Quote:
Originally Posted by maskedmelon
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It's wrong to characterize vegans as simple products of r-selection. Csihar is right in the there is more to veganism as with every other social issue and empathy certainly plays a role, but not so straightforward as we might expect.
the purpose of my last post was to illustrate that there are highly empathic people who do not practice veganism. we could chock it up to social programming or we could think critically about why that might be.
many people follow their feelings. many others do not. why?
the best reason that I can offer is that those who reject their feelings in whole or in part, do so because they have witnessed the destructive capacity of allowing them to lead. as a result people naturally grow wary of their feelings and become dubious of conclusions which closely align with those feelings no matter how well reasoned.
in the case of veganism we see this in both directions. we see it in people with great empathy who reject the idea as well as in people of little empathy who support it. both have, at least in part, rejected their feelings in pursuit of bettering themselves.
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That's pretty much my thought on it too. ^
I believe I have tons of empathy, I love animals more than people (people are awful creatures) and I still am not a vegan. I rarely eat meat, but I do not abstain from all meats all the time.
Anyway, well put MM. I concur.