rus said:
That's not a key part of morality, but of one moral system. Other moral systems key parts include things like a divine being.
Pretty sure you reject those moral systems since you've said you're an atheist, which would indicate you're just picking and choosing which moral systems you like.
That you then take your own choices and seek to impose them on / influence others indicates egotism; others have no value except as defined by you. See also every thread you've derailed, or tried to, by imposing your concerns over the concerns of others.
You judge others for disregarding the suffering of animals, yet the disregard of humans except as food for your own emotional gratification seems at least as damning, perhaps more so because it's not simple livestock you're disregarding but people.
Admittedly, I value people more than livestock. Figure we differ there.
As stated on many of my posts, I'm agnostic, not an atheist. Inquire into the difference online or thru books, if you prefer. But whether a moral system involves a deity or not, many, if not most of them focus on empathy and some version of the golden rule.
Even if you don't believe "do unto others...." applies to factory farmed animals, just about all religions involve precepts for human responsibility for animal welfare. Norm Phelps is one of the people who writes about this. Do some reading and, of course, come to your own conclusions.
Precepts for animal welfare are not the same as animal rights, but factory farming nonetheless violates those religious standards. It also offends traditional conceptions of animal husbandry shared by farming cultures all over the world.
Contrary to what high-price PR firms would have us believe, corporations that profit from factory farming are the real threat to America’s tradition of farming, not animal rights activists.
Are you irony-challenged, Rus ? It is 'pushing an agenda' when someone raises concerns about big corporations spending millions on advertising and lobbying for their subsidies and other ways to promote factory farming. Hmm…interesting.
Perhaps we would be wise to not confuse being irritated by the fact we cannot defend our beliefs, on the one hand; from, on other hand, being legitimately offended when someone tries to impose theirs on us.
I’ll try to keep a straight face in responding to the ‘argument’ ---if we can call it that---you cobbled together in your last paragraph above.
Your claim that my concerns over the suffering of animals indicates my disregard for people makes me wonder about the extent to which you have read my posts. I have consistently argued for the concept that makes conservatives cringe : social justice.
But even if I am incorrigibly bad at using this community forum, that offense does not compare with the often hidden crimes occurring in factory farms. For the pigs, cows, chickens and other animals, there is no escape from the pain and misery.
But you, and the other users of this forum, can choose to ignore me, ridicule me, or ask Walker to expel me. Or, instead of doing that, you could use your intelligence to respond honestly to my arguments. I’m still waiting for the latter.
But about your claim about my disregard for humans, this calls to mind the false dichotomies apparent in what detractors of social movements have said over the decades: Black civil rights was necessarily an attack on the rights of Whites; women’s rights, an attack on the rights of men; and gay rights an attack on the rights of straight people; animal rights, an attack on the rights of humans; and the reactionary chorus sings on and on.
It is the overly simplified black-and-white thinking we saw, for example, after the 9-11 attacks : the Bush administration labeled as unpatriotic ---or even as sympathy for ‘terrorists’---any opposition to their neo-con policies, which included the Patriotic Act and other unnecessary damage to our civil liberties and international rule of law.
But as for factory farming, I faith in your ability to defend your beliefs by framing your thoughts with something better than the shoddy argument of your last paragraph above. We’ll all learning here. For example, I still haven’t bothered to figure out how to post with an interwoven citation of the user I’m responding to. Thanks.
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