On Apr 5, 9:33*pm, George Plimpton > wrote:
> On 4/5/2012 12:14 PM, Rupert wrote:
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> > On Apr 5, 8:06 pm, George > *wrote:
> >> On 4/5/2012 4:43 AM, Rupert wrote:
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> >>> On Apr 4, 10:17 pm, George > * *wrote:
> >>>> On 4/3/2012 10:04 PM, Rupert wrote:
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> >>>>> Ball has been talking a lot lately about how it could conceivably be
> >>>>> that some people would not reduce suffering by going vegan or would
> >>>>> possibly even increase suffering.
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> >>>>> [snip remaining self-serving wheeze]
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> >>>> The first problem is "vegans" - all of them - always claim too much
> >>>> merely by virtue of not putting animal bits in their mouths. *Most claim
> >>>> to be living "cruelty free" lifestyles. *Those few who are aware of
> >>>> animal CDs in agriculture abandon the silly "cruelty free" claim, but
> >>>> fall back on something equally untenable such as "minimizing" or "doing
> >>>> the best I can", when in fact they're doing neither. *In the end, as we
> >>>> have always seen, they can do *no* better than to claim, "At least I'm
> >>>> doing better than meat eaters", and as we have shown, even that is not
> >>>> *necessarily* true. *So, the "vegan" claim to virtue is baseless.
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> >>>> The second problem is that refraining from putting animal bits in their
> >>>> mouths is *all* that the vast majority of "vegans" do. *If they really
> >>>> were interested in trying to achieve the greatest reduction in harm to
> >>>> animals they could, we'd expect to see some investigation into which
> >>>> vegetable and fruit crops are relatively lower in terms of harm to
> >>>> animals, and a substitution of those in place of higher-harm produce,
> >>>> but *NO* such investigation has ever been done...nor does any "vegan"
> >>>> care to do it. *Yet they *all* engage in what I long ago dubbed the
> >>>> "irrational search for micrograms (of animal parts)." *They'll expend an
> >>>> absurd amount of time looking for the micrograms of squid ink in brined
> >>>> black olives, or the milligram of anchovy in a bottle of Worcestershire
> >>>> sauce, but not a bit of time getting high-CD produce out of their diets.
> >>>> * * The irrational search for micrograms, in which *ALL* "vegans" engage,
> >>>> is the proof of the bankruptcy of their moral pose - and it *is* nothing
> >>>> more than a pose.
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> >>>> This leads to the sound conclusion that "vegans" aren't really
> >>>> interested in harm reduction nor in respecting animals' "rights". *All
> >>>> they're interested in is a moral stance, one in which they can flatter
> >>>> themselves with the belief they're "better" than others.
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> >>> You are engaging in sweeping generalisations about all vegans which
> >>> are obviously not defensible. Different vegans are motivated to be
> >>> vegan for different reasons. It is not the case that all vegans engage
> >>> in the "irrational search for micrograms".
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> >>> You have no rational grounds for thinking that vegans are not
> >>> genuinely interested in harm reduction.
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> >> I do, because when it is shown that they cannot validly conclude what
> >> they do about the meaning of refraining from putting animal bits in
> >> their mouths, they just keep on making their discredited claims and
> >> doing nothing.
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> > What is it that you think they conclude about the meaning of
> > refraining from eating animal products?
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> I've been over all that with you before.

Suppose they conclude that they've made some efforts to reduce the
amount of suffering that takes place in order to produce their food,
and furthermore that they've done about all they can do in that regard
short of extreme measures. Isn't that a reasonable conclusion?