The Moral Basis of Veganism (His Girlfriend Should Dump Him)

my daughter now six is old enough to
talk about veganism they're not really old enough to understand it in the space of a few years I saw how her mother tried to influence her to become more anti vegan and he structured her to refuse vegan food when she was with me etc but yeah we're not that different no we've actually got some very similar views okay he but what changes on how is how we act on our views okay so you guys know I keep it real ously honest about a lot of things that vegans maybe do not like to be so honest about and you know one of them is that I'm not an expert about vegan health me neither broth mean Ava what go on but I have absolutely no false confidence about the adequacy of my diet I just ate a meal that consisted of almost nothing but green vegetables in white rice and I can honestly say if I wasn't taking a vitamin pill I think it would be nutritionally inadequate I think I would be damaging my health I feel you Barbra fail you son affiliate I feel cold as hell right now and I asked other people at my school I asked the teachers I went to locker room like is it cold in here and I'm not asking to make small talk I'm actually worried look hick it feels cold to me I actually don't know if my health is falling apart because my ridiculously can tie it say we can agree on the same thing I'm just not too sure on whether I'm willing to sacrifice my health for something I really need to do some more research on they then cut both tendons in the hind legs and it reacted very badly to that cutting probably the worst of all the other animals you see in the video footage professor that animal had its eye stead after its throat had been cut when it was already down can you explain that it seems seems unnecessary I just don't see why it was done it would have caused pain as we know from personal experience the cornea is exquisitely sensitive unfortunately the neck cut didn't work thirty seconds later they had to repeat the cut to kill the animal probably the worst case of slaughter that I've ever seen you know I'm saying you know I'm just keeping it real yeah just keeping it real I live with that kind of you know uncertainty in my life um you know the whole vegan diet it's a little bit of an experiment the outcomes are a little bit unknowable so yeah we can grow something also he's going as a girlfriend who has fairly similar views and I'm like men recently I've felt like I'm dying like I feel really sick lately and I feel even more committed than ever to veganism if my health would improve somewhat from eating some amount of animal products I'm not going to do that like what is my life worth at this point like what is my contribution going to be to the world I think we can wrap you out there pretty much I mean as she said sometimes she feels like she's dying haha she feel like she's dying and you know the fair [ __ ] play to her utmost respect to people that are sacrificing their health knowingly knowingly for the ethical cause and you know up most respect but obviously I'm my selfless as you let's start down in the dirt here before we work our way up the Beanstalk that matters a greater profundity got a question and I've already posted this on Twitter somebody wrote in to ask me you will have been asked questions like this yourself also if you've been thinking for any length of time quote what difference does it make whether you buy or avoid a non vegan bread from the supermarket if you don't buy the bread someone else will buy it and if not it will end up as waste it will go into the garbage correct me if I'm wrong but I think supermarket managers don't decide to lower the amount of bread they get based on a single loaf of bread you didn't buy so his point is what's the point what use is it what's the outcome what is the meaning of refusing to buy a non-vegan loaf of bread and insisting on only buying vegan bread and of course by implication what's the point of being vegan was the point of maintaining a vegan diet um before I read the answer that I sent to this guy in text form let me just say rhetoric gets a bad name a problem like this is in part just a problem of rhetoric how are we going to express ourselves clearly how we're gonna prepare ourselves mentally in discussing this sort of problem which is going to come up the question is not illegitimate it's a question we as vegans should be able to answer can you so I wrote back if you've been a longtime viewer this channel this won't surprise you you do the right thing because it's the right thing to do and because this is the kind of person you want to be or this is the kind of person you want to become and for no other reason than that if there's a line of cocaine on a nightclub table I'm not going to inhale it and I'm not going to regret that it may go to waste in quotation marks go to waste let it go into the garbage it belongs in the garbage it is garbage same with meat same with milk same with eggs quote what difference does it make you ask the difference is you the difference is what kind of person you want to be I want to be the kind of person who never uses cocaine not even if it's free of charge not even if it goes into the garbage can period end of my reply I'll leave it unstated obviously the point is I want to be the kind of person who never eats meat or who never eats dairy products even if I can in some sense get away with it even if it's otherwise free of charge it's been given to me for free even if this is the situation isn't the particular circumstances if I don't eat it somebody else will eat it or if I don't eat it somebody else will put it into a garbage can and it will quote unquote go to waste right my approach to veganism is do it because it's the right thing to do ultimate product is not a bag of bread on the shelf it's not a patch of forest in Indonesia the ultimate product is you this is about what kind of person you want to be this is aspirational this is about outcomes and consequences you can control consequence being what kind of person you are and the second premise which is my premise implicitly and explicitly is simply that being vegan refusing a dairy is a necessary precondition for the ethical and ecological position you want to be in impressing for political change and also cultural change right if you are trying to abolish slavery can you continue owning slaves could you employ slaves in the evolution of slavery that alone is a necessary precondition for taking the next steps in veganism that already is a sufficient reason to be vegan most vegans feel the same way that I do nevertheless I notice the leader of the Green Party of Canada eats meat and supports the beef and dairy industry I also think you'd be a bad person if you used cocaine while trying to be an ecological leader even though these things are totally unrelated keeping all the way real many of you in the audience I think you believe that also you don't want to elect a crack head you don't want to be part of a political movement led by a crack head even though there's no direct ethical connection between using cocaine and whatever whatever the principles are that the Green Party may be running for office on ok I am a vegan for political reasons those reasons are ecological ethical and health-related but nevertheless it's a political cause and I'm vegan for political purposes long story short it's a political identity likewise I refuse to use cocaine because I don't want to be the kind of person who uses cocaine my lunch today consisted of absolutely nothing but white rice and green vegetable I think if I wasn't taking this vitamin pill I like I have no pretensions that this is a healthy or adequate or complete diet you know it's really easy to display a kind of false confidence about these things I'd much rather share my own sense of honest uncertainty you know I live with that uncertainty every day I live with that difficulty I live with that struggle the fact that I can show you a website with a professional athlete living in California and say look at this bodybuilder he's on a vegan diet he's totally healthy for one thing I don't know if he's healthy I don't really know that but I can look at a photograph of a vegan bodybuilder but for another thing I'm not living in California I'm not that bodybuilder I'm not taking steroids I'm not living his lifestyle currently here in China I don't have access to protein powder and I wish I did you know so I'm just keeping it real my lunch today consisted of absolutely nothing but white rice and green vegetable I do not want to compromise I refuse to eat bread that has powdered eggs in it I refuse to eat you know milk products in cookies or bread or anything else so you know that's it man that's all I have to say is the struggle is really people like to disrespect my truth but the fact is that you know my name is I don't know