I notice this with people talking about capitalism, obviously, but honestly what drove me to make this post is the attempted arguments against veganism. They’re basically 95% unoriginal and fail under the most basic of scrutiny.
Take, for example, “not eating the meat won’t bring the cow back.” Under basically any logical scrutiny, this is a clear double standard to any other purchasing decision in capitalist society, and doesn’t really make any sense. But I’ve seen in so many times over the years, so much so that im planning on becoming a vegan over a period of time. Not because of any arguments vegans make, but because somehow pro-meat eaters are losing a debate to a brick wall, and the conclusions I’ve made myself have convinced myself that I should be vegan. And I’m really starting to ask, do people just…like…ctrl+c ctrl+v arguments in their head?
I…try to be nice. But…how little respect to your own ability do you have if you do that? Not only to justify something you really don’t have to, but something you obviously dont care about. I mean…sorry, it’s just baffling to me.
In the words of Kim Kitsuragi from disco elysium, “I dont understand officer…please, help me understand”
Logic generally isn’t enough to convince people to become vegan because it’s contending with other mental forces much more powerful than logic. The force of habit. The unwillingness to accept you’ve been doing things wrong. The fear of potential conflicts, judgement, or awkwardness, of potentially becoming part of an outgroup. Just one of those is difficult to overcome, but with all of them all at once, it can become insurmountable for a lot of people.
This is what I realized like the week after going vegan - that every reason and justification that had previously held me back was just an incredibly flimsy excuse. Like, when I made the decision it felt tough with some reasonable points both ways, veganism being just a bit more compelling, enough to try it out - but once I took the plunge and the arguments no longer had those psychological forces behind them, it become abundantly clear how idiotic they were, and how foolish I had been to let them hold me back.
Meat eaters employ bad arguments because there are no good arguments, and their minds desperately want to find some argument that can hold enough water to push it aside and thing about something else as quickly as possible, to eliminate the threat the question poses to the psyche.