why do people think this about veganism?

... That's your definition of a joke...?

It is not the same thing. As another said, I actually study A2 psychology and part of my course is learning dieting/food preferences through evolutionary.

Humans actually started eating meat because 1) It contains nutrients that helped developed the brain back then and 2) Because there was a decline in forests which meant that humans had no other choice to hunt for different ways to get food so that meant hunting animals, if they didn't hunt for animals, the Human species would have died out.

Slavery however, started because a racial group of people thought they were superior to another group of race and enslaved them for many years. There is no evolutionary process for man slaughtering an entire race for years and years.

Comparing slavery to humans eating meat is disgusting and offensive. I can understand why you would want to promote eating plant based foods over meat but comparing it is slavery is just one way too far and it's disturbing.

The French have already discovered that the blackness of skin is no reason why a human being should be abandoned without redress to the caprice of a tormentor. It may come one day to be recognized, that the number of legs, the villosity of the skin, or the termination of the os sacrum, are reasons equally insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate. What else is it that should trace the insuperable line? Is it the faculty of reason, or perhaps, the faculty for discourse?...the question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer? Why should the law refuse its protection to any sensitive being?... The time will come when humanity will extend its mantle over everything which breathes...

Most people, including myself, don't eat a huge great pile of meat or animal products every single day. Everything in moderation is fine. I eat McDonalds and pizza etc occasionally, and I'm a perfectly healthy weight. Excess eating leads to obesity, even overeating on a vegan diet. Every day it seems a different thing causes cancer. If we followed every single piece of information of this type we wouldn't be able to enjoy anything in life. On the other hand I imagine people who do try to follow these restrictions sometimes have strokes/ get cancer etc.A lot of it is genetic and down to other environmental factors. I, for one, don't want to live like that.
And my textbooks are neither outdated nor wrong.

We're talking about right now, however. Slavery inflicted unnecessary suffering on other beings, because their interests were discounted because of the colour of their skin; the meat industry inflicts unnecessary suffering on other beings because their interests are discounted because they're not a member of the species Homo sapiens.

This insight - that what is "natural" doesn't matter - and that it is suffering which matters, no matter who experiences it, was made by the great philosopher Jeremy Bentham, who wrote much of his work in the 1700s. As he wrote:

It is not the same thing. As another said, I actually study A2 psychology and part of my course is learning dieting/food preferences through evolutionary.

Humans actually started eating meat because 1) It contains nutrients that helped developed the brain back then and 2) Because there was a decline in forests which meant that humans had no other choice to hunt for different ways to get food so that meant hunting animals, if they didn't hunt for animals, the Human species would have died out.

Slavery however, started because a racial group of people thought they were superior to another group of race and enslaved them for many years. There is no evolutionary process for man slaughtering an entire race for years and years.

Comparing slavery to humans eating meat is disgusting and offensive. I can understand why you would want to promote eating plant based foods over meat but comparing it is slavery is just one way too far and it's disturbing.

What are you going on about? Slavery happened ages ago too and I am comparing it to evolutionary perspectives. If humans have ate meat through evolutionary, why do we have to stop eating meat now? If it is evolutionary, then it is part of our biology. Eating meat is basically innate and it is part of different cultures. If someone wants to eat meat, let them and not compare it to something offensive and if you dont see it as offensive then you are obviously insensitive.

You've failed to understand the point being made.

1) Appeals to nature/tradition to determine the morality of practices is inherently fallacious; rape, murder, cannibalism are widely prevalent in the animal kingdom. They're all "natural" in that sense, but whether or not they're moral is a separate question entirely.

2) The origin of practices is wholly irrelevant to the morality thereof. This is known as the genetic fallacy.

3) In most ethical theories, it is the suffering/well-being of conscious beings that's considered to be the key; the comparison between racism and speciesism involves pointing out the infliction of unnecessary suffering on discriminatory grounds. To deny the validity of the comparison because it's "offensive" is again, a fallacious appeal to emotion.

Evolution does not matter - it can't tell us what is right and what is wrong. Before, we needed meat to survive. We can now obtain all of the nutrients we need on a vegan diet. As a result, the suffering that we inflict on nonhuman animals today is unnecessary, just as suffering inflicted on humans during slavery was unnecessary.

If someone wanted to keep human infants or severely intellectually disabled humans in the conditions in which we keep nonhuman animals, should we let them (these groups of humans are demonstrably less intelligent than the animals we rear for meat, and intelligence apparently matters to some people when it comes to how we treat other beings)?

I'm aware that it's offensive to some people, but I'm offended by the reasoning behind why people take offence at it. It depends on the notion that nonhuman animals are 'lesser' - that their suffering matters less - and that therefore the comparison to them is derogatory. Whether or not I'm offended is irrelevant, though: let's focus on the actual validity, or not, of the comparison.

It is not the same thing. As another said, I actually study A2 psychology and part of my course is learning dieting/food preferences through evolutionary.

Humans actually started eating meat because 1) It contains nutrients that helped developed the brain back then and 2) Because there was a decline in forests which meant that humans had no other choice to hunt for different ways to get food so that meant hunting animals, if they didn't hunt for animals, the Human species would have died out.

Slavery however, started because a racial group of people thought they were superior to another group of race and enslaved them for many years. There is no evolutionary process for man slaughtering an entire race for years and years.

Comparing slavery to humans eating meat is disgusting and offensive. I can understand why you would want to promote eating plant based foods over meat but comparing it is slavery is just one way too far and it's disturbing.

But a vegan diet isn't for everyone. People on a low income diet would not afford a vegan diet. My psychology teacher actually advised my (soon to become) vegan friend not to be vegan because one of her friends suffered intensely because of the vegan diet. She went to the hospital and said it was because she didnt get all the nutrients from food. So what have you got to say about that?

Are you now comparing rape, murder to eating meating? Sigh, another shitty argument another annoying vegan has made.

Eating meat was actually very beneficial to humans back in evolutionary times. It helped their brains develop better, helped them run faster, and if humans didn't eat meat we wouldn't have even had these traits

because me are a product of our ancestors. Tell me how raping and murdering someone benefitted them?

It is a nonsensical argument. Your argument was extremely ridiculous. Think through it again.

So what about animals that eat and kill other animals then? It seen as natural. Honestly salvery and animal killing is not comparable.

But a vegan diet isn't for everyone. People on a low income diet would not afford a vegan diet. My psychology teacher actually advised my (soon to become) vegan friend not to be vegan because one of her friends suffered intensely because of the vegan diet. She went to the hospital and said it was because she didnt get all the nutrients from food. So what have you got to say about that?

appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes.

1. Starches, pulses and vegetables are the cheapest food to buy.

2. Millions of people are thriving on a vegan diet. That one anecdote doesn't mean anything, when that they could have easily not researched properly.

Ah yes, those pesky little vegans with their annoying morals and logic(!)



All irrelevant to the morality of consuming meat today when a) it's not necessary for healthy-living, b) it harms the planet.



Propagation of genes via rape along with the elimination of competition via murder leads to evolutionary success.



I can assure you, I've thought about it.



...but we've just established the morality of some action X is not dependent on its prevalence in the animal kingdom

Not everyone is fine with eating just vegetables. I like vegetables but I know some people that don't, it would be unfair to force someone to eat it, even if they are replused by it.

My household income is £14,000 a year (around about the poverty line), and I can afford a vegan diet.

Your teacher's anecdote is just that, an anecdote. I'm not saying it didn't happen, but poor planning on any diet will lead to bad outcomes. I'm here, talking to you, and I'm a vegan. My nutrient levels are right where they should be.

Even on a low income, one can be just as healthy, if not healthier, on a vegan diet. That's the important part.

And, I'm not saying it's an all-or-nothing thing: a lacto-vegetarian diet (cutting out meat and eggs but not dairy), for instance, is actually cheaper than an omnivorous diet, and also cuts out most of the suffering too. It's a spectrum, not "vegan or nothing".

And, if you don't believe me, here's what the American Dietetic Association has to say:

Why are you eating meat if you think it's as bad as raping and killing someone?

But has a whole healthier foods are more expensive. Maybe people want to put their money on other focuses rather than food...

I don'tthink the vegan diet is for everyone. Why can't you vegans just leave prople to eat whatever they want? Stop shoving your diet down people's throat.

Because I don't claim to be morally consistent. It probably has to do with me not seeing the suffering and deaths of the animals I eat, but that's a psychological issue unrelated to morality. Unlike some meat-eaters, I acknowledge the arguments made by vegans and vegetarians instead of getting defensive about it.