Speciesism

[supernova_green]

If I am walking through the Savannah, and a lion decides to eat me- I'm not gonna say that I'm okay with that, as I'd prefer not to die.  I hope to high heaven that he makes it as quick and painless as possible while he's going about it.  However, it's not morally wrong for the lion to kill me and have me for breakfast.  Just a part of life I guess

Comments

[sinemoria]

I honestly don't "get" the idea of speciesism.

Is it now "wrong" to think that there's a difference between a human and a dog?

This is exactly why I'm pretty much done with g*. It used to be a place where I'd be introduced to things like feminism and different religious concepts, not speciesism.

[supernova_green]

Yeah- I think my favorite part about that thread is where someone said that every time we have one of these discussions the quality of discourse around there gets better. But really, I feel like many of the people that I liked hearing from have left due to exactly these discussions, and 99% of the conversation there is now completely superficial, and of the stuff that isn't superficial, we end up with fewer people with varying perspectives, since all the outliers have been scared off.

It's sad, because I've been reading for about 10 years, and at the same point in life where I finally had the time to start participating in the conversation was exactly the time that it became not okay to express certain opinions, and so I never really got around to it.

[sinemoria]

Yeah, I saw the "conversations improve" argument and wondered if we were reading the same dicussions.

There used to be people I didn't quite "get" because their ideas were a bit wild, but I appreciated their presence (most of the time)...There also used to be a handful of more conservative folks. And a lot of them left because of the emphasis on not offending others. At least when we had different opinions around, the debates were actually DEBATES, and the majority didn't feel like they had to tiptoe around and avoid upsetting anyone.

I think we've got the same g* history going on. I've only gotten to the point where I'm more comfortable expressing opinions, and now, all of my opinions are...I don't know, too conservative or something.

[vanderwaals]

exactly. Frankly, the equating of speciesism and racism was so deeply offensive that I just can't read that thread anymore.

[jzane]

I particularly enjoyed when a mile-long post was needed to explain why eating pork is not the same as slavery, and the resulting responses filled with "OMG that's sooooo deep! I never thought about it like that before!"

Dude, it's the food chain. You think they'd get mad if I posted the video where Mufasa explains to Simba about the circle of life?

[lauraloops]

on a slightly related note (ie the lion king) i lurve your icon!