Sam Seder, "If People Don't Care About Killing People, Why Should They Be Vegan?"

in this video Sam Seder makes an
argument that would be really interesting if it were sincere I think everyone will agree this just comes together as a kind of improvised set of excuses but the closing argument here is that nobody ethically or morally is gonna care about ecology veganism random words nobody is gonna care because Sam Seder is old enough to remember a time when the United States of America was killing thousands of people in Afghanistan and he claims nobody cared about that what an interesting philosophy that would be what an interesting like fictional character and a novel that would be if you had someone who really sincerely lost faith who lost any hope in the possibility that ethics matter in this world in this life in politics because of their negative experience with the politics of the Afghan war that would be an interesting character in a novel or in a film but Sam that's that's not who you are you're just a talk show hosts grasping at any crummy excuse that you can and that's the best excuse you came up with for why you don't care why you don't care about this issue that the caller presents to you well to be fair to be fair last night I had an impossible burger for the first time and that was actually really good yeah I mean after having an impossible burger do you feel like you know that you want to make that transition toward some more plant-based to diet you personally without death but I yeah part for me would be more like fish and some chicken but I you know progressively I'm eating less and some pork I guess in the context of like sausage occasionally I will say that what you do on an individual level really doesn't matter that much in terms of the world there must have been a time where you had that state of mind and you knew that saying that you know just saying oh what I do doesn't matter like those excuses that people make for not being vegan you know that they're [ __ ] you know like he needs to take responsibility for what we do and we're the cause of this each and every one of us you know yeah the moral appeal is not going to be effective for the greatest number of people like I share the goal of wanting people to eat less meat may it for the animals for health for the planet I think the most effective way to do that and the most effective arguments for most people will be that we need to have a habitable planet because when it comes down to morality it's entirely subjective unless there's like you know everybody believes in the same moral system everybody believes in the same like Platonic ideal somewhere in this guy like it's very hard to prove that something is immoral when it comes to something that has so little agreement like animal rights I think it's just really important just on the subject of you know environmentalism because this is also this is the number one cause of species extinction you know we're using more land for it and then we are for almost anything out and I just think that like you know we're living in a mass extinction right now and you know if we don't as a species and I mean you know I'm not necessarily uh you know I don't know how successful I'm going to be a man practices you know I don't know how successful I'm gonna be in changing people's minds but you know keeps important that I that we add the species if we're going to have an environmental movement that people stopped I you know start to see all life on this earth of being valuable people kind of start to realize that you know we're all you know we're all on this planet together I mean we have a problem we'll read each other with respect or denied I hate I agree but I mean I have to remind you that 17 years ago 15 years ago we were killing tens of thousands of people ultimately we killed hundreds of thousands of people and if you walked around I was a fully grown adult at this time you walked around and asked people about it nobody nobody nobody gave his second time nobody gave it a second thought I mean so there are limitations on a human's ability to give a crap about other people and that is a reality and it's it's also it's it's going to make it that much harder for them to give a crap about animals which is why I say that in terms of achieving your ends if they are strictly to save as many animal lives as possible that making it about morality is probably the hardest route to go to get to that end frankly but alright we're out of time interesting stuff do I appreciate the call there's a fundamental riddle here in that Sam Seder presumes that because he is a person who is opposed to the war in Afghanistan that therefore he is a person who cares about the war in Afghanistan so Sam Seder your YouTube channel has thousands and thousands of videos he uploads many videos per week I think in the last four months I think you've mentioned Afghanistan twice that's what I think I think there's actually a pretty solid historical record of just how little you care about politics of Afghanistan on your youtube channel I think it even shows how little you care in that you so casually in this video refer to thousands of deaths as something that happened 15 years ago many many years in the past the war isn't over Sam and people who care people who care and know that the year 2018 got a United Nations report here and yeah by the way I was reading this report it's video sports on my phone because I am interested I do follow Afghan politics there's an election coming up in Afghanistan right now for some reason the Sam Seder show is not talking about the election in Afghanistan you're not talking about the body count of guess you're not talking about what's going on the war folks Sam you don't care it's really easy for you to present yourself this way that you're one of the special people you're one of the tiny minority of Americans who care Sam you don't care you're 2018 how many civilians do you think were killed in the ongoing war in Afghanistan you're you're 2018 the number is three thousand eight hundred and four do you think the numbers have been going down down down over the last ten years they've been going up up up you can get the bar chart yourself but to simplify in 2010 it was about two thousand seven hundred and ninety four you know you get a good year here and there but generally speaking in the last ten years the civilian body count has only been increasing what if you're interested in combat deaths not civilians what if you're interested in Afghan security forces how many of them died you will find the statistics are concealed they are treated as secret they are not broadcast because the Americans and the Afghan government would not want to demoralize people would not want to demoralize new recruits by talking about just how many are dying in combat week after week month after month year after year it's a hell of a thing for you to say Sam this is your argument your argument is nobody cared about this issue ethically or morally unlike you you're one of the special ones you're the exception the rules can Sam and therefore it's gonna be really hard it's gonna be really hard to construct any moral or ethical argument to change the world you know whether it's about ecology animal rights veganism Martha because this is these are wildly unrelated examples I don't think you really believe that's true Sam I think your argument is insincere I think you know that people signed up to fight that war in Afghanistan for ethical reasons for moral reasons I think you know that still to this day people are signing up to fight and die because they think there's an ethical difference that matters between democracy and theocracy do you think there's a really important ethical and moral difference to me having a country where women get to go to college and have careers a country where everyone gets to vote where there's a freedom of the press and ballot boxes and all these features features imposed from the West no doubt there's a difference between having a westernized Democratic slightly gender equal Afghanistan and Afghanistan being under the rule of the Taliban and you're so busy patting yourself on the back presenting yourself as morally superior or as morally superior to us in the audience because you say you were against it along you you disapproved of the point Afghanistan from day one isn't that easy thing to do wouldn't it be harder for you to say that you think Afghanistan would be better off today if they had been continuously ruled by a Taliban dictatorship for all these years instead of having American intervention establishing democracy establishing the government they have now a government that has elections coming up and you on your political youtube showing you're not covering you're not covering those Afghan elections because the truth is Sam you don't care