The Ethics of Veganism
Introduction
I am not an “animal lover”. I don’t think cows or pigs are particularly cool or interesting, at least I don’t really want to spend time with them. I do think meat tastes great. Heck, I don’t even consider myself a particularly empathic person.
In the past, I conducted countless cruel and completely unnecessary animal experiments. I even considered myself an “anti-vegan”. Vegans, to me, were ridiculous radicals, whose toxic empathy has turned into self-harm, self-hatred or something…
So how could it possibly happend, that I myself turned into one of those “stupid” vegans?
One realization for me was, that you don’t need to be empathic. You just need to understand ethical consistency, value justice, and be receptive to logical arguments – even if they might shatter your entire previous world view. Once you understand an important truth, I find it mentally very taxing to then constantly act in contradiction to that truth. When I finally made the decision to simply buy or cook vegan meals (which is so much easier than you might think), it was a huge relief, not a burden.
In the following, I simply describe what I have seen in personal discussions, as well as countless hours of debates between vegans and non-vegans online.
I may still be completely wrong about veganism. Maybe there is a good argument against it out there. If so, I haven’t found it.
I thought I had good arguments, but I noticed in debates (I encourage you to check out the links at the end) that a lot of people have the same arguments, and that they are logically inconsistent or easily debunked. Most people never think deeply about stuff they have always done in a certain way (it took me until my mid 30s to think about this topic). We just come up with ad-hoc excuses when pressed, to make ourselves believe that we are always acting rationally.
Definitions
Before we explore the debate, the excuses, and counter-arguments, let’s make it very clear what veganism even is, and what it is not.
I think the best definition is still the following:
Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation and cruelty to animals for food, clothing or any other purpose.
The Vegan Society
1944
Veganism is not just a type of nutrition or diet trend. It is not about environmentalism. It’s not about being anti-human or about virtue signalling.
People choose to become vegan for any kinds of reason, and some of these side topics above are still valid doorways (well, not the anti-human motivation). However, I believe that only a solid ethical and logical foundation can really make it sustainable and even effortless in everyday life.
For example, lets say someone argues that at some particular location, or in some specific edge case it is more environmentally friendly to produce animal meat than to plant vegan food. Would that now justify slaughtering animals? I hope after this post, it should be clear how do analyze such questions.
Ethical Veganism
Important preface: This is not about my morals, or those of some vegan society (which sounds like a cult anyways 😉 ). It is completely irrelevant what I think. The goal is to prove to non-vegans that they are morally inconsistent within their own moral framework. That there is a conflict between their own values and their actions.
The most basic approach is to ask the question:
Why is it ok to enslave and kill animals but not humans? What is the ethically significant difference?
As a non-vegan you have to defend your position, you have to justify your aggression towards the animals. Surely, you must have a convincing, ethically sound argument, right?
Surprisingly, as it turns out, most people don’t. Many haven’t even thought about this question ever before.
Answers may include intelligence, the ability to communicate, or simply the DNA (just being the same species). All of which can be debunked with simple thought experiments. Simply replace the animal with a human that happens to have the same property and ask the question again:
Is it ok to slaughter a human that has the same IQ as a cow, that is nonverbal, or that through some genetic alteration doesn’t have human DNA?
If the answer is no, then you have a contradiction. Once you truly realize this, it is actually pretty hard to live with this level of cognitive dissonance. When I realized that I cannot justify my position as a non-vegan, it took me a couple of months, where I struggled with this mental conflict, holding certain values, but performing contradictory actions. Typically, as I did, you will try to find other excuses that may justify your behaviour, which I will address further below.
Again, I am not trying to imposing my morals, but rather appeal to your intellectual honesty, to reconciliate your professed values with your everyday actions.
Side note: If the person has pets, the question could be: Why is it ok to kill livestock (In German: Nutztiere), but not your cats or dogs? That is a level of cognitive dissonance that is even harder to resolve, as there is obviously little difference between the species.
Obstacles and Excuses
The reasons why people consume animal products can be categorized into four groups:
Tradition (it’s part of my culture), taste (meat tastes good), convenience (it’s so hard to be vegan), and habit (I’ve always done it this way).
Convenience may also be social: Fear of getting ridiculed for holding a minority viewpoint. If you openly opposed veganism in the past, you may fear loss of face or loss of reputation in your social circle.
There is also a great German word “Erkenntnisangst” (fear of insight). To gain a certain insight, one would have to fundamentally question one’s life and worldview, and in some areas reject and adapt it. This is a scary and hard thing to do, and causes people in all kinds of areas to avoid any information that could threaten their viewpoint (creating the infamous bubbles and safe spaces).
This is also why I think public debates are very important. No one wakes up in the morning and thinks “I want to watch videos about veganism now, that tell me I am wrong about everything”. But one might turn on a debate show, maybe rooting for the anti-vegan in the studio, hoping he will prove that stupid vegan wrong. But since one still gets exposed to the arguments of both sides, it may trigger some introspection.
Common excuses
“It is in our biology. Humans are omnivores. Animals eat each other as well.”
First of all, nature is not a moral guide. Lions rape and kill their offspring, that would not justify it for humans. Unlike animals, we are moral agents, we can choose compassion over instinct.
In a hypothetical scenario, where you are stranded on a deserted island, of course you could hunt for animals even as a vegan. Remember, the definition says “as far as possible and practicable”.
However, unlike wild animals, we don’t have to kill to survive, we live in a world of abundance.
“I buy from organic farms, where the animals are treated well. And I only eat meat once a week.”
In my opinion organic products are just a clever way to make money by selling a clear conscience. But all animal agriculture involves enslavement, forced impregnation, and premature killing. Ask yourself again, is it ok for me to kill people if I give them a comfortable life before? If its wrong to kill, is it ok to do it only sometimes? Every purchase funds the suffering in the animal industry.
“Flies die on the windshield of your car! Mice are getting killed in vegan agriculture as well!”
These arguments are kind of a bad faith distraction tactic. It equates unavoidable accidents with deliberate intent. Veganism is not about achieving zero harm, which is impossible in this world, but about reducing unnecessary harm that we can control.
Otherwise we would all have to commit suicide (suicide fallacy), which would make veganism a pretty terrible philosophy. Conversely, saying “I cannot be perfect, so I don’t do anything” is also a pretty lazy attitude.
Regarding the second point. This is also a variation of “Vegan food production consumes a lot of water resources! Shipping fruits and vegetables around the globe emits CO2!”
Whether its killing mice or generating emissions. This argument is easily debunked by math: If you need 10kg of grains to produce 1kg of meat, this is an argument for veganism, i.e. consuming the grains directly rather than feeding it inefficiently to exploited animals. In fact 70-80% of global crops go straight to feeding livestock, not humans.
Lets assume there may be some specific examples where animal industry might have environmental or practical advantages. For example, here in the Swiss alps, the topology is not very suitable for agriculture, but you can send goats and cows there. remember veganism is not about the environment, but about ethics and justice, right and wrong.
If it was more practicable and efficient to use human slaves to pick cotton, it would still be wrong. As a side note: Those Swiss alpine animals still require a lot of supplement feed from valley croplands.
Resources
Here are some vegan educators and activists (I hate the word activism, but I guess as animals can’t speak for themselves, this is the one area where activism is warranted).
I mostly watch youtube, but you can find links to their websites and other social media in their videos.
Personally, I like seeing debates. All links below contain many of those recorded on the street, online, or in TV studios. That way you can put yourself in the shoes of the non-vegan or anti-vegan and see how various arguments are addressed in real time.
- Die militante Veganerin (German, but a lot of English content as well)
Pretty much the main person that convinced me to become vegan. She is very confrontational and direct. This may put people off at first. But its also the reason I started watching her videos as a non-vegan in the first place. Just to make fun of her, as she gets very animated in heated debates. However, when I actually thought about what she said, and stopped being offended by the way she said it, I realized that she is absolutely right. She has really done her homework, knows the facts, the studies, and mercilessly points out logical fallacies and excuses. - Earthling Ed
Kind of the opposite of die militante Veganerin. If you watch his debates, he is calm and composed, listens to the other side, and empathically guides them through the flaws in their thinking. - Lichtblick (German)
A mixture of the former two. Does reaction videos to other debates and does online debates. - Discord Server “Vegan Dreamland”
A place to ask questions, meet vegans, and listen to or join in on live debates that are held daily.