That I was being complacent to support animal cruelty just because I liked egg salad and cream cheese.
I was vegetarian for 7 years. I thought that only obvious things like meat and leather involved animal cruelty.
I was very wrong. And when people showed me I was wrong, I took a good while to process it. “But the cow needs to be alive for milk. But the chicken needs to be alive for eggs. Surely it’s not THAT bad”.
It’s a lot worse than that bad. Once it fully got through my skull just what kind of cruel practices were involved, not by choice l, but by industry NECESSITY, with the animal products that felt safe, I broke down crying while I was trying to reconcile the fact that I was letting my taste buds drive me to support terrible things.
I did finally quit. These days I don’t really miss much, food wise. And life lesson wise, it helps enable me to be a less unethical consumer. A store/product is involved with something morally terrible, like donating a lot of money to fascism? Welp, bye! No more money for you from me!
I’m frustrated that European values of ownership, exploitation, and domination have dominated the world, suppressing sustainable and diverse systems from other cultures (like Indigenous, Asian, and African traditions). These exploitative systems, focused on short-term gain and power, still shape our world today. I wonder why we’re stuck in this destructive framework and think almost any other system might be better—though none seem able to challenge the current dominance of wealth and weapons.
That I was being complacent to support animal cruelty just because I liked egg salad and cream cheese.
I was vegetarian for 7 years. I thought that only obvious things like meat and leather involved animal cruelty.
I was very wrong. And when people showed me I was wrong, I took a good while to process it. “But the cow needs to be alive for milk. But the chicken needs to be alive for eggs. Surely it’s not THAT bad”.
It’s a lot worse than that bad. Once it fully got through my skull just what kind of cruel practices were involved, not by choice l, but by industry NECESSITY, with the animal products that felt safe, I broke down crying while I was trying to reconcile the fact that I was letting my taste buds drive me to support terrible things.
I did finally quit. These days I don’t really miss much, food wise. And life lesson wise, it helps enable me to be a less unethical consumer. A store/product is involved with something morally terrible, like donating a lot of money to fascism? Welp, bye! No more money for you from me!
TL;DR
I’m frustrated that European values of ownership, exploitation, and domination have dominated the world, suppressing sustainable and diverse systems from other cultures (like Indigenous, Asian, and African traditions). These exploitative systems, focused on short-term gain and power, still shape our world today. I wonder why we’re stuck in this destructive framework and think almost any other system might be better—though none seem able to challenge the current dominance of wealth and weapons.