Yea, well it tracks with the deferred ethics of the whole dynamic/system.
My favourite was the opening, which set the tone and had me double take to make sure I read it correctly: "You can slice someone’s throat and still love them." Of course you can, so long as you respect them and remain mindful of the circle of life.
I don't engage in any vegan arguments at the moment ... but I'd imagine the real razor would be whether anyone has actually killed the kind of animals they're eating and would be happy to do that every time they ate (the corresponding amount of meat, just to be "fair"). I have, through scientific research seen and participated in animal killing, and watched how others digest the process. I'm pretty most moderately thoughtful people would not be up for it at all.
One of the points in my waking up to carnism was when I mentioned an interest in hunting rabbits (a so called invasive pest here) over dinner with my family as a late teen.
My father expressed an incredible disgust at the idea of hunting, made some comment about sadists or something. The rest of my family were more reserved but similarly aghast, that I would be willing to participate in the process by which meat, which we were eating, was created represented some sort of character flaw.
Yet at the time we had gone fishing, and I had done work experience on a farm. I volunteered at the school farm and had raised broiler chickens and helped load them onto a truck to a slaughterhouse.
It made me realise how utterly disconnected we all were and how the people around me were utterly repulsed by the violence required for their pleasures.
I moved out shortly after and went pescatarian largely due to the soul searching that prompted. Becoming vegan later when I realised Nirvana lied to me.
Yea interesting. It really is the beef v cow thing entrenched directly in the culture.
I wonder if, in anglo-phonic culture, it has roots back to the french-aristocratic v anglo-serf divide in Norman England. Looking to the Netherlands, Scandinavia and Germany as comparisons could be illuminating. I've certainly heard stories from non-anglo people about relatives raising, slaughtering and eating their own animals, but never anglo.
Idk, my mum was born in Poland and came over to aus as a teen. She still seemed horrified, but also she was big on "assimilation" (as the country was at the time).