[Raev]

Originally Posted by Csihar

Your theory would provide an explanation for why animal rights are more popular among left-leaning people but no more. So what does it offer in this thread? Is it a counter-argument to anything?

Most of the vegetarians in this thread are busy claiming a moral superiority ("oh we care") despite being crushed over and over again by the facts. One even suggested that meat eaters are not capable of love. r/k theory reframes this activism as a self-aggrandizing attempt to modify cultural norms to ones more favorable to their reproductive success. If this discussion were actually centered around the facts it would be less relevant.

Originally Posted by Csihar

Your theory would be that the Chinese are simply more fearful of strong alpha males who are too pro at being capitalists. Well done.

I really don't see how you got from A to B there. I was not referring to explicit thoughts, but rather anthropomorphizing a bit. Anyway, r/k theory would predict that as China continues to improve economically that younger Chinese and those doing better economically will be more r-selected. I am proposing that these more r-selected people will be more supportive of animal rights.

And the data backs this up. Age is strongly negatively predictive on few animal rights issues (V1: aware of animal welfare, V2: cement floors for pigs, V3: (inverted) killing fowls near their cages, V4: (inverted) factory rearing) and only weakly positive on V6. Income is strongly positively predictive, but interestingly for different issues (V5: willing to pay for increased cost of animal products, V6: mandatory laws of animal welfare, V7: drinking PETA koolaid). Also, you might be a bit optimistic about animal rights progress in China. Apparently most Chinese have never even heard the term.

Of course r/k is not the only issue at play here; people are complicated. But the predictive power of r/k continues to impress me.

Originally Posted by Csihar

people involved with proper treatment of animals are less likely to have a shitload of kids, quite the opposite. How does that fit your theory?

Birth control.

Originally Posted by swilleville

I would love to hear this guys stance on abortion

Personally I don't see much difference between a 'clump of cells' that can feel pain and an animal or even a person. But r-selected people favor maximum reproductive freedom. Once again, the predictive power of r/k theory impresses.