screaming "THERE IS NO ETHICAL CONSUMPTION UNDER CAPITALISM!!!" while snowshoveling mountains of Wendy's™ Double Baconator Deluxes into the bed of my diesel Ford™ F-350 extended cab
I'm not even a committed vegan, but if you don't buy the bacon, the grocery store takes a little longer to re-stock the bacon, the slaughterhouse breeds one less pig, and there's less suffering in the world. Responsible consumer habits make a difference, just not enough to overthrow capitalism. Even just a couple days a week of no meat by one single individual reduces the number of animals killed substantially. http://environmath.org/2020/09/08/just-how-many-animals-do-americans-eat-and-how-many-would-you-save-by-going-meatless-one-day-a-week/
If it helps, don't buy the bacon because the capitalists will make surplus value off the purchase.
As I've learned more about capitalism, I've been less enthusiastic about market effects and paying more attention to social effects. Being vegan or vegetarian is FAR more acceptable than it was a few years ago. One of my friends sought out my advice before going vegetarian and I think I provided a good example leading up to his decision. We're building groundwork for a movement; animal welfare activists made it socially unacceptable to wear fur, leading to less demand (and less tortured minks) and a number of countries outright banning fur farms.
yeah mink was probably a bad example, they're just emblematic of the industry in my head. Fur farming in general was banned in a bunch of countries before COVID zoonosis concerns: Austria 2004, Croatia 2007 (effective 2017), Norway 2018 (effective 2025), U.K. 2003, soft ban in Switzerland. These tend to be countries with weak fur industries before the ban. But they sometimes enact import bans as well which helps the struggle internationally. I would expect that as the movement builds steam socially it reduces demand for fur, which weakens the fur producers, so they're less able to resist legislative demands.
That's a super good point, actually. At the risk of committing sacrilege in a thread meant to spark a struggle sesh, that could also be key to finding common ground between the vegan movement and people who aren't ready (for whatever reason) to go full vegan. Tell them that the next best thing is to be positive about veganism anyway - provide vegan options for your vegan friends, talk about how cool it is that they are vegan, speak out when people scoff at vegans etc. I dunno, probably some people think that's a dangerous half measure, but I genuinely think there are a lot of potential allies who are scared away by the "all in" approach to veganism (which I get - once you internalize that killing animals for food/products as murder, it's hard to accept a little murder). Maybe they could, if nothing else, be put to work talking up veganism and vegetarianism to less receptive people - who might be even more inclined to turn out vegan voices anyway.
screaming "THERE IS NO ETHICAL CONSUMPTION UNDER CAPITALISM!!!" while snowshoveling mountains of Wendy's™ Double Baconator Deluxes into the bed of my diesel Ford™ F-350 extended cab
i just had to thank you for this, work sucked (not unusual) but this was a lovely intro to my post work day
screaming "THERE IS NO ETHICAL CONSUMPTION UNDER CAPITALISM!!!" while snowshoveling mountains of Wendy's™ Double Baconator Deluxes into the bed of my diesel Ford™ F-350 extended cab
I'm not even a committed vegan, but if you don't buy the bacon, the grocery store takes a little longer to re-stock the bacon, the slaughterhouse breeds one less pig, and there's less suffering in the world. Responsible consumer habits make a difference, just not enough to overthrow capitalism. Even just a couple days a week of no meat by one single individual reduces the number of animals killed substantially. http://environmath.org/2020/09/08/just-how-many-animals-do-americans-eat-and-how-many-would-you-save-by-going-meatless-one-day-a-week/
If it helps, don't buy the bacon because the capitalists will make surplus value off the purchase.
As I've learned more about capitalism, I've been less enthusiastic about market effects and paying more attention to social effects. Being vegan or vegetarian is FAR more acceptable than it was a few years ago. One of my friends sought out my advice before going vegetarian and I think I provided a good example leading up to his decision. We're building groundwork for a movement; animal welfare activists made it socially unacceptable to wear fur, leading to less demand (and less tortured minks) and a number of countries outright banning fur farms.
Covid spread among minks has all but killed the industry in Europe, last I read. The main mink producing nations banned it.
yeah mink was probably a bad example, they're just emblematic of the industry in my head. Fur farming in general was banned in a bunch of countries before COVID zoonosis concerns: Austria 2004, Croatia 2007 (effective 2017), Norway 2018 (effective 2025), U.K. 2003, soft ban in Switzerland. These tend to be countries with weak fur industries before the ban. But they sometimes enact import bans as well which helps the struggle internationally. I would expect that as the movement builds steam socially it reduces demand for fur, which weakens the fur producers, so they're less able to resist legislative demands.
That's a super good point, actually. At the risk of committing sacrilege in a thread meant to spark a struggle sesh, that could also be key to finding common ground between the vegan movement and people who aren't ready (for whatever reason) to go full vegan. Tell them that the next best thing is to be positive about veganism anyway - provide vegan options for your vegan friends, talk about how cool it is that they are vegan, speak out when people scoff at vegans etc. I dunno, probably some people think that's a dangerous half measure, but I genuinely think there are a lot of potential allies who are scared away by the "all in" approach to veganism (which I get - once you internalize that killing animals for food/products as murder, it's hard to accept a little murder). Maybe they could, if nothing else, be put to work talking up veganism and vegetarianism to less receptive people - who might be even more inclined to turn out vegan voices anyway.
i just had to thank you for this, work sucked (not unusual) but this was a lovely intro to my post work day