whenigrowup356

I think the divide is bigger on more important issues, so compromise and bipartisanship are more likely on less headline-grabbing issues.

I get you, but I also think there's value in considering how these kinds of conversations affect people who are neither vegetarian nor vegan.

If you create a permission structure for 10 meat eaters to write off the whole group as extremist crazies, while you're trying to bully 1 vegetarian, who might be, maybe, bullied into veganism, that's still a net loss of a whole lot of animals.

Also, this isn't a veg friendly space. Having conversations like this among other veg*ns is entirely a different affair than doing it in an environment where the average response is just "hell no, I love my meat"

Sorry, but I just don't think this attitude is useful for reducing harm to animals. It's rare for people to hear about veganism and then go straight from eating meat to eating 0 animal products, for 100 reasons. I spent like 10 years vegetarian before finally going vegan.

This overly critical attitude and stereotypes associated with it do a lot to push people away from bothering with making any steps at all.

No one is able to fully eliminate animal harm from their lives, and any steps that anyone is making on the road to reducing it should be applauded. It's our only option if we want to be anything other than a hated minority.

Looks left at 90% of the human population causing untold suffering without giving 2 shits.

Looks right at the 5% that are actually bothering to do something.

"Yes, let's shit on them"

Utilization has a short term effect on your credit score, ie one month with high utilization might temporarily cause your score to go down.

Going back to normal utilization the next month will bring your score back to normal range, and the effect is mitigated by having a longer history.

This is mostly just important if you're planning something big like financing a car/home.

I know it's just a joke, but just in case anyone needs it:

Global Suicide Hotline Resources

There's always someone who'll listen.

Who's the guy just to the left of Dahmer?

And the two guys just to the right of Saddam?

ETA: left of Dahmer is Dylan Klebold, one of the Columbine shooters. Leaving this up anyway

The family and also the calf are okay, fwiw.

My point is that it happens more frequently in places where dog meat is frequently consumed.

We ban things we want less of. More eating dogs means a bigger market for all dog meat, which means a bigger market for theft. I want less of that.

People don't steal things that no one wants to buy.

I'm talking about the side effects of fostering a culture where eating a non-livestock animal is ok. My argument is that this kind of culture is pointlessly cruel to an animal that we've explicitly bred to be a companion.

One element of discouraging a culture is government action, a ban (coercion). I argue this is a necessary step in ending a cruel practice.

The other is cultural compliance (people behaving in a certain way regardless of the presence of law enforcement officials). I argue this is a necessary step as well, by way of education and improving access to alternatives.

If you banned driving cars, there just wouldn't be any cars around. That analogy has little to do with dogs. What is it about a ban that makes no sense to you?

I'm a vegan, but one argument specifically against allowing dog meat trade is that it often encourages stealing companion animals (aka pets) to make a quick buck. Sometimes they're held ransom and people have to pay the thieves to keep a member of their family from being killed and eaten. Wouldn't wish that on anyone.

Also, dogs were bred specifically to live alongside humans, to form bonds with us. To do that to any organism and then treat it like livestock is a special kind of monstrous.

So I'm in favor of drawing as many lines as possible when it comes to animal consumption of any kind. And then, if the situation makes you uncomfortable about some of the other lines you've drawn around cows, pigs, or chickens, then you analyzing those in more depth too is also a win in my book.