this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2024
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I haven't heard anything about David Attenborough talking about plant based stuff so I won't dispute it but he did help found and fund the zoology museum in my town, one that specifically tries to educate people on the dangers of climate change and making species endangered. From what I've seen of his filming they're pretty conscious about not leaving any waste behind too.
“We must change our diet. The true tragedy of our time is still unfolding – the loss of biodiversity,” Sir David says in the film. “Half of fertile land on Earth is now farmland, 70 percent of birds are domestic, majority chickens. There’s little left for the world. We have completely destroyed it.
and yet
“I do eat cheese, I have to say, and I eat fish. But by and large I’ve become much more vegetarian over the past few years than I thought I would ever be.”
Sure he helps fund some decent shit. He's rich, knighted, connected to aristocracy. He's also a spineless twerp.
Do you drive a car? How about ride the bus? Use electricity?
Spineless twerp!!
Yeah, just because he admits to not being your idea of perfect, eating cheese and fish, doesn't mean he isn't trying. I see that comment about eating cheese and fish to mean he's not eating steak every night, like others.
Yeah sure. Skipping the Camembert and buying a plant based really fermented one instead is just too hard for a multi millionaire. What an unrealistic standard! He only thinks the apocalypse is nigh.
I mean that's like equivalent to like walking the 60 km commute you have to do. Be realistic, it's not like you manage to be plant based on a budget that's below median for your city or something. It's not like you give up cheese entirely because you can't afford the vegan replacements but recognise the cruelty of animal ag. What's a millionaire famous guy to do?
Don't let perfect be the enemy of good?
What's the good in this case?
Any reduction in the resources used from agriculture? If he could be eating red meat daily, but instead only eats cheese and fish occasionally... That's good, if not perfect.
Vegetarianism (or in his case pescetarianism) is not inherently reductionarian, so him saying he's become much more vegetarian isn't really meaningful without knowing how much of that land based meat was replaced with fish and cheese. Dairy comes from cattle or other ruminants, just like red meat. Fishing is ravaging the seas like agriculture is ravaging the land.
he's still a hipocrite... like yes it's good that he advocates, it would be better if he followed through and used some of his staggering, mind meltingly large wealth to actually do something.
Instead he pays lip service while using an enormous amount of resources and being shitty. Is lip service better than no service? yes. Is it good enough for one of the most privileged individuals on the planet? no.
If even a billion people lived like him we'd destroy the world in a week.
Everyone is a bit of a hypocrite. Even you. It's important to know when someone is being hypocritical but has a point and when they're just being hypocritical. I think this is pretty clearly the former.
He's also only a hypocrite if you believe the only possible outcomes are perfect success, and complete failure. He, by all accounts, seems to live by what he preaches. Not perfectly, but again, that only matters if the only marker for success for you is perfection, in which case no one will meet it.
He's a multi millionaire who admits to still eating red meat despite having the funds to hire a professional chef to make delicious plant based meals every meal. He also admits to eating chickens while decrying it.
Fuck me for holding people with more power to higher standards I guess.
He's also intensely classist and has deeply problematic views about overpopulation. Doing the very British thing of talking about too many African people while completely ignoring the massively asymmetric resource consumption that he takes part it.
I just think if you're one of the most privileged people on the planet and you think the world is dying you ought to live a life which if the average person lived would be sustainable. Not do some token effort, far below that of your average poor person, and claim that's all you can manage.
Hypocrite*
You'd help your lack of a case here if you'd learn proper spelling. It's hypocrite.
Nice argument there, but you see you typed something wrong at 2 am therefore I will not engage.
I am so smart and cultured.
So you're upset because he makes a valid point, and lives by that point, but isn't 100% of the way there? So it's either perfect or don't try?
What the fuck are you on?
If saving the planet means giving up cheese, you have to start wondering if it’s worth it.