Vegans Can Be Idiots, Too: Will Tuttle's World Peace Diet.
17 September 2016 [link youtube]
Youtube Automatic Transcription
I think there are a lot of vegans for
whom it is simply convenient to pretend that will Tuttle is a respected and respectable voice within vegan activism and he's not this is not respectable I'm anise Yin this channel has been home to a great many different debates debates about veganism ecology animal rights ethics and politics of veganism but in a sense all of these debates can be wrapped up and described as just one big debate and that is a debate about the question of the future of the vegan movement itself what is the future of the vegan movement I do not think there's much of a point in my simply revealing my fellow vegans and my fellow vegan leaders leaders of public opinion within the vegan movement reviling them as idiots however I think it's tremendously important to point the finger and say this is not the future of veganism and it's tremendously important not just for me it's tremendously important that a great many of us devote the time and energy to in that sense indicating what can and cannot be the future of veganism I'm really not a fan of people who just invoke the name of science as if science had some self-evident value or significance especially not in politics or ethics or what have you the same reasons that I'm not a fan of people who just talk about learning the lessons of history oh well you haven't learned the lessons of history haven't learned the lessons that have yet nothing for something different people are gonna draw different lessons from the same history and from the same war I just heard Jenk Weger saying some amazingly stupid self-righteous and ignorant things about the history of Cambodia and America's policy in Cambodia terrifying to me so the event in which millions of people died and today you know someone like Jake weaker is trying to score points off ik politically out of out of total ignorance at a frightening ignorance and he has no hesitation in making you know Jake Uighur is a significant political leader in his own way internet personality and what-have-you and he has no hesitation in making statements about millions of people getting without reading a single book without pausing to reflect on what he really knows and how he knows it and what he doesn't know in that history but anyway we can't just talk about the lessons of history we can't just talk with the lessons of science nevertheless this example of this guy will Tuttle and the the world peace diet it does raise questions for us of scientific and anti-scientific attitudes within veganism in the 21st century difficult questions to ask if evil questions for us to answer so gonna read this and for some of you simply by reading this aloud will already be refutation enough you will not really need anyone to explain to you what's what's wrong with this approach to veganism quote beyond this physical level of biomechanism such as hormone levels toxins and nutrients there are metaphysical forces at work that though ignored are nevertheless operating metaphysical toxins ie concentrated vibrations of terror grief frustration and desperation permeating these foods are invisible and completely unrecognized by conventional science yet they may be even more disturbing to us than physical toxins because they work on the level of feelings and consciousness which are more essential dimensions of ourselves than our physical vehicle by purchasing or ordering animal products we directly cause misery and sow seeds of despair and cruel violence it would be naive to think these seeds simply disappear into thin air the terror and frustration we cause the feeling creatures whose bodies and minds are tormented beyond imagining are extremely powerful forces that affect us their causative agents in many ways when we nourish the cells with which we think and feel with the flesh and secretions of these terrorized animals we absorb the vibrations of fear disease and violence no matter how we try to disguise this with euphemisms and distractions physicists are beginning to glimpse the truth that mystics and sages have been pointing toward for centuries it might be more entertaining for my viewers if I were to rant endlessly about everything wrong in this half page of text taken from the world peace diet but it wouldn't accomplish much I think there are a lot of vegans for whom it is simply convenient to pretend that will Tuttle is a respected and respectable voice within vegan activism and he's not this is not respectable and I can say that I'm in the rare and privileged position to say it's not just that this cannot be respected within political science I can also say that this is not respectable within Buddhism I was a scholar of Buddhism for more than 10 years I have peer-reviewed publications to my knowledge will Tuttle does not will Tuttle describes himself as a Dharma master what he says about Buddhism in this book is deeply embarrassing to any well-educated Buddhist what he says about war and peace and politics is deeply embarrassing to anyone who cares about politics and what he says about veganism is deeply embarrassing to any vegan it discredits veganism it makes all of us look like idiots if anyone thinks that all of us have anything in common with with will Tuttle did you feel you see how the wind just came out of my sails I just I just don't have it in me to keep scoring on and laugh at this guy I don't know it's ah but that that last sentence I read to me if you don't know this is a snake oil salesman if you don't know this is garbage again some people watching this are only 16 years old some people watching this English is not your first language I know I have very diverse audience but that that final sentence fit quote physicists are beginning to glimpse the truth that mystics and sages have been pointing towards for century one of the lines that stood out to me is this notion he says it would be naive to think that these seeds simply disappear into thin air so you know this is an indirect appeal to a Buddhist theory of karma Buddhist or Hindu for that matter and I so strongly feel that the exact opposite of this is true it's not it's it's not naive to think that atrocities happen and then disappear into thin air it's the opposite it's the clinging to the notion that there's some kind of supernatural justice in the world that that that atrocities don't disappear into thin air but linger well I mean they don't appear they linger in the air they linger in the atmosphere there's magical supernatural idea of karma and retribution I remember I met a young woman in issue that we were actually in Thailand we were in the border area we're pretty close to all three Thailand Laos and Cambodia and she had been spending time like myself in Thailand Laos Cambodia when I asked what she did for a living she was a spirit medium she was she channeled ghosts and she said that back in America her job was to help people who had haunted houses because of you know tragic events that had happened in the house in the past there was a ghost in the house great great way to make a living I imagine you never never run out of work so you know she had a view of the world similar to what will Tuttle here is alluding to here that you know the ghosts of terrible things such as slaughtering animals or slaughtering people linger in the air they don't eat they don't just disappear and I was able to point out to her because I really knew the political history of that area exactly where we were sitting that she had just been spending time in places where massacres happened I said oh well you were just in phenom penh cambodia I'm sure you walked past the front lawn of the you know the National Library there you know they carried it executions there in the old days you know if they're on that same lawn for the National Library it's not naive to think that the you know the consequences of those those massacres disappeared they're a maybe tariff I think there's a very childlike element of human nature that wants to believe that no justice and injustice must be uh you know intrinsic to reality in the same way that the laws of physics are you know there must be some force like gravity that makes some the consequences of these terrible things you know remain in that place in the soil in the air or what have you and it takes maturity and detachment to face up to the horrifying fact that no these atrocities happen and people get away with them and then people do their food shopping on the same lawn and they eat picnics on the same lawn and life goes on and the vast majority Pilar quite indifferent and they don't perceive it and was able to say this this same young woman who did was a you know talk to ghosts allegedly it was a spirit medium she was on her way to VN Chan the capital city of Laos it well when you go to VN Shen I can tell you exactly where the you know the French Empire back when this is part of France when France had conquered the control conquered is T strong heart when France was ruling the country you know the sheds where people were tortured to death to take their offices it put literally Oh a friend of mine had an office in there you go people are doing paperwork people were living their lives the same ground people used to be executed on the same sheds people used to be tortured in and interrogated in I assume that same facility was also used by the Japanese after the French Empire well after the Japanese displaced the French or what have you um it's brutal and it's horrifying but no you can stand on ground where animals have been killed and people have been killed and there are no ghosts there there is no lingering force reflecting your sense of justice or injustice and it is not naive to face up to the fact that these things do as he says disappear into thin air now the if you feel that they shouldn't make something happen do something about it because justice is just a human created concept in your own mind and human beings can go out and make it happen same way that beauty or a work of art is a human created concept if if you want to make a beautiful painting you start with a blank canvas if you want to make justice in this world you start with a blank canvas also if you go to the killing fields in Cambodia you go to any patch of land you know when you're up some site related to the Holocaust or mass murder in this tree of Europe you are in many ways looking at a blank canvas it you know earth is just earth air is just air and maybe we wish or we dream that there was something lingering in the air that reflects this this bad karma but there isn't if you want justice you've got to go and make it happen if you want people to care or ethically about the consequences of their actions that's a concept in your mind just as much as literature or a story anything else a cost of your mind and you can share that with other people in the same way that Shakespeare is influenced millions of people a concept of justice and injustice can influence millions of people but it's not gonna happen this way this is not the future of veganism neither politically or spiritually nor otherwise I'm not even saying it shouldn't be the future of veganism I am saying with some confidence that it can't be so remind you the premise of this book is that this guy has a thesis about peace about war and peace not just about veganism it's not a cookbook not just about the ethics of the vegan diet but then no he's figured out how to end war here on planet earth pretty fundamental aspect of human society quote if we could look over the world we live in with the eyes of an angel comma and intuitively awakened being comma just just so you know he's Buddhist and not Christian angel God gotcha will nice save I can tell you studied real hard to get that title of Dharma master there in South Korea uh ah I'm so impressed this guy hasn't read Buddhist Canon in any language he hasn't written Pali he hasn't read Sanskrit he hasn't certainly hasn't read the mess of medieval Chinese that's preserved in you know the Korean tradition and that almost no Baker you can't read it without studying the valley or the Sanskrit to compare it to some people try just with English anyways a joke but there yeah again my perception of this guy is not merely from a secular scientific atheist I am a nihilistic a the Atheist perspective political science is also as someone who's a former scholar of Buddhism so he looks even worse from that perspective tragically anyway I continue if we could look over the world we live in with the eyes of an angel and see empty vibrations rather than just physical forms and right because that's a Buddhist idea huh yeah good luck it's neither Buddhist nor scientific nor political or anything else no way vibrations are crucial to this guy's philosophy of peace and war you got it you got to believe rather than just physical forms we would see that the wars and violence on our earth are generated from a vast complex of venues where deadening takes place the countless kitchens dining rooms ins hotels restaurants etc etc in terms of the the fundamentals here the fundamental claim I guess of the book as a whole is that if the whole world became vegan then the world would not be troubled by such minor problems as war and violence I've addressed very recently just to think two videos before this I addressed the idea that is popular among some vegan activists that we can sell them from oh veganism by claiming that if the whole world became vegan racism and sexism with disappears this is a totally spurious laughable ridiculous argument that speciesism is the root of other sources of prejudice or oppression so if we could overcome speciesism magically the vegan world would cease to contain racism sexism or what have you it's hard to say which thesis is more absurd or laughable but in will tuiles case at least he's honest with you that this thesis is magical in its nature the idea that human beings that that that the whole planet will become less violent that there will be world peace if only we stop eating animals stop eating eggs dr. animo if the world becomes vegan this relies on a magical view of vibrations of metaphysical aspects of the human diet that you've actually just gotten a pretty good summary of you know as a philosophy or worldview and that that half a page and I mean I have to ask you I know will Tuttle is invited to give lectures at universities around the world he's invited to give lectures at vegan foundations he is celebrated and uncritically lauded and applauded by vegans around the world and I've got to ask you why I I know there's a tendency to just reach out to anyone who identifies themselves as your ally or as your proponent or as your advocate in this world that is so hostile towards veganism but we have got to do better than this in a very simple sense I can say um this has to stop ah but no Yin
whom it is simply convenient to pretend that will Tuttle is a respected and respectable voice within vegan activism and he's not this is not respectable I'm anise Yin this channel has been home to a great many different debates debates about veganism ecology animal rights ethics and politics of veganism but in a sense all of these debates can be wrapped up and described as just one big debate and that is a debate about the question of the future of the vegan movement itself what is the future of the vegan movement I do not think there's much of a point in my simply revealing my fellow vegans and my fellow vegan leaders leaders of public opinion within the vegan movement reviling them as idiots however I think it's tremendously important to point the finger and say this is not the future of veganism and it's tremendously important not just for me it's tremendously important that a great many of us devote the time and energy to in that sense indicating what can and cannot be the future of veganism I'm really not a fan of people who just invoke the name of science as if science had some self-evident value or significance especially not in politics or ethics or what have you the same reasons that I'm not a fan of people who just talk about learning the lessons of history oh well you haven't learned the lessons of history haven't learned the lessons that have yet nothing for something different people are gonna draw different lessons from the same history and from the same war I just heard Jenk Weger saying some amazingly stupid self-righteous and ignorant things about the history of Cambodia and America's policy in Cambodia terrifying to me so the event in which millions of people died and today you know someone like Jake weaker is trying to score points off ik politically out of out of total ignorance at a frightening ignorance and he has no hesitation in making you know Jake Uighur is a significant political leader in his own way internet personality and what-have-you and he has no hesitation in making statements about millions of people getting without reading a single book without pausing to reflect on what he really knows and how he knows it and what he doesn't know in that history but anyway we can't just talk about the lessons of history we can't just talk with the lessons of science nevertheless this example of this guy will Tuttle and the the world peace diet it does raise questions for us of scientific and anti-scientific attitudes within veganism in the 21st century difficult questions to ask if evil questions for us to answer so gonna read this and for some of you simply by reading this aloud will already be refutation enough you will not really need anyone to explain to you what's what's wrong with this approach to veganism quote beyond this physical level of biomechanism such as hormone levels toxins and nutrients there are metaphysical forces at work that though ignored are nevertheless operating metaphysical toxins ie concentrated vibrations of terror grief frustration and desperation permeating these foods are invisible and completely unrecognized by conventional science yet they may be even more disturbing to us than physical toxins because they work on the level of feelings and consciousness which are more essential dimensions of ourselves than our physical vehicle by purchasing or ordering animal products we directly cause misery and sow seeds of despair and cruel violence it would be naive to think these seeds simply disappear into thin air the terror and frustration we cause the feeling creatures whose bodies and minds are tormented beyond imagining are extremely powerful forces that affect us their causative agents in many ways when we nourish the cells with which we think and feel with the flesh and secretions of these terrorized animals we absorb the vibrations of fear disease and violence no matter how we try to disguise this with euphemisms and distractions physicists are beginning to glimpse the truth that mystics and sages have been pointing toward for centuries it might be more entertaining for my viewers if I were to rant endlessly about everything wrong in this half page of text taken from the world peace diet but it wouldn't accomplish much I think there are a lot of vegans for whom it is simply convenient to pretend that will Tuttle is a respected and respectable voice within vegan activism and he's not this is not respectable and I can say that I'm in the rare and privileged position to say it's not just that this cannot be respected within political science I can also say that this is not respectable within Buddhism I was a scholar of Buddhism for more than 10 years I have peer-reviewed publications to my knowledge will Tuttle does not will Tuttle describes himself as a Dharma master what he says about Buddhism in this book is deeply embarrassing to any well-educated Buddhist what he says about war and peace and politics is deeply embarrassing to anyone who cares about politics and what he says about veganism is deeply embarrassing to any vegan it discredits veganism it makes all of us look like idiots if anyone thinks that all of us have anything in common with with will Tuttle did you feel you see how the wind just came out of my sails I just I just don't have it in me to keep scoring on and laugh at this guy I don't know it's ah but that that last sentence I read to me if you don't know this is a snake oil salesman if you don't know this is garbage again some people watching this are only 16 years old some people watching this English is not your first language I know I have very diverse audience but that that final sentence fit quote physicists are beginning to glimpse the truth that mystics and sages have been pointing towards for century one of the lines that stood out to me is this notion he says it would be naive to think that these seeds simply disappear into thin air so you know this is an indirect appeal to a Buddhist theory of karma Buddhist or Hindu for that matter and I so strongly feel that the exact opposite of this is true it's not it's it's not naive to think that atrocities happen and then disappear into thin air it's the opposite it's the clinging to the notion that there's some kind of supernatural justice in the world that that that atrocities don't disappear into thin air but linger well I mean they don't appear they linger in the air they linger in the atmosphere there's magical supernatural idea of karma and retribution I remember I met a young woman in issue that we were actually in Thailand we were in the border area we're pretty close to all three Thailand Laos and Cambodia and she had been spending time like myself in Thailand Laos Cambodia when I asked what she did for a living she was a spirit medium she was she channeled ghosts and she said that back in America her job was to help people who had haunted houses because of you know tragic events that had happened in the house in the past there was a ghost in the house great great way to make a living I imagine you never never run out of work so you know she had a view of the world similar to what will Tuttle here is alluding to here that you know the ghosts of terrible things such as slaughtering animals or slaughtering people linger in the air they don't eat they don't just disappear and I was able to point out to her because I really knew the political history of that area exactly where we were sitting that she had just been spending time in places where massacres happened I said oh well you were just in phenom penh cambodia I'm sure you walked past the front lawn of the you know the National Library there you know they carried it executions there in the old days you know if they're on that same lawn for the National Library it's not naive to think that the you know the consequences of those those massacres disappeared they're a maybe tariff I think there's a very childlike element of human nature that wants to believe that no justice and injustice must be uh you know intrinsic to reality in the same way that the laws of physics are you know there must be some force like gravity that makes some the consequences of these terrible things you know remain in that place in the soil in the air or what have you and it takes maturity and detachment to face up to the horrifying fact that no these atrocities happen and people get away with them and then people do their food shopping on the same lawn and they eat picnics on the same lawn and life goes on and the vast majority Pilar quite indifferent and they don't perceive it and was able to say this this same young woman who did was a you know talk to ghosts allegedly it was a spirit medium she was on her way to VN Chan the capital city of Laos it well when you go to VN Shen I can tell you exactly where the you know the French Empire back when this is part of France when France had conquered the control conquered is T strong heart when France was ruling the country you know the sheds where people were tortured to death to take their offices it put literally Oh a friend of mine had an office in there you go people are doing paperwork people were living their lives the same ground people used to be executed on the same sheds people used to be tortured in and interrogated in I assume that same facility was also used by the Japanese after the French Empire well after the Japanese displaced the French or what have you um it's brutal and it's horrifying but no you can stand on ground where animals have been killed and people have been killed and there are no ghosts there there is no lingering force reflecting your sense of justice or injustice and it is not naive to face up to the fact that these things do as he says disappear into thin air now the if you feel that they shouldn't make something happen do something about it because justice is just a human created concept in your own mind and human beings can go out and make it happen same way that beauty or a work of art is a human created concept if if you want to make a beautiful painting you start with a blank canvas if you want to make justice in this world you start with a blank canvas also if you go to the killing fields in Cambodia you go to any patch of land you know when you're up some site related to the Holocaust or mass murder in this tree of Europe you are in many ways looking at a blank canvas it you know earth is just earth air is just air and maybe we wish or we dream that there was something lingering in the air that reflects this this bad karma but there isn't if you want justice you've got to go and make it happen if you want people to care or ethically about the consequences of their actions that's a concept in your mind just as much as literature or a story anything else a cost of your mind and you can share that with other people in the same way that Shakespeare is influenced millions of people a concept of justice and injustice can influence millions of people but it's not gonna happen this way this is not the future of veganism neither politically or spiritually nor otherwise I'm not even saying it shouldn't be the future of veganism I am saying with some confidence that it can't be so remind you the premise of this book is that this guy has a thesis about peace about war and peace not just about veganism it's not a cookbook not just about the ethics of the vegan diet but then no he's figured out how to end war here on planet earth pretty fundamental aspect of human society quote if we could look over the world we live in with the eyes of an angel comma and intuitively awakened being comma just just so you know he's Buddhist and not Christian angel God gotcha will nice save I can tell you studied real hard to get that title of Dharma master there in South Korea uh ah I'm so impressed this guy hasn't read Buddhist Canon in any language he hasn't written Pali he hasn't read Sanskrit he hasn't certainly hasn't read the mess of medieval Chinese that's preserved in you know the Korean tradition and that almost no Baker you can't read it without studying the valley or the Sanskrit to compare it to some people try just with English anyways a joke but there yeah again my perception of this guy is not merely from a secular scientific atheist I am a nihilistic a the Atheist perspective political science is also as someone who's a former scholar of Buddhism so he looks even worse from that perspective tragically anyway I continue if we could look over the world we live in with the eyes of an angel and see empty vibrations rather than just physical forms and right because that's a Buddhist idea huh yeah good luck it's neither Buddhist nor scientific nor political or anything else no way vibrations are crucial to this guy's philosophy of peace and war you got it you got to believe rather than just physical forms we would see that the wars and violence on our earth are generated from a vast complex of venues where deadening takes place the countless kitchens dining rooms ins hotels restaurants etc etc in terms of the the fundamentals here the fundamental claim I guess of the book as a whole is that if the whole world became vegan then the world would not be troubled by such minor problems as war and violence I've addressed very recently just to think two videos before this I addressed the idea that is popular among some vegan activists that we can sell them from oh veganism by claiming that if the whole world became vegan racism and sexism with disappears this is a totally spurious laughable ridiculous argument that speciesism is the root of other sources of prejudice or oppression so if we could overcome speciesism magically the vegan world would cease to contain racism sexism or what have you it's hard to say which thesis is more absurd or laughable but in will tuiles case at least he's honest with you that this thesis is magical in its nature the idea that human beings that that that the whole planet will become less violent that there will be world peace if only we stop eating animals stop eating eggs dr. animo if the world becomes vegan this relies on a magical view of vibrations of metaphysical aspects of the human diet that you've actually just gotten a pretty good summary of you know as a philosophy or worldview and that that half a page and I mean I have to ask you I know will Tuttle is invited to give lectures at universities around the world he's invited to give lectures at vegan foundations he is celebrated and uncritically lauded and applauded by vegans around the world and I've got to ask you why I I know there's a tendency to just reach out to anyone who identifies themselves as your ally or as your proponent or as your advocate in this world that is so hostile towards veganism but we have got to do better than this in a very simple sense I can say um this has to stop ah but no Yin