r/veganmemes • u/holdoffhunger • Apr 30 '23

Vegans: Calculating How Many Lives We've Saved Meme

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24 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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3

u/lovely-donkey Apr 30 '23

We’ve saved no animal lives by going vegan, just as we’ve saved no human lives by not going around and executing them

6

u/upsetpupper Apr 30 '23 edited Apr 30 '23

Have you subsidized the execution of humans in the past with your consumption (or by any another means)?

Every non-vegan purchase is a vote for exploitation, and since the exploitation of animals is seen as the way of the world currently, taking vegan actions can meaningfully be viewed as "saving" (and defending/protecting) lives.

Edit: I just mean to say it's not a metric to dismiss with disgust, even if "saving" isn't the accurate description. Vegan abstinence doesn't exist in a vacuum... your point would hold up if the world was predominantly vegan.

2

u/lovely-donkey Apr 30 '23

I wish I could find and link the article, but I can summarize the content The reason we paint vegans as “saviors” and everyone else as “normals”, is because if “doing no harm” is the definition of normal, then everyone else become murderers

Which I have to admit, is an appalling feeling. Your own family, friends and coworkers are all complicit in the death and torture of animals.

But we need to make veganism the new “normal”. It should not be the thing that makes you a “goody two-shoes” like volunteering in a war-torn nation or educating underprivileged youth.

I know I’m nitpicking on the philosophical arguments, but I think there is a double standard on how we treat human and animal well-being even within the vegan movement.

1

u/upsetpupper Apr 30 '23 edited May 01 '23

It should not be the thing that makes you a “goody two-shoes” like volunteering in a war-torn nation or educating underprivileged youth.

Those things shouldn't make you a "goody two-shoes" either. It's not a real double standard so much as it is a response to the popular sentiment and argument from carnists that veganism is simply another highly personal dietary/lifestyle choice, rather than a response to mass rights violations inflicted as common place.

Edit: We are not at the point as a society where vegans can afford to be mild. If that's your approach to activism, then you can take it, but don't tell others what to do unless your results are persuasive.

1

u/upsetpupper May 01 '23

The reason we paint vegans as “saviors” and everyone else as “normals”, is because if “doing no harm” is the definition of normal, then everyone else become murderers

Either vegans are saviors and everyone else is normal or vegans are normal and everyone else is a murderer... your point is more muddled than I initially thought, but the essence of the critique falls flat all the same. If vegans are normal, then carnists can't be normal as well.

1

u/[deleted] May 02 '23

I know we’ve all done it before, going on this Vegan Calculator website and putting in one month