Help understanding something

Visions of the Rewilding Renaissance Grief & Praise
#1

I recently saw a Youtube video, in which a lion at a zoo was eating leaves and grass.
Seems fine, nothing extremely weird about that, unless that’s all it ate.

The thing I need help understanding is some of the people who commented on the video, praising this lion for not eating meat, while indicating that those lions who did were in some way inferior, or even ‘evil’.

Quotes:

[i]“I guess not all animals are stupid”

“Proteins alone is bad even animals know it!!”

"maybe not all lions are dicks? like humans ! MOST OF THEM ARE THO "[/i]

It left me at a loss for words. I just can’t get that to make sense in my head!

I’ve gone head to head in debates with some super-totalitarian raw fruit vegans, on philosophy, health, and nature before… but vegans who condemn carnivorous animals for acting naturally?

I feel really depressed that some people are that out of touch, and so far away from me. Like a bit of hope just died, that some people are so unable to step outside their box, or analyze different perspectives.
Same feeling I got talking to some fundamentalist Christians that can’t comprehend anything outside of their faith, but a little worse.

I can’t connect with them. I can’t see where they’re coming from, or show them things from my view. It’s painful and confusing.

#2

Yeah, i get that feeling too alot as im surrounded by Militant Vegans. Getting upset with cats hunting and all that. It freaks me out. it really does. Like these folks are trying as hard as they can to NOT be a part of the natural world and to praise anything that steps away from our “willedness”. Somehow i think this kindof thinking is the next step of CIV removing ourselves from the natural world. A necessary step to continue on a destructive path under the guise of respecting “life” , conflating “respecting” with blindly drawing random lines of supposedly moral behaviour.

like you said. it freaks me out

#3

I understand this feeling. What I’ve seen is that lots of folks in modern American society is that they live in this increasingly abstract world that only roughly corresponds to the natural space it occupies.

The comments about the lion are pretty surreal…

#4

Yeah, at least with humans, things like philosophy, health, and nature can be discussed, and if both people are reasonable (seems to be rare) then you can agree to disagree at the very least.
But how can you say that about a lion, which is undoubtedly acting naturally and eating healthy?

Most of them preach about the equality and rights of other animals, while simultaneously imposing human traits and abstractions onto the them. Applying human created boundaries to the world that created us.

I always ask “What about bears?”. They can survive on plant matter. The usual answer is “They can’t help it” … almost as if the bear should but can’t! So he’s reluctantly “excused” by the almighty human judges.

#5

I think most the vegan nazis I have met are so out of touch with reality because they are killing their bodies with malnutrition…dumb asses

#6

for sure. i’m a hardcore carnivore. well, omnivore, if i had to admit it…

#7

Commercial nutritional yeast has significant amounts of B12. As far as making it yourself… iffy. That said ai usually follow a vegan diet, since ai cant hunt well (some day, ai hope) and havent found a good butcher shop locally. Ai hope to follow at least somewhat of a natural diet soon. :-\

#8

I don’t eat meat anymore, mostly because it stopped tasting good to me, but I also have to take into consideration the abhorrent system of factory farming. I still eat dairy products and occasionally eggs, however, which are also usually factory farmed. I also eat seafood, which I sometimes feel guilty about, though living on the coast makes it easier to seek out the least destructive locally caught stuff. However, the only way I could be completely consistent with my ethics is to completely escape industrial agriculture.

As a side note; vegan recipes are great for those looking to lower their caloric intake.

#9

I’ve been doing research on small farming for my Master’s program. This basically has me running around the Midwest interviewing farmers and having me tell them a lot about themselves and their farms. This has given me a lot of insight, at least locally, about what many of them want for themselves, their communities, and their land. A lot of it is right in line with what many people around here want: quality, care, and community. Additionally, these people are often more attuned to the cycles of the world as they pertain to their farm. They know the seasons, they know the death of animals, they know the plants that they plant and that exist around the area.

While farming might be seen as an anathema to some folks around here, but I’m going to plug supporting small farmers. It is now becoming much easier to find farmers who treat their animals humanly and use them as part of a system that doesn’t destroy the land they live on. You can get your steaks, your yogurt, your cheese, your eggs, and even some vegetables knowing they are produced in a manner that is far from cruel.

That being said, you should always investigate the practices of any farm you patronize before you buy. Sometimes you get some people who are less than awesome. If they wont tell you how they grew it or raised it, it might be a good sign to move on.