I have two things on my mind today: speciesism and newspapers.
For those who don't know, speciesism is a term used by people who think the lives of humans and non-humans have equal value: a cat or pig or mouse has the same value as a human. Generally, speciesism refers to the believe that humans are the dominant species.
I believe speciesism is a problem, but it is very difficult to convince others that it is. You have to believe in your core that all life has equal value. Although, clearly, I care more about beings which possess a nervous system allowing them to feel, more so than I do a flower or a tree.
The main reason I'm vegan is because I've seen enough evidence of non-human suffering and presence of non-human emotions and personalities that I believe they should have rights to their own bodies.
An argument presented to me is that non-humans cannot make the same decisions as humans, and they cannot express their desires to us, so the rights they have don't really have to be on the same level.
Although I see where this idea comes from; non-humans have different methods of communications and their emotions are not expressed plainly on their face, discomfort is clear when repeated artificial insemination and lifelong containment are forced upon hundreds of thousands of female cows, or when family units that happen in nature are torn apart by factory farming. Or when animals are killed.
Non-sequitur: although "print" paper is dying, I've decided that online journalism will ultimately be better because of it's variety and because it will help the environment by cutting down on paper production. The trick will be separating fact from fiction, which remains a problem in print journalism anyway.
Just needed to clear my head.
No comments:
Post a Comment