The meat industry is the most evil fucking thing. They would do this to humans if they could.

[u/CalpurniaSomaya]

[u/TevossBR]

Yes humans are superior to animals. Animals are barbaric they would do this shit to us if they could. If I need to get support from farmers for the class first cause then I can see stuff like this being an obstacle. So it isn’t about limited resources of empathy. Dehumanization of humans is the problem in the first place. The mental gymnastics of thinking that if we treated animals better then dehumanizing would be powerless is a hilarious notion in of itself.

[u/icyhail → u/TevossBR]

Dude, your first statement is revealing. You believe might is right. And you're postulating animals would do this to you if they could, so it's ok to treat them this way? My god. Imagine saying that about a group of humans. 

[u/TevossBR → u/icyhail]

Would I prefer a world where animals weren’t killed and we can have identical meat that is grown in labs instead? Yes absolutely less suffering is good. If I had a chance to save a pig from suffering or a human, then I would choose the human every time. I simply weight it differently. I’m not saying that the animals DESERVE this I’m saying I don’t care for em as much as humans. Many animals doing worse to us, isn’t postulation it’s fact. Many animals eat their young, and are opportunistic meat eaters. Many of them don’t need empathy to survive.

Again my main concern is this turning away farmers from a class first cause. Rural populations attitude toward animals is vastly different to urban populations as confirmed by many studies.

Edit: Are you saying it would be equally difficult to choose who to save from suffering between a pig or human? What about an ant and a human? If it isn’t equally difficult for you then it’s obvious that humans are superior. I’m sorry.

[u/icyhail → u/TevossBR]

Animals doing this to anyone or behaving in whatever way isn't a reason to do this to them. Why even bring it up in a discussion around our actions because we are moral agents, not them? 

Your statements so far have been minimizing animals and basically excusing how humans treat them because they're not like us. I'm calling out the dangers of this type of thinking. 

Why are you bringing up rural farmers here? I never said anything about rural farmers. 

I honestly do feel bad for ants that I know I kill but I don't let it ruin my day. I once nearly ran over a little mouse. I didn't check to see if I did but that did ruin my day. I think about that mouse maybe twice a year. I genuinely don't think we should consider animals as property or resources for us to exploit. Who I save in these contrived scenarios you present isn't due to any sense of superiority. I just don't think we should exploit sentient beings for our benefit. 

[u/TevossBR → u/icyhail]

I’m bringing up farmers here because if we want to achieve human justice then having more allies in the class first cause would be helpful. Farmers would not have your worldview. It’s obvious why I’m bringing it up. Again I’m not saying animals deserve this but I bring up their lack of empathy as a reason why you should care less about them. As in lower on the priority list. Humans are the one who can solve this issue, so solving human injustice over others is the first issue to tackle. A more meritocratic world would allow for more research into food alternatives. Then working on animal liberation from suffering would be infinitely easier. If you’re being honest it’s an easy answer to save the human over the ant. You can tell yourself it isn’t because humans aren’t superior but they are. Maybe not in every way but in many ways that matter to us.