Veganism

As mentioned in my intro , I went vegan a long time ago.

Trying to explain my motivations has never been easy, especially without sounding holier-than-thou.

Veganism is simultaniously so simple that a child can understand it, and so bewildering that most adults struggle to engage with it.

The basics

I hope we can agree that it's wrong to exploit or abuse people. We have a conscious experience, and the ability to suffer. Causing suffering to someone is wrong, even if we gain something from it.

Although grammar hasn't fully kept up, animals are "someone"s.

Veganism means to avoid and oppose cruelty and exploitation of animals, and the products thereof.

Producing animal products requires exploitation, and exploitation leads to suffering.

You're unlikely to completely avoid exploiting someones, but it's a moral imperitive to try not to.

Nitpicks

Some animals may not have a conscious experience, such as sea sponges and perhaps mollusks. I like to give them the benefit of the doubt, as many animals such as fish were assumed to not be conscious before we studied it further.

Future

I'd like to elaborate on this in future posts. Perhaps to counter some of the common counter points I've seen, perhaps to share some resources for learning more.

I'm very open to suggestions!