This:
Uh yeah, I agree with this picture 100%. You cannot love animals and still eat meat. That’s just a fact, I don’t see why people would even bother arguing this. You’re an ignorant and selfish hypocrite who tries to act loving and compassionate. Fuck you. You wouldn’t kill an animal yourself, but you’d pay for someone to kill it, cut it up, package it, and possibly cook it for you so you can eat it? Do you realize how stupid that sounds?
*sigh* I just... I'd take up the whole page typing a response this shite.
Also Supernatural episode tonight: WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYY
He's halfway to having a point, although the way it's phrased is utterly batshit retarded. The way animals raised for meat in factory farms are treated is completely inhumane under any reasonable standard. A lot of them barely have room to turn around for the vast majority of the day and they're injected with so many hormones and crap that they never really have anything approaching a "natural" existence. In fact many of them are so bloated that they could barely move even if they had room to do so. The way they're slaughtered is often completely inhumane as well; reports of chickens being tied upside down and screaming are not entirely unheard of. So, anyone who eats meat from factory farms is directly contributing to a system which produces horrifying oppression. There's really no way to claim that meat raised from factory farms doesn't have a much
worse existence than meat that comes from hunted animals. That's just objectively impossible. I suppose it could be possible for someone who eats meat from factory farms to simply be ignorant of the way animals on them are treated, but if you're aware and continue eating it then it'd be difficult to make a case that you love the animals that are treated in such an appalling fashion.
It's really difficult to elucidate the horror in full without visuals, so
see Wikipedia.
However, his claim that anyone who consumes meat can't love animals is retarded. Humans are omnivores by nature. While it's possible to maintain a healthy diet without meat, it is not particularly easy. I tried it for three years and found that the lack of protein in my diet was making me irrational and less lucid than I should have been. Animals raised in humane conditions and slaughtered humanely can generally be considered to have lived full and largely natural lives, and there's really no shame in eating them.
However, it is worth pointing out that overconsumption of meat is not particularly good for the planet, as the massive number of farm animals contribute significantly to the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (methane in particular) and is also significantly less efficient than the production of plants for human consumption. In particular, if memory serves correctly it takes about five times as many plants to raise meat for human consumption as it would if those plants were simply used to feed people. So in other words, you're getting a 1:5 return. It's also worth pointing out that many of the chemicals in factory farmed food are suspected to be carcinogenic.
However, I haven't stopped eating meat entirely. I will also openly admit to being part of the problem, as I haven't always been vigilant about not consuming meat from factory farms. There isn't really that much shame in loving certain kinds of animals much more than others; we're biologically engineered to love certain species (dogs in particular) much more than others.
In short, Michael Pollan's advice seems to be good: "Eat food" (as opposed to factory processed junk), "not too much, mostly plants."
On topic: Valentine's Day. Or as it should be called, singles' awareness day. If you seriously need a special calendar holiday to remind yourself to express devotion to your partner, then there's something seriously wrong with your relationship. It's a stupid fucking Hallmark holiday that exists solely to funnel money into the coffers of vacuous corporations.
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