this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2023
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Vegan

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An online space for the vegans of Lemmy.

Rules and miscellaneous:

  1. We take for granted that if you engage in this community, you understand that veganism is about the animals. You either are vegan for the animals, or you are not (this is not to say that discussions about climate/environment/health are not allowed, of course)
  2. No omni/carnist apologists. This is not a place where to ask to be hand-holded into veganims. Omnis coddling/backpatting is not tolerated, nor are /r/DebateAVegan-like threads
  3. Use content warnings and NSFW tags for triggering content
  4. Circlejerking belongs to /c/vegancirclejerk
  5. All posts should abide by Lemmy's Code of Conduct

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Note: It's become clear to me that so far the vegan community on Lemmy (unlike Reddit) is lacking and overrun by non-vegans. So please only answer this if you're actually vegan. I'm seeking a vegan perspective on this.

With that out of the way, is it speciesist to have a favourite animal? Many vegans consider themselves dog ๐Ÿ• lovers or cat ๐Ÿˆ lovers ("ailurophiles") first and foremost, aside from animal lovers (who actually respect animals hence their veganism) in general. Others, like Joey Carbstrong, say that pigs ๐Ÿ– are their favourite animal and always have been even since before they went vegan; maybe some saw the movie "Babe" and developed an affection for them, for example. It's understandable. And others like cows ๐Ÿ„ or chicks ๐Ÿฅ or lambs ๐Ÿ‘ of course.

But as much as it might be a natural thing to gravitate to a certain species of animal, and "favouritise" them, is that still a form of speciesism? Of course if you're not actually exploiting the animals that aren't your favourite then it's only a mental matter. But is it still wrong even just to view them differentially and prefer or hold more love for some species than others? Loving an individual than another makes sense. But would you love one race of people more than other? Do you say "Greek people are my favourite race" (as a non-Greek person, for sake of example)? If not, and if that would be considered racist, then why is it not speciesist to prefer one species over others, even if just mentally?

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[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago

The modlog is public