That's a good point too, just the expense of fresh water for livestock should be a concern for all water users on Earth. One of the points I had hoped to make here in this article was that I don't try to be more moral than others, and I certainly don't intend to try to convert anyone to my methods; my formula is to make the world only 1 better by improving myself, the only place that I have any authority or real responsibility.
You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
I think also it's interesting to think about it from a psychology stance. If one is truly set upon changing society, and so changing other people's minds, I really don't think that taking a hardline radical stance is actually very effective. It tends to alienate you from the people whom you wish to convince, and establishes tribal like hostility. So actually being 100% vegan and beating everyone about the brow for being terrible immoral human beings for eating meat (something humans appear to have been doing for a long long time) will probably have the completely opposite than desired effect, simply making them see you as an enemy and motivate them to do the opposite of what you are trying to get them to do, thus delineating their tribal identity.
Conversely, your approach of gently gently and non-accusatory establishes zones of commonality, which is much more likely to motivate people to align with you, perhaps bringing the rest of their tribe with them in the process.
That is a good point, those tribal tendencies are likely to be a strong influence on peoples perceptions of new or different things. Food choices seem to often be founded on existing belief systems, so it's practically two different religions-- Veganism and Carnism. Vegans are at a disadvantage from the beginning because they have that specific label; the 'Vegans', while the Carnists are just 'everybody else'. I think that if I didn't already know what a vegan was, I would think it sounds like some kind of cult-- the name doesn't make me want to join! The similarities to religions are so acute, I don't dare try to push my particular faith on anyone.