Yes I would go even further to say it assumes insect farming is harmful, but I don’t think that’s a good enough justification for a comment challenging that underlying assumption—as discussing the assumption isn’t the purpose of the post. I would think the same thing about posting an argument for the “meat-eating problem” on a given global health post, which in a similar vein assumes that saving human lives is good.
I think the best place for these discussions is on posts which specifically address that issue, or events like the Animal welfare vs. Global health debate week where these questions are ever bubbling up.
I don’t think commenting in this way on every (or a random-ish selection) of post that assumes insect farming is harmful is a helpful way to operate and promote healthy discussion on the forum, but I think its reasonable to disagree with me here as well. Maybe the OP might even disagree!
I agree it would not make sense to comment this way in every post or a random selection of posts. However, Matthew (the author of the post) is one of the people I know most sympathetic about considering effects on wild animals, and also has the best guess that wild animals have negative lives (like I do), which makes farming insects tendentially beneficial to wild animals.
Yes I would go even further to say it assumes insect farming is harmful, but I don’t think that’s a good enough justification for a comment challenging that underlying assumption—as discussing the assumption isn’t the purpose of the post. I would think the same thing about posting an argument for the “meat-eating problem” on a given global health post, which in a similar vein assumes that saving human lives is good.
I think the best place for these discussions is on posts which specifically address that issue, or events like the Animal welfare vs. Global health debate week where these questions are ever bubbling up.
I don’t think commenting in this way on every (or a random-ish selection) of post that assumes insect farming is harmful is a helpful way to operate and promote healthy discussion on the forum, but I think its reasonable to disagree with me here as well. Maybe the OP might even disagree!
I agree it would not make sense to comment this way in every post or a random selection of posts. However, Matthew (the author of the post) is one of the people I know most sympathetic about considering effects on wild animals, and also has the best guess that wild animals have negative lives (like I do), which makes farming insects tendentially beneficial to wild animals.
Fair (didn’t know that context) - if @Bentham’s Bulldog agrees I’ll withdraw the downvote.
For reference, Matthew recommended donating to GiveWell to decrease the number of wild animals.