite disliked by many vegans).
For 2, I agree. I think most humans are motivated reasoners. They figure out ways to justify and confirm their existing beliefs as well as reasons for not changing. I also think getting people to consume delicious animal free food may accelerate progress towards respecting animals (for this same reason). Although it may not be fast enough if we advocate for abstinence as compared to just building better alternatives. I wrote about this in an earlier post.
My only hope with this article is that more people take the final impact on animals seriously.
I agree that your point is perhaps less widely shared than mine. But my own view has come to be that the number of animals killed is actually rather unimportant, since I don’t expect that these industries will be greatly affected by the consumer choices of some citizens. I expect that political action and technology will play much bigger roles. And then the question becomes: is diet change important for political identity/action?
I think if the change requires minimal/smaller sacrifice on part of the consumer it’s more likely to succeed. Also even if systemic/technological change can have much higher impact, I would not rule out diet change completely because I also came across this post which questions the PTC hypothesis for alternative proteins.
Thanks Tristan.
Yup this post is written with many of my vegan friends in mind (as well as me from not that long ago). I’ve found “saving” lives matters most to them and a distant second is usually reducing suffering.
I intentionally left out reasons to be vegan because the average vegan influencer is basically sharing all of these points. Which makes it readily accessible. Although I do agree some of what you are saying.
For 1, I think this depends on the audience. If the audience are ethical vegetarians who don’t know about harms in dairy then this is indeed quite effective. Although for an average consumer, I’ve found (anecdotally from street outreach) that most of them find quitting dairy a much more unattainable goal than being vegetarian (which is quite disliked by many vegans).
For 2, I agree. I think most humans are motivated reasoners. They figure out ways to justify and confirm their existing beliefs as well as reasons for not changing. I also think getting people to consume delicious animal free food may accelerate progress towards respecting animals (for this same reason). Although it may not be fast enough if we advocate for abstinence as compared to just building better alternatives. I wrote about this in an earlier post.
My only hope with this article is that more people take the final impact on animals seriously.
I agree that your point is perhaps less widely shared than mine. But my own view has come to be that the number of animals killed is actually rather unimportant, since I don’t expect that these industries will be greatly affected by the consumer choices of some citizens. I expect that political action and technology will play much bigger roles. And then the question becomes: is diet change important for political identity/action?
I think if the change requires minimal/smaller sacrifice on part of the consumer it’s more likely to succeed. Also even if systemic/technological change can have much higher impact, I would not rule out diet change completely because I also came across this post which questions the PTC hypothesis for alternative proteins.