January 2012
63 posts
The old one-person-can't-change-the-world-so-why-bother argument:
“Vegan alternatives are not inherently better for animals or the planet. Pleather and faux fur—staples of vegan fashion—are petroleum-based products. The environmental devastation caused by petroleum—climate change, oil spills, toxic water, acid rain, genetic mutations—are well known and vast. While many vegans will tout the environmental values of hybrid cars, bicycling, reusable shopping bags and eliminating demand for factory farms, the analysis rarely curbs the demand for couture. Sure, cows were not slaughtered for our beloved shoes, coats and belts. However, plenty of other animals were destroyed when their habitats were ransacked, covered in oil, poisoned and abandoned.
If the world as we know it were to go vegan, the dietary shift would not save animals or preserve land. Many of the plant-based products that vegans rely on come from subsidiaries of the largest food corporations. General Mills, Kraft, Heinz and ConAgra—big hands in animal industries—are the purveyors of some of the most popular soymilk, tofu, prepared food and meat substitute brands.”
An interesting read about:
http://www.theprecarious.com/content/vegans-miss-larger-point
Too bad Zoe thought it would be a good idea to use one source for her article on veganism. Not that I wear a pleather suit with faux fur trim most days, but I highly doubt the about of patroleum used to make vegan friendly clothing come’s anywhere near the about of fossil fuels that are used by animal industries. The same can be said for Zoe’s misinformed conclusion that eating soy products is terrible given that so much deforestation takes place for the sake of growing soy beans (last time I checked, I ate way less than any cow). The gist of the article is that there is no way to do anything good for the world unless you join a commune somewhere, and that it is possible to do more harm than good as a vegan. I guess, on the internet, anything can be published by anyone. Oh you silly, silly, carnivores, when are you going to come to the light?
I can't come to class because...
There are tons of excuses that my students give for missing class. Frankly, I don’t care what their excuses are, but they give them to me anyway. Here are some of my favorites (with the grammar corrected by me…these are just the gist of their messages).
I can’t come to class because…
“It’s raining.”
“It’s snowing.”
“It’s too sunny.”
“I’m pregnant.”
“I have to buy a car.”
“I have to take my friend to take their driver’s test.”
“I need to get the new iPhone.”
“I have the menses.”
“I hit my head.”
“I don’t want to.”
^^^^
Hey, remember after we invaded Iraq and we found all those WMDs...
Y’know the ones that the president, pretty much every other politician, every military general, and every intelligence analyst was CERTAIN were there?
Yeahhh… Now tell me again about the imminent threat of a nuclear Iran.
-Joe
Every three hours or so
I am starving to death!
I'm pro-choice by the by
and I menstruate once a month.
So you would send a 10 year old to jail for having her period? Make an 11 year old girl have sex, carry a child over half her weight, and then give birth? That could kill the child btw. Having a 10 year old have sex so she doesn't kill your precious egg could make her infertile and cause her to be traumatized for life.
I mean, that was the point of the post. I was being sarcastic! I’m super pro-choice and I menstruate monthly. Sorry for the confusion.
Baha hilarious. Ps. have you ever seen Monty Python's The Meaning of Life? There's a song called "Every Sperm Is Sacred" and it's funnyy.
Yes! I love Monty Python! Glad you enjoyed the post.
Life begins when
God decides it’s time for you to have a baby.
I'm pro-life because
even the smallest life is sacred. Every sperm is sacred. If it were up to me menstruation (allowing the ovum to die) and male masturbation (allowing the sperm to die) would be criminalized.
Don't you think it's a BIT harsh to wish such harm on "carnivores"?? Yeah, it's cool that you're vegan, but it's definitely arrogant to be so judgmental to others just because of what they eat. Humans are omnivores (yes, it's a scientific fact, very first humans ate both meat and veggies). It's ALSO true that the processed shit that is served to us is unhealthy no matter what. But there is nothing wrong with eating meat--everything in moderation right?
1. Thanks for the ask!
2. It’s not that I want all carnivores to die or anything. I wrote that post after a man verbally accosted me with cuts of meat at my local grocery store. I was clearly in the tofu/tofurkey/meat-substitute area of the store and he started telling me about the meat he was buying (over and over again) clearly in the hope that I would become offended. And I did. I didn’t tell him to go die, I told him that what he had done was wrong and that a grown mad (twice my age at least) shouldn’t do those things to people. What I wanted to say to him was what I wrote in that post. haha.
I don’t really wish harm on carnivores, I wish veganism on them. You see, the reason carnivores get under my skin is that many of them know that in order for them to eat meat, something else has to be killed. And not only did it have to be killed, but it had to be raised, often fed antibiotics and hormones, had to live in fear and pain, and then finally killed unceremoniously and without anesthetics. If you know these things, and you don’t like it you should do something about it, right? And there is something you can do to make sure that you are at least taking yourself out of the equation: go vegan.
3. Whatever you think/know about early man is irrelevant. We are no longer early man. We know so much more about nutrition and health now, and the animal agriculture scene has definitely changed. In fact, what we (the regular person living in the first world) eat now is 100% different from what the first peoples ate.
The bottom line is that you don’t have to eat meat to survive. You don’t need it! And given that animal agriculture is the biggest contributor to global warming, food shortages, deforestation, and the deaths of billions of animals a year, eating meat is bad for everyone. It’s bad for the world. And when you buy meat, all you are doing to supporting (quite possibly) the most detrimental industry on earth today.
Does that make sense?
