Be Vegan

I said I would mostly keep it tech related.

People often use the metaphor of the orphan-crushing machine to allude to systems in place that are morally abhorrent or detrimental that are relatively easy to switch off. While the metaphor is just that - a metaphor - there is a very real, often literal orphan-crushing machine that's been on 24/7, 365 for tens of thousands of years. Said machine kills over 2,500 "orphans" a second (FAOSTAT, Animal Kill Clock).

Take a step back and think about where the food you eat and the clothes you wear come from. Not the supermarkets, not the factories, not even the corporations - but the source. When you eat meat, you're eating the (normally cooked) flesh of a now killed, once living, feeling thing. When you consume dairy, you're consuming the secretion of an animal that was systematically raped so that we could steal the liquids made for her babies. When you wear leather, you're wearing the skinned carcass of a possible companion. When you eat eggs you're eating the yellow and white gunk of the vessel designed to create life. Slaughterhouse employees laugh while the livestock try and escape their deaths. We stain seas red with the blood of slaughtered whales (Reynolds). Does that not sound insane?

I'm not trying to make you feel bad. I'm not saying you're evil. I'm not trying to claim moral high ground. I'm not trying to say I'm better than you. I'm not trying to say I'm perfect. I'm not trying to say animals' lives are just as or more important or valuable than humans. But it's insane, right? Once we stop thinking about what society says is normal, can we realize that that the exploitation, murder, and rape of trillions of animals isn't OK? I said I'm not trying to make you feel bad, which is true, but we really should. We systemically kill, rape, steal from, and enslave species that can't stick up for themselves, all while killing the planet in the process. I've had people in my life that have made me consider things I wouldn't have otherwise, so I'm trying to do that for you.

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Being vegan doesn't mean not eating animals and animal products. Veganism isn't a diet - it's an ethical position. The same way believing all humans are equal regardless of their race, gender, sex, or sexuality is. The same way we (mostly) don't own slaves anymore. The same way believing that things like the rape and murder of humans are wrong. Vegans don't define themselves by their plant-based diets, they define themselves by not seeing animals as something for us to "use". Animals aren't something that exist just for us to abuse and profit off of.

Animals feel. The same as us. The same as your pets. It doesn't matter if they aren't as smart or aren't as important as us, they still feel and think. They feel every lethal injection or electric shock we give them so we can kill them. They feel every cramped condition we force them into. They know they should be allowed to live outside, not locked in a factory farm for their entire short lives. They could be pets. Companions. You wouldn't eat a dog or a cat, I'm guessing. So why a cow, chicken, or pig? Any emotions you see or project onto your pet you could just as easily and rightfully be projected onto any animal that is traditionally livestock.

Plants don't feel pain, or think. At least not in the same way or to the same extent. They don't suffer. If it was possible I wouldn't eat plants either, as they are still living, but as of now it isn't possible to be a level 5 vegan by surviving off of, like, salt and water alone.

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As I touched on before, eating less meat and dairy is the single biggest way to reduce your individual climate impact (Carrington). Creating just 50 grams of chicken produces the same amount of CO₂ as 95,000 AI queries and uses 865 liters of water (Hoyle, Guardian). Even if it alone might not be a big impact compared to the biggest polluters out there, but it's what we got. If you then advocate for others to do it to, that multiplies your impact. While this is a benefit, it should not distract from the fact that eating a living thing is in and of itself morally wrong.

When you think about it, you can't tell me that the concept of consuming animal milk and eggs doesn't sound gross. Try to explain it in a way that doesn't make it sound disgusting and unethical. In order to produce the milk and eggs society consumes on a large scale, animals are bred to be painful shells of their natural counterparts to produce better results. Animals are systemically raped so that we can steal the milk meant for their likely killed babies that were taken away from them. They're killed so we can eat their carcasses.

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But you can't be healthy/strong/muscular being vegan! Vegans are malnourished!
Like with any food you eat, you just have to plan it out. If you eat only fruit or something, then yeah, you're going to have health problems. Just be smart about it. There are plenty of successful, "healthy", "fit", and "muscular" vegans out there. Racing champion Lewis Hamilton, famous singer Billie Eilish, and actor Cillian Murphy are all plant-based. Professional soccer player Alex Morgan, basketball MVP Kyrie Irving, and number one tennis player Venus Williams are all Olympic gold medalists and plant-based. Even a bodybuilder can be plant-based.

But we've always eaten meat! Are you saying indigenous people are wrong and need to change?
We've also always went to war, always had child brides, always had slaves, always raped prisoners of war, and always died of preventable diseases. If you live your life based on how things "always" were, I'm expecting you to throw away whatever device you're reading this on before moving out to the wilderness without water, sewage, or electric. That's not to say it's possible to live with 100% perfect ethics - modern society requires you to forgo some of your basic human decency to survive - but if you can do something, then you should. For until we replace the current systems killing our planet, this is something you can do now (not that what eating animals would be ethical under any system).

Vegans accept not everyone might be able to be vegan. That doesn't mean appropriating another's culture changes the ethics at hand. You can be proud of an indigenous identity while being vegan. Just because someone wants to live without exploiting animals doesn't mean they can't identify with their ancestors. You don't have to reject any given identity to be vegan. Using animal products isn't some monocultural thing, every culture, to some extent, has a history with it. So to say that the suffering of trillions of animals is ignorable because any given indigenous group participates in it doesn't resonate with me or other vegans.

But I like meat and dairy!
First, that's OK. Be "vegan, except burgers". No one's perfect, including myself. If there's something you think you can't live without, keep consuming it. There's no vegan police. People might tell you you're doing it wrong or something, but screw them. Everyone has to start with anything from somewhere.

Second, I will again ask you to step back before you think of that comment you may or may not have had. Is it OK to do something just because you like it? Is it OK to, let's say, kill other humans because you like it? Then, is it OK for animals? That's crazy logic.

But vegans are annoying! PETA and That Vegan Teacher are weird!
That's at least partially correct, to be honest. Hopefully I don't come off as the annoying vegan stereotype. I'm not asking you to become like them or be their biggest fan or anything. Just ask yourself, if you were witnessing the single largest systematic genocide and rape of hundreds of species, would you be silent? That's their motivation (presumably, unless they're PSYOPs to make vegans look bad or something).

It's easy to say you care about animals, but do you care enough to actually do something about it? Again, please don't take this personally. I'm simply trying to get your mental gears turning. I'm not asking you to instantly convert to being vegan, I'm just requesting you think about it. Think about how you would feel to be in the situation that we subject billions of animals to every day. Help turn off the orphan-crushing machine.

As always, below are some links to people and resources who have helped me in my journey to becoming plant-based. I've chosen not to directly put the violent and graphic videos showcasing the horrid treatment of animals inside factory farms here, but I highly recommend you check out twoleggedplague for such videos. Lots of my inspiration for this was from him. My favorites/the ones that I especially recommend you to check out are in bold.