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Who is your least favorite vegan person?
  • Rule 2: Being outspoken about animal rights or the environment isn't a negative quality.

    I should clarify I'm mostly asking about a specific well-known vegan and something negative about them unrelated to their veganism.

  • Who is your least favorite vegan person?

    For a change from people asking who is your favorite vegan celebrity or person you didn't expect to be vegan or whatnot, I thought it would be interesting to see who is our least favorite vegan.

    I know, vegans are usually good people (even outside of their veganism, that is), though not all of course, and we need to be able to admit that not all vegans are perfect, and be resistant against the association fallacy, which this is a test for. What is that?

    In this context, association fallacy is assuming that because someone (or a sub-group within a group) shares something in common with a group of people, that group of people must automatically be similar to that person (or sub-group) in other ways. For example, Aileen Wuornos was a feminist, and a serial killer. Does that mean feminists are violent? Of course not.

    The typical example of this fallacy is actually relevant but based on misinformation, which is that vegans are evil because Hitler was a vegetarian (not even vegan). This type of Hitler argument has become so common that it's known as its own class of association fallacy called ad Hitlerum. Well, apparently he wasn't actually even vegetarian, and it was a PR tactic deployed by Goebbels to make him appear peaceful, but even if he was, that's not evidence that vegans inherently share any qualities with Hitler.

    A common relevant example that vegans come up against is, some vegans are X, or Y or Z (don't want to inflame people but I'm referring to different controversial political views that some vegans hold, even though they're in the minority of vegans), and therefore all vegans are X/Y/Z. I hope we can see how this is illogical.

    By the way, answering this question with "all of them" is acceptable (though it misses the point) but completely expected, which makes it less funny. I'm interested to know of a particular well-known person who is vegan but who you also don't rate for one reason or another. And being "preachy" abour veganism I'm not counting as a reason because being outspoken about animal rights or the environment isn't a negative quality, and shouldn't be viewed as one. That said, name your target.

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    Is it problematic/speciesist to have a favourite animal?
  • There are factual differences between races. Sure the differences might not be as pronounced as differences between species, but why does that matter? Why should those differences forbid us from treating them all equally given that they're all sentient beings?

  • Is it problematic/speciesist to have a favourite animal?
  • Recognising that speciesism is an immoral form of discrimination comparable to other forms like racism is key to animal liberation. So I believe rejecting the comparison is contrary to what veganism actually stands for.

  • Is it problematic/speciesist to have a favourite animal?
  • Sorry I missed this comment.

    Treating them all as equally well as possible makes sense, to be clear. That means not exploiting or harming any of them unnecessarily.

    But treating them in exactly the same way doesn't, since they have different needs and considerations as you point out. I agree with that.

    And I'm not saying we should have all animals as pets, in fact due to the suffering it causes I would be wholly against the domestication of any more animals.

    But we don't have to treat animals in the same exact ways in order to respect and love them equally, even remotely or conceptually, even just based on the knowledge of them. It does feel strange to me to say "this species is my favourite species". Is it speciesist? I'm not sure. It's definitely not as bad as exploiting species selectively. But it might have some remnant of the views that led to those practices in the first place, potentially. I'm conflicted about it like another vegan said here whose comment was deleted.

  • Is it problematic/speciesist to have a favourite animal?
  • Okay I believe you (Not all vegans are the same after all. For example some people call themselves vegan when they're really just eating a plant-based diet, still buy other animal products, or don't have very strong views about animal rights. Not saying that's the case here but when there are fewer vegans in a community, there can be more of that.)

    But what confused me is that rather than just answering the question of whether it's speciesist to prefer one animal species over another (even when respecting both of their rights by being vegan), you mostly went on a tangent about rejecting the comparison between racism and speciesism, even though vegans typically stress the fact that both forms of discrimination of individuals are comparable to each other, and it's usually people who are against the vegan movement who try to argue they aren't, and say things like "Considering humans and non-human animals as the same is problematic" (even though that's a strawman since the vegan position acknowledges the differences between species but advocates for moral treatment of all species regardless).

    I just don't really understand. Do you for example think that it's wrong to compare immoral treatment of humans to immoral treatment of non-human animals? Because that's the vibe I'm getting.

  • Is it problematic/speciesist to have a favourite animal?
  • I had reason to believe that would happen if I didn't specifically ask for only vegan replies, which you did not respect. I was right. And no it's not a self fulfilling prophecy. I've tried asking things on vegan communities on Lemmy before without that preface, and just got non-vegans trolling. At least this might reduce it. But the trolls are abundant. You are absolutely a troll. Please go away.

  • Is it problematic/speciesist to have a favourite animal?
  • I'm trying to talk to vegans about this topic. That's all. This question is discussing things that vegans focus on in particular. If I was asking another question geared toward all people that would be different. Please leave me alone now.

  • Is it problematic/speciesist to have a favourite animal?

    Note: It's become clear to me that so far the vegan community on Lemmy (unlike Reddit) is lacking and overrun by non-vegans. So please only answer this if you're actually vegan. I'm seeking a vegan perspective on this.

    With that out of the way, is it speciesist to have a favourite animal? Many vegans consider themselves dog 🐕 lovers or cat 🐈 lovers ("ailurophiles") first and foremost, aside from animal lovers (who actually respect animals hence their veganism) in general. Others, like Joey Carbstrong, say that pigs 🐖 are their favourite animal and always have been even since before they went vegan; maybe some saw the movie "Babe" and developed an affection for them, for example. It's understandable. And others like cows 🐄 or chicks 🐥 or lambs 🐑 of course.

    But as much as it might be a natural thing to gravitate to a certain species of animal, and "favouritise" them, is that still a form of speciesism? Of course if you're not actually exploiting the animals that aren't your favourite then it's only a mental matter. But is it still wrong even just to view them differentially and prefer or hold more love for some species than others? Loving an individual than another makes sense. But would you love one race of people more than other? Do you say "Greek people are my favourite race" (as a non-Greek person, for sake of example)? If not, and if that would be considered racist, then why is it not speciesist to prefer one species over others, even if just mentally?

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    Does the new Scott Pilgrim anime have vegan references? (For anyone that watched it)

    Probably the only reason I would watch the series is to see something about veganism (it's pretty long otherwise). If anyone knows that might save me watching it. Thanks

    For info, the anime, based on a popular movie, has a returning character named Todd Ingram who is vegan and has "vegan powers" that he loses if he eats animal products, or at least that was the case in the movie. And it spawned a bunch of vegan memes that non-vegans always quote to me.

    6
    They're hurting my friends

    And I feel powerless to stop them. Does anyone else feel like this?

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    Movies/TV about abolitionists during times of human slavery?

    Films about slavery usually focus on the victims themselves, which is understandable.

    Instead, I'm looking for movies (or TV series) which depict abolitionists at the time of widespread and normalised human slavery in society, and the rise of the abolitionist movement. That is, I want to see anti-slavery activists and how they eventually overtook society and transformed from a minority into the majority of people agreeing with them.

    I'm interested in showing abolitionists in general but specifically in showing the growth of the abolitionism movement from being a vocal minority seemingly hated by most people, to the majority view in society. (Truly it would have to cover hundreds of years to show this complete, slow transition of society turning against slavery.)

    I believe animal rights activists today might benefit from seeing the perspectives of people campaigning to end human slavery despite most of society being against them, and be inspired by how they eventually convinced everyone to reject slavery, as animal rights activists attempt to convince everyone to reject animal exploitation in modern day.

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    Can we identify as animalists?

    The words don't seem that common, but I think 'animalist' or 'animalism' put the focus back on animals, similar to 'feminist/feminism', and more accurately describe what veganism means to me: a moral stance supporting animals. It somewhat confuses me that there isn't a simple term to denote full support and protection for animals, other than veganism I guess, and that veganism doesn't contain 'animal' in the name which could be misleading.

    I feel like while veganism is a good term, it can sometimes carry the wrong connotations I'm trying to express due to public misunderstanding of what vegan means or what the point of it is. I think too many people think it's a religious/ascetic or arbitrary practice, rather than a progressive ethical stance to do with not exploiting animals. That said, vegan/veganism, whether intended to be used this way, seem like good catch-all terms for completely avoiding animal exploitation/animal "use" for whatever reasons, whether ethical, environmental and/or health-related. And, it may be the most accurately understood word that expresses to other people about what I don't partake in, including for dietary purposes (morso than 'plant-based').

    Animalist/animalism could be used in tandem with vegan/veganism to specifically highlight the component/focus on animal ethics. For example "I'm vegan because I'm an animalist, and also because I'm an environmentalist." This can also be a way to answer the question of why you're vegan when people ask.

    P.S.

    I also like how animalist/animalism are simple, quick one-word terms, unlike wordy "animal liberationist" (which apparently means the same as animalist), or "animal rights supporter". Animal advocate sounds like animal activist which isn't what I'm trying to express with this particular term as much as an ideological support for animals, like how a feminist isn't necessarily a women's rights advocate.

    I know the words can relate to a philosophy but those might not be used that much, especially 'animalist', and I hoped they could be co-opted for the animal movement as they seem like useful words. I try to imagine what a future vegan society would call themselves, and animalist / animalism just seem like easy words to gravitate to. According to my research, they've both been used in animal rights contexts as well.

    Sorry for the long post, I've been wondering this for a while and wanted to see what other vegans think about the terms 'animalist' and 'animalism'.

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    Grapetruth @lemmy.world
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