they're pictures of nothing at all

[dragonladyflame]

Vegetarian Deconstruction

Okay. So I'm standing by the refrigerator in my vegetarian co-op and I open the door to see what I can eat and I see, what do I see, but some sausages. Apparently, I discover, we have tons of sausages. And chicken. Vast quantities of meat have stuffed the co-op to the gills -- all of it left over from a local art

Comments

[arisrabkin]

You might find that virtue ethics helps resolve your problem. Regardless of the actual consequences, it might be praiseworthy for you to be a vegetarian. Put another way: There may be noninstrumental value in not eating meat.

[proudduckling]

And to think you used to tell me I was a hypocrite for being a vegetarian.

[alastores]

A moral code is something that should not be kept to regardless of whether it is hard or easy - if your moral code requires that you do not eat meat, you should not eat meat regardless of its presence and the lack of you contributing further suffering.

If you moral code only requires you to minimise the suffering of the meat industry, it doesn't matter.

The only situation in which this does not apply is when it would be superceded by another moral imperative. In this case ,if you felt that it was immoral to waste any part of an animal that had been killed, for example. Of course, that would only apply should the meat be going to waste if you don't eat it.

[anotherthink]

Because, if your moral code was about the wasting of meat rather than the eating of it then you should be buying meat from the supermarket and eating it like non-veggies - because any meat that doesn't sell also goes to waste.

Not really. By PURCHASING something, you're creating a market for it. If people go to the store and buy meat, the store will order more meat for people to buy next week. If fewer people go to the store and buy meat, maybe some will go to waste, but if you've actually changed the amount of demand the store will recognize that and buy less meat indefinitely.

Also, you should be eating roadkill.

Well, maybe :). I've talked to some hardcore animal rights activists who would be fine with this ethically (though squicked out viscerally, because for a lot of people once they stop eating meat for long enough the idea of eating it seems gross).

Since your moral objection is to farming practices, then eating any meat that was farmed (in America?) is a breach of your own code.Not necessarily. You can approach this from

[queenofolupitoo]

I had a vegetarian ex-boyfriend who believed that it was okay for him to eat leftover meat or meat that he hadn't caused to be there

[ithych]

I don't think it's a question of moral flexibility so much as a question of having sufficient moral complexity to deal with the possible range of situations. Violating your morals is bad; re-thinking and refining your morals to better fit reality is good.

I call myself a vegetarian so people won't bug me about eating meat, but really, I'm not. I'm a no-industrial-animal-products-atarian. (Plus no pork, ever, because the smell nauseates me.) There are a few restaurants in my area that only serve meat from local small farms, and when I go there, I eat meat guilt-free. I actually feel really good about it, because it's like I'm sticking it to the meat industry twice: not only am I not supporting them, I am supporting their local, family-owned competitors. Take that, meat industry fuckers